Background.
Discourses on participation and Teilhabe in music education and community music are conceptually blurred, especially in German-speaking contexts where Partizipation and Teilhabe carry distinct connotations. While participatory music theatre projects are increasingly widespread, little is known about how adult participants and project leaders construct meanings of participation in practice.

Aims.
This paper reconstructs implicit orientations and meaning structures regarding participation in four participatory music theatre projects in Germany. It seeks to identify commonalities and differences between institutional, community-based, and civil-society contexts.

Method.
Empirical material comprises four group discussions with adult participants and four narrative interviews with project leaders, conducted between 2020–21 in projects located in Impuls, Hamdorf, Neuenstein, and Restadt. Data were analyzed using the documentary method (Bohnsack), including formulating and reflecting interpretation, comparative analysis, and subsequent type construction.

Results.
Analysis reveals distinct orientation frameworks:

1. Logic of open, transformative practice (Impuls/Hamdorf), stressing self-expression and civic empowerment.
2. Logic of controlled opening (Neuenstein), balancing institutional structures with participatory aims.
3. Logic of normatively framed inclusion (Restadt), emphasizing access and social integration over shared authorship.
   Across cases, tensions emerge between artistic quality, institutional expectations, and participants’ desire for agency.

Conclusions.
The comparative findings highlight differentiated modes of participation that go beyond binary notions of inclusion vs. exclusion. They suggest the need for music educators and cultural institutions to reflect on underlying orientation frameworks when designing participatory projects. The study contributes to refining conceptual models of participation and offers analytical tools for both teacher education and community music practice.

Key references.
Bohnsack (2014); Brown & Novak (2004); Geiger (2016); Higgins (2012); Mörsch (2012); de Banffy-Hall & Hill (2017, 2019).

Context
Kooperieren is an annual initiative at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), developed by faculty from the Departments of Music Education Research and Practice and String Instruments. Inspired by the international Fête de la Musique, the event occurs each June and emphasizes amateur and community music. The event brings together students, teachers, and community musicians for open music-making, improvisation, and performance. It combines artistic experimentation with pedagogical reflection, exploring the space between didactic and non-didactic practice. Conceptually, it draws on Artistic Citizenship (Elliott et al., 2016) and Artistic Identity (Gruhn et al., 2017) - understood as a dynamic process shaped by musical activity, social interaction, and institutional context -, linking artistic development to democratic participation and social cohesion.

Aims
The initiative creates inclusive, participatory musical spaces where participants with diverse backgrounds converge. It fosters democratic competencies - dialogue, empathy, and shared responsibility - through collective artistic processes. A key aim is to encourage IGP (Instrumental and Vocal Pedagogy) students to reflect on their roles as musicians, educators, and “Makers of Society” (Gaunt et al., 2021), highlighting its pedagogical and social significance in higher music education.

Approach and Outcomes
Participants from various musical disciplines engage in improvisation and collaborative performance through open sessions, ensemble rehearsals, and a final concert. The process is dialogical and egalitarian, with teachers and students as co-learners and community musicians contributing their perspectives. The Fête de la Musique provides a symbolic framework of participation, accessibility, and diversity. The project exemplifies collaborative music-making as a democratic practice in tertiary education and as an innovative pedagogical format (Kertz-Welzel, 2024). It strengthens connections between the university and the wider community, demonstrating how shared artistic processes foster participation, diversity, community, and social cohesion (Borwick, 2012).