Music for a Lifetime: How Are We Doing? A Review of Literature on Adult Participation in Large Community Music Ensembles

A common rationale for the continued existence and support of music education in schools has been the development of skills and attitudes leading to a lifetime of music-making for all students. Therefore, the purpose of this review of literature was to examine previous research on adult participation in large ensemble (i.e., band, choir, or orchestra) community music settings. The research literature included in this study was summarized and presented according to three broad categories: (a) status studies of both demographic information and the music backgrounds of large ensemble community music participants; (b) the motivations encouraging or discouraging such participation; and (c) potential issues, both concrete and philosophical, in what Jellison (2000) termed the transition between school-based music and that of the adult world. Implications for music educators and potential ideas for future research are discussed.