This study is part of a larger project, which focuses on the exploring academic and socio-cultural experiences of Chinese international students in a Lithuanian tertiary institution. Within the context of higher education, an area that has received considerable attention in the research literature is the education of prospective school music teachers. However, hitherto relatively little research has focused on intercultural aspects of instrumental music teaching and learning for international Chinese students in Lithuania. Fifteen master-level students in music education from China and five Lithuanian instrumental music teachers who taught international students in various graduate programmes participated in the study.

The aim of this article is to investigate how both students and teachers understand the experienced challenges and perspectives of instrumental music teaching and learning in a Lithuanian university. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and all data material was qualitatively analysed, following a thematic content analysis method. The interview questions were designed to elicit the narratives of the participants, their views, experiences, and responses to the research questions. This study was conducted at the Education Academy of Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. The educators and students were included in the sample to acquire opinion from both perspectives. All of them belonged to the Music Education Department. The interviews were conducted during the academic year 2020/2021 at the end of the programme and lasted between 30 and 50 minutes. All interviews were carried out in English and audio recorded with the participants’ consent, transcribed and anonymised for analysis.

Students and teachers discussed not only an understanding what instrumental music teaching and learning in intercultural contexts is, but also identified a culturally specific perspective, implementation of intercultural projects, interaction and communication between students and teachers as positive intercultural learning experiences. The main challenge for Chinese students and Lithuanian music educators was to deal with the different perceptions of teaching and learning within their own culture and within the culture of their host country. The teachers noticed that instrumental music teaching offers the need to evaluate challenging music education traditions, new pedagogical practices, specific methods and teaching styles in performance contexts, and emerging forms of diversity in greater detail. Findings of this study reveal that cultural diversity in instrumental music education has numerous benefits and draw on a variety of practice-oriented perspectives in various intercultural learning contexts.

This case study contributes to the investigation on Chinese international students’ experiences with practical implications for intercultural music education. It is important for international students and their educators to develop a more holistic and nuanced understanding of the diversity of music teaching and learning cultures and the changing nature of musical practices.

Keywords: Lithuanian higher education, instrumental music teaching and learning, Chinese students.