Thursday 17 February 2011

Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) gala concert

Dear Colleagues,
BBC has broadcasted a three-and half-minute story on ANIM and its gala
concert of the 9th of Feb 2011. Below is given the links.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/afghanistan/2011/02/110216_l13_l13_music_school_vid.shtml
The story is also available from the YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/bbcpersian#p/u/3/Pn0vI3BEBVc
Regards

--
Dr Ahmad Naser Sarmast
Founder and Project Director
Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM)
Ministry of Education, Afghanistan
Research Fellow
Monash Asia Institute
Monash School of Music - Conservatorium
Monash University, Australia
Honorary Fellow
National College of Music, London
Tel: +93 (0) 796 54 29 52 + 61421981246 +613 9704 2784
Email: ahmad.sarmast@adm.monash.edu.au

Thursday 10 February 2011

Professor Welch on BBC The Other One Show (National Sing Up day)

School singing 'can boost children's well-being'


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12392742

Singing in school can make children feel more positive about themselves and build a sense of community, research based on 10,000 children suggests.

An evaluation by the Institute of Education of England's national singing programme, Sing Up, found a clear link between singing and well-being.

It also found that children who took part in the programme had a strong sense of being part of a community.

But it is not clear that the scheme will be fully funded in future.

The Sing Up scheme supports schools to increase singing in choirs, lessons and individually, and provides a range of resources to help.

The Institute of Education's independent three-year study, commissioned by the Sing Up programme, is based on data collected from 9,979 children at 177 primary schools in England.

It said: "A clear inference may be drawn that children with experience of Sing Up are more likely to be advanced in their singing development and to have a positive self-concept," the study said.

It also found that Sing Up children were up to two years ahead in their singing development than those of the same age who did not take part in the programme.

Composer Howard Goodall, the National Singing Ambassador, said: "These findings are gold dust for head teachers. We've always maintained that singing, alongside its brain-training benefits, can help children to grow in confidence and create stronger communities and now we're able to prove it with hard evidence."

The research comes just days after ministers said they were safeguarding the funding of music in schools at the present level for one year ahead of a major funding shake. But there are no guarantees on music funding after 2012.

And some councils could see music budgets cut by up to 10% next year.

The £10m a year Sing Up scheme was only funded until the end of 2011, but ministers said on Monday they would provide some funding to enable it to continue.

A spokesman for the Department for Education said: "We know that schools and teachers value the resources provided by Sing Up, that is why the government will provide some funding for 2011-12 to enable a sustainable future for Sing Up to be developed."

However the Department for Education has not made clear how much it will provide.

The announcement on the future of the Sing Up programme was in response to the Henley Review of music which warned that music education in England's schools was still "patchy".

And it said there should be more opportunities for singing and playing musical instruments in schools, as well as efforts to bring professional musicians into the classroom.

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Advocacy: Children's Voices

  • "When I am happy I like to sing those songs that I like."
    Age 8 Hong Kong, China
  • "Music makes me aware of who I am. Singing and dancing is a part of my life, so to be able to sing and dance at school makes my life complete."
    Age 17 Namibia
  • "Studying music is important because it gives you a good attitude. It gives you a high goal and gives you determination to work hard."
    Age 11 Canada
  • "When I hear some lovely music I feel that I can fly."
    Age 6 Hong Kong, China
  • "Music has definitely helped me understand myself better."
    Age 15 Australia
  • "Me gusta la música porque despierta en mi diferentes sentimientos, y me gusta hacer música con otros chicos porque todos dependemos de todos sea simple o complicada la parte que haya que tocar." [I like music because it arouses in me different feelings. I like playing music with other children because we all depend on each other, no matter how simple or difficult the part we have to play can be.]
    Age 12 Argentina
  • "Music is important because it let's kids' brains flow into new experiences and learn in new ways."
    Age 9 United States of America
  • "Ich kann ohne Musik nicht leben. Musik bedeutet für mich Spaß und Action. Wenn ich sauer auf meine Eltern oder Schwester bin, dann mach ich mir Musik an und reg mich wieder ab." [I can't live without music. To me music means fun and action. When I am angry with my parents or my sister, music is able to calm me down]
    Age 13 Germany

Sunday 6 February 2011

A review of ISME 2010 (August 1-6, 2010)

INTRODUCTION

The Beijing municipal committee of the CCP and the municipal government paid great attention to the conference, and established the conference leading team whose members were as follows: Municipal Deputy Secretary Wang Anshun and Deputy Municipal Mayor Huangwei as the team leaders, municipal CPPCC chairman and president of the National Theater Chenping as the permanent deputy team leader, municipal committee of CPPCC deputy secretary Li Fuxiang, municipal government deputy secretary Malin, Director Yang Guiren of the Physical Education, Hygiene and Art Education Department of the Ministry of Education, Director Liu Limin of the Committee of Education, and others. The government made great efforts to provide the means for hosting a colorful and varied ISME World Conference.

There were 711 Presentations in this Conference.

  • 59 Symposia and Workshops
  • 480 Spoken Papers
  • 4 Keynote Speakers from different parts of the world, including a Musicologist, Music Educator, Composer, and Politician. Each gave a brilliant and informative speeches

There were 103 concerts representing musics of many cultures from around the world.

There were 163 workshops and classroom demonstrations that were given by music educators and researchers from all around the world.

There were 4019 registered delegates.

  • 3000 Chinese delegates (with 74 delegates from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan)
  • 1019 international delegates (913 regular delegates and 106 accompanying persons) from 65 countries and regions
  • 978 performers from 47 international performing groups
  • 2803 performers from 50 Chinese performing groups

In addition, there were:

  • 300 exhibitors
  • 668 volunteers
  • 310 primary and middle school students for classroom demonstrations
  • 203 working staff
  • 713 honored guests

A total of 9138 people participated in ISME 2010 World Conference. It was the largest ISME Conference ever held.

PERFORMANCES

The COG arranged a large and elaborate multimedia opening ceremony concert, “The Colourful Silk Road”, as well as a mid-week concert, called “Night of China—the Sounds and Images of the Tang Dynasty”. The mid-week concert was followed by a Chinese Folk Music Carnival, which used “silk” as a metaphor for friendship and combined traditional music with features of a Chinese carnival. All of these concerts presented different aspects of the rich stylistic heritage of Chinese music to the international music education community. The CCM designated a specific venue for a Traditional Chinese Music Festival, which included 12 performances in all. In addition, there were 53 world music expositions.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

SupportMusic Coalition Teleconference and Webcast Recorded "LIVE" from the NAMM Show

On Thursday, January 13, 2011, the SupportMusic Coalition teleconference and webcast was broadcast "live" from the NAMM Show.

If you missed any portion of the call tune in now to hear guest moderator Mike Blakeslee, Sr. Deputy Executive Director, MENC as he leads an accomplished panel of music educators in a discussion on "Building and Engaging Support for Music and Arts Education".

The panel includes:

• Ralph S. Opacic, Ed.D., President and Executive Director, Orange County High School of the Arts
• Robert Bryant, Executive Director of Fine, Arts, Katy I.S.D.
• Karen Childress-Evans, Visual & Performing Arts Director, San Diego Unified School District
• Graham Welch, President, International Society for Music Education (ISME)


http://www.nammfoundation.org/support-music/supportmusic-coalition-teleconference-and-webcast-recorded-live-namm-show

[Special] Music, Science & Medicine: Frontiers in Biomedical Research & Clinical Applications

Friday, March 25, 2011 | 7:00 AM - 5:45 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences

Presented by The New York Academy of Sciences

Music therapy — the clinical application of music to treat a wide range of diagnoses using physiological and medical approaches — has advanced dramatically over the past decade, proving to be an effective clinical tool for treating medical diagnoses. Music has been effectively applied to treat Alzheimer's, dementia, stroke and others, including autism, language acquisition, pain management, stress and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, coma, and more.
This landmark multidisciplinary 1-day conference aims at exploring the connection between up-to-date scientific findings and their possible application to clinical music and physiological function, including, not only neurocognitive mechanisms, but also other physiological processes such a hormonal and metabolic responses, pain control, motor functions, etc. The ultimate goal of this program is fostering dialogue among experts studying music in human adaptive function, physiological sciences, neuroscience, neurology, medical research, psychology, music education, and others disciplines of disease physiology, music physiology, and music therapy. It is expected that the broad and ongoing discussions originating from this symposium, will promote collaborative research, and a more effective communication, and translation of scientific research into music-based clinical treatments of disease.

http://www.nyas.org/Events/Detail.aspx?cid=b4303e70-29a1-478f-a839-42b5279bb25e

Music, Science & Medicine: Frontiers in Biomedical Research & Clinical Applications

Friday, March 25, 2011 | 7:00 AM - 5:45 PM
The New York Academy of Sciences

Presented by The New York Academy of Sciences

Music therapy — the clinical application of music to treat a wide range of diagnoses using physiological and medical approaches — has advanced dramatically over the past decade, proving to be an effective clinical tool for treating medical diagnoses. Music has been effectively applied to treat Alzheimer's, dementia, stroke and others, including autism, language acquisition, pain management, stress and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, coma, and more.

This landmark multidisciplinary 1-day conference aims at exploring the connection between up-to-date scientific findings and their possible application to clinical music and physiological function, including, not only neurocognitive mechanisms, but also other physiological processes such a hormonal and metabolic responses, pain control, motor functions, etc. The ultimate goal of this program is fostering dialogue among experts studying music in human adaptive function, physiological sciences, neuroscience, neurology, medical research, psychology, music education, and others disciplines of disease physiology, music physiology, and music therapy. It is expected that the broad and ongoing discussions originating from this symposium, will promote collaborative research, and a more effective communication, and translation of scientific research into music-based clinical treatments of disease.


http://www.nyas.org/Events/Detail.aspx?cid=b4303e70-29a1-478f-a839-42b5279bb25e