The Creation of BTS-Piano Covers: Music Education, Artistic Research and Participatory Fandom

*THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED BY THE ORGANISERS* 

The non-commercial creation of BTS (South Korean Pop artist) piano covers represents a form of productive and participatory fandom with potential relevance for the field of artistic research and music education. Framed by an overview of artistic research and its relation to jazz and popular music education, this analysis focusses on student-led engagements with BTS piano covers by referring to aspects of identity formation, artistic expression, aesthetic development, music theory, harmonic analysis and pianistic practices. The lecture-recital involves an improvised solo piano performance by the presenter, audio-visual recordings of performances and statements of two productive fans as well as some analyses of musical transcriptions. Dr Michael Kahr is a jazz pianist and musicologist, serving as Senior Lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz as well as Dean and Head of Master Studies at the Jam Music Lab Private University of Jazz and Popular Music in Vienna.