Virtuosity and the commons

A virtuoso performer carries mystique; there is an implication that their skills are magically endowed, which disavows their labour and the contributions of the communities from which they emerged. This mystique and community disenfranchisement support a toxic narrative of individual innate excellence, which in turn enables the term virtuosity to be weaponised in support of elite echelons and Western European art music hierarchies: systems that de-emphasise the music community as a whole to privilege singular figureheads. We reframe the term virtuoso as a signal of collective labour and redefine virtuosity as the result of shared support and contributions from communities, educational institutions, and families. Through ethnographic work and social mapping, we demonstrate the collective effort that makes a virtuoso possible. In so doing, we offer an alternative notion of virtuoso, shifting our attention to the contributions of a multitude of efforts to an individual’s success, and supporting a return of musicking to the commons.