The School of Listening is an initiative promoted by the Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures that seeks to develop methodologies for the dissemination and transfer of social research based on sound, music, and listening. This program is aimed at educational communities located in three macro-regions of the country: north (Arica), center (Santiago and Valparaíso) and south (Araucanía).

The project consists of an initial phase of workshops aimed at secondary school students from first to fourth year, focusing on three thematic areas: Environment and Territory, Migration and Citizenship, and Culture and Gender Relations.

The School of Listening hopes that these workshops will not only develop critical listening skills in students, but also foster a greater connection with their social and natural environment.

This educational initiative has been running its pilot program during the first half of 2024, through six workshops implemented in four regions of the country. Each workshop explores different aural experiences, such as listening, sound memory, sonic futures, and the communication of these recordings.

In Arica, the workshop was held at the Antonio Varas High School in La Barra B4; in the Metropolitan Region, at the Pablo Neruda Bicentennial High School in Lo Prado and at the O’Higgins School in Melipilla; in the Valparaíso Region, at the Maitencillo School and the Andrés Bello Industrial School in Quilpué; and in Temuco, at the Gracia y Paz School.

This methodology seeks to be adaptable for different researchers and educational purposes, exploring the possibilities of sound and collective listening for social research and community reflection. Therefore, we have provided the teaching materials here so they can be downloaded and used by the entire community.
You can download them at the following links:

Teaching materials

Training

The School of Listening is an experimental pedagogical initiative of the Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures that seeks to produce and transfer social research methodologies based on music, sound, and listening to educational communities. It is a methodology adaptable to different researchers and educational purposes, exploring the possibilities of the acoustic dimension for social research and community reflection.

¿Cómo se origina la “Escuela de la Escucha: música de tradición escrita”?
This initiative compiles and amplifies the lessons learned throughout two implementation cycles of The School of Listening (2023-24 and 2024-25) to bring them to a more specific field: musical listening to pieces from the written tradition. This concern arises from a shared interest between the Millennium Nucleus in Musical and Sound Cultures (CMUS) and the Cultural Corporation of the University of Santiago de Chile in generating musical mediation strategies aimed at school teachers, allowing them to approach so-called “classical music” with technical, accessible, and playful resources. Given the diversity of artistic mediation initiatives inspired by and informed by contemporary visual arts, we identify a relative gap in the field of musical arts mediation, especially with regard to classical music or written tradition. This teaching manual seeks to strengthen pedagogical tools to introduce students to music, understanding it as a comprehensive practice that engages the senses, social reflection, and creative participation.

This teaching manual, focused on traditional written music, seeks to offer pedagogical resources for musical mediation through activities that foster sensitive experimentation, cultural and identity reflection, and collaborative creation among students. Although it was designed as educational material to accompany the 2025 season of Educational Concerts organized by the Department of Outreach and the Cultural Corporation of the University of Santiago de Chile, it can be used independently in various pedagogical contexts.

Dowload it here:

THE SCHOOL OF LISTENING TEACHING MANUAL