Aural Breakthroughs through Immersion: Improvisation and Aural Skills Development in Asia-Pacific Tertiary Music Education In typical conservatory settings, aural skills teaching and learning follows a model that goes back to 18th-century France. The validity of this model needs to be questioned, especially when working with students from the Asia-Pacific region in the 21st century. We posit that intensified student engagement arising from an emphasis on immersive, imaginative sound worlds—which may potentially be sonically extrinsic, extending to considerations of personal stories, place and culture, and more—may tie to self-identified breakthrough moments through which listening skills are felt to have improved. We will especially account for the geographic and cultural circumstances of individuals involved (which are both richly diverse but also thematically connected as students identify across multiple ranges of music-making and listening communities), which might keenly exemplify a student’s movement across what Dylan Robinson (2020) calls ‘critical listening positionalities’. 

We propose a model that begins with students’ individual listening experiences, which we call their ‘aural imaginations’. Drawing on recent innovations in aural skills teaching and improvisationally-grounded frameworks developed by the investigators (De Jong’s [2025] ‘restrictions, roles, and rules’; Stover’s [2025] ‘close, contextual, and creative listening’), we will present some preliminary ideas about concrete goals, working methods, and planned activities for the coming years. We will also share fresh experiences from immersive workshops we will conduct with students from PGVIM, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, and Queensland Conservatorium during the days preceding the presentation. Through these activities, we will demonstrate how aural breakthroughs can be encouraged.