The Irish Music Education Voicing Conference was held in St Patrick’s College Drumcondra on Thursday 2nd June 2011. Its aim is to have a radically different type of conference in order to connect music education research with music education practice and reflect the diversity of music education happening in Ireland. The conference creates space for the many voices of music education in Ireland as well as voicing and engaging with issues throughout the full spectrum of music education in Ireland. The conference included poster presentations on research and practice, the launch of the idea of a teachers orchestra, a panel discussion on What Counts as Music Education? and a workshop and premiereperformance of a newly commissioned work by the composer Karen Power performed by the participants at the conference. The conference and music commission is supported by the research committees of Saint Patrick’s College Drumcondra (SPD) and Mary Immaculate College (MIC). It reflects the philosophy of the web resource www.irishmusiceducation.ie set up in partnership between SPD and MIC to take action to further the understanding, development and practice of music education in Ireland by connecting music education research with music education practice.
Participants at the conference reflected an all Ireland engagement with music education and included composers, performers, teachers at all levels, researchers, leaders of music resource and arts organisations, local authority arts officers and post graduate and undergraduate students of the College. A slide show of the conference can be viewed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63783982@N05/sets/72157626786095591/show/
Posters were presented by a range of organisations and individuals from all around Ireland and the UK. It included research on women teachers of music in Belfast (Stranmillis Univeristy College), Whole school music as professional development in Clare primary schools, Music and physical disability,(Cork Music Works/TCD) and Communities of practice in music education (MIC/Cambridge). National initiatives in developing music education practice in Britain and Ireland such as Music Generation (U2 and Ireland funds) and Musical Futures UK (Paul Hamlyn trust) were also present. The work of performing groups in education such as the Limerick based ICO Sing Out With Strings project, and resource organisations such as the Contemporary Music Centre’s, Music Alive initiative were also present. In addition, The Ark cultural centre for children and the Association of Irish Choirs demonstrated how they use their expertise to support music education. Recent initiatives to sustain music education and provide increased creative access to music in a range of genres were represented by Doengal VEC Music Education Partnership, Peter Baxter’s song school based in Tallaght, the newly formed teachers orchestra, and the IrishMusicEducation resource. Professional development for music teachers included presentations by the Kodaly Society of Ireland, Tosini (professional development for teachers of voice) based in Dungannon Northern Ireland and Ceol Ireland based in Ballyfermot, Dublin.
A teachers orchestra was launched by John Kelly CEO of the Irish Chamber Orchestra. He emphasised the life long impact music can have, the track record music has in innovative projects that engage communities, contribute to social cohesion and bring a sense of excellence to those involved. He noted that this is achieved through the resilience of the musicians involved in setting up and sustaining these initiatives in challenging financial times because of their conviction of their value. The importance of underpinning projects with research that demonstrate the significant impact they have is a vital part of communicating this to a wider audience. Peter Moran the director of the new orchestra introduced the orchestra and the summer school to be held in August. He emphasised the creative orchestral practices that would be involved and how as well as sustaining the musical engagement of participants they would be gaining ideas for their own music teaching. The orchestra performed three pieces including a work by John Cage entitled ‘Four’, a piece using a newspaper score and an improvisation.
The panel discussion included presentations by Evelyn Grant(community musician/broadcaster), Marita Kerins (TCD) Angela Dorgan (First Music Contact), Mary Nugent (traditional musician/ MIE) Rosaleen Molloy(Music Generation). Each panellist considered the question of what counts as music education from the perspective of community music, developing professional musicians in pop and rock music, music in secondary education, traditional music and performance music education. The presentations reflected a breadth of music education which happens at all ages, with amateurs and professionals with students and music education practitioners, and in ways whose practices are particular to a range of music genres and traditions. Within the discussion music education as transformation, as exchange, as ‘passing it on’, as a significant encounter with a music practitioner were considered. The dissonance between different ways of learning music, the importance of facilitating the development of excellence as well as inclusion in music education and the different ways in which music can be understood by students, teachers and the formal curriculum all formed part of the discussion.
The composer Karen Power received the IME music commission to compose a work that could be performed by the participants at the conference with a range of musical experience and skill. The commission was supported by the research committee of St Patrick’s College Drumcondra and facilitated by the Contemporary Music Centre. It drew a strong response from composers and Power’s proposal was selected from a short list of 9 submissions. Power’s work Always Considering Kitchen Sinks was performed by 4 music groups interleaving, overlapping and responding to one another while the composer recorded, processed and fed back sounds in real time. Each group used a ipod timer to measure the time elements of the performance. A recording will shortly be available on the website.
