Maria Medby Tollefsen

I’m an Associate Professor of aural training located in Tromsø, working at the Arctic University of Norway, Academy of Music. I am also part of an international staff teaching at the aural training post-graduate in Conservatorio Arrigo Boito (Parma). I regularly give aural training methodology workshops all around Europe. Contact me at maria.m.tollefsen@uit.no.

Coming up

The annual Scandinavian conference of aural skills pedagogy will take place at The Academy of Music in Tromsø the 22nd and 23rd of October. The conference theme is Diversity in aural education. The conference is supported by The Norwegian Research Council.

On September 16th the first chamber music concert in the series Konserter under en annen himmel will take place in Sparebankens Festsal in Tromsø. The wonderful musicians Lars Lien, Miriam Helms Ålien, Audun Sandvik, Lars Asbjørnsen and Sergei Osadchuck will play. Together with Kari Beate Tandberg, whose piece Delta will be performed for the first time, I will give a pre talk. Welcome!

Recent events

Recognised Excellent Teacher. I was recently awarded the distinction Recognised Excellent Teacher at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway (June, 2026).
The distinction recognises documented excellence in teaching and pedagogical development.
It is awarded following a comprehensive peer-reviewed evaluation process.

Sentiamoci a Parma 2026 took place in Parma, Italy, from April 15th to 18th, 2026. I contributed with three workshops: Entering the 20th music through the aural training class, Rhythm literacy for beginners: Top-down and Bottom-up approaches, and Give me 5; subdividing in five and the polyrhythm five against three.

European Association for Music in Schools‘ conference of 2026 was arranged in Vienna, April 8th-11th. I contributed with the paper presentation Research Literacy as Democratic Practice: Exploring Music Teacher Students’ Engagement with Research-Based Knowledge (Leikvoll, Blix & Tollefsen), and the workshop Amplifying Voices: Integrating Female Composers into Music Education Curriculum.

Tartu Ear Training Forum And Workshops was arranged in Tartu, Estonia, February 6th and 7th, 2026. I contributed with four workshops: Learning basic harmony through singing, improvising, and listening, Discovering and learning changing meters through song and movement, Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat – accessing a repertoire through the aural training class, and Entering the music of the 20th century through the ear training class.

This year’s edition of The Ear Training Symposium in Catania/ Sicily is was held in November 2025. I contributed with a workshop about methods in basic harmony learning and a workshop about using Stravinsy’s Histoire du soldat in the ear training class.