Who is singing and what is the impact?

As I mentioned in my previous post from the ELIA conference the programme on Thursday ended with Open Houses at the art schools in Gothenburg. At the Academy of Music and Drama the so called Discipline Sessions were followed by food, drinks and a performance with opera, music, theatre and dance by students.

In addition the participants were offered a "bonus seminar" on Artistic Research Into Singing.

The first speaker/singer was Katarina A. Karlsson, Academy of Music and Drama, Gothenburg, who talked about her research topic - the canzonas by Thomas Campion (1567 - 1620) with female protagonists. Campion composed an unusual amount of canzonas whith a female persona. One of Katarina A. Karlsson's research questions is "How does gender affect the audience's perception of the lyrics and the music of Campions's songs with female personas today?" The songs are quite humoristical and not at all decent! Karlsson started by performing a few of them with a sweet and innocent voice to a blushing audience! She wanted to make the point that the content of these songs requires something else than a nice voice and correct ornaments in the tradition of performance practice of early music. Instead she intends to make the songs come alive by highlighting aspects like folksiness and parody. She has been experimenting with different ways of presentation and has, for example, noticed that the hurdy-gurdy resulted in a completely different way of using the voice.

The second speaker/singer was Hendrik Vanden Abeele, Orpheus Research Centre in Music, Ghent. His doctoral research study "B-Gu Ms 15. What a late fifteenth century antiphoner does with a present-day performer of plainsong". He talked about how practical experience and experimenting with sources aids the understanding of performance practices. For example how the fact that a small group of singers are standing close to each other, singing into each other's ears(!) and sharing one score has an effect on the performance. Something new to me was that a lot of very specific performance instructions are included (with red text) in manuscripts from the time. Hendrik Vanden Abeele is the leader of a group called The psallentes. There are several videos with the group on YouTube, for example singing Caritas pater est.

Quality Assurance an Accreditation in Higher Music Education

In the afternoon so called Discipline Sessions took place followed by Open Houses at the art schools in Gothenburg:

1. School of Design and Crafts/HDK
2. Valand School of Fine Arts
3. Chalmers University of Technology
4. Academy of Music and Drama/Artisten

I chose to attend the session organised by the European Association of Conservatoires (AEC). The topic for the session was "Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Higher Music Education". First we were given a short presentation of the Association itself and its projects. "AEC is a European cultural and educational network with more than 248 member institutions for professional music training in 55 countries" (from the AEC web site) . It was founded already 1953. Among other things AEC has been focussing on the Bologna process and its implications for its members. Two keywords in the Bologna process is "learning outcomes" and "quality assurance". AEC has established that the accreditation should be made by the music institutions themselves with a so called subject specific approach. Therefore they introduced a new service with reviews by a team of "critical friends". The review results in a report with recommendations for improvements. As a help AEC has put together so called Polifonia/Dublin Descriptors. It was pointed out that it is important that the team is internationally composed to get a varied perspective. It is also important that the context is considerated. Even a very conservative school can be regarded successful if the students meet high standards. So far there has not been any evalutation of artistic research, which will be a special challenge. Since practice based research still is a very young area there is a problem with "peer reviewing".

There are several document which can be downloaded from the AEC website, for example

1. Bologna and Music
2. Accreditation in European Professional Music Training


Pia Shekhter

Keynote Speaker Peter Sellars

The actual conference programme started this morning with the keynote speaker Peter Sellars, professor of World Arts and Culture at UCLA and one of the world's leading theatre directors. I found his speech absolutely brilliant! He started off by saying "Thank God I am an artist and not a banker", with the recent economical collapse in mind. Sellars predicted a "depression era art" and stressed that students have to be taught to play a useful role in society. In UCLA he is giving the courses "Art as social action" and "Art as moral action" to students from all kinds of disciplines. The audience was captured by Sellars associative presentation, which seemed improvisational but of course was very well staged. For me his firm belief in the importance, even in a practical sense, of culture was truly inspirational.

Opening of the ELIA conference in Gothenburg

Yesterday evening the opening ceremony of the 10th ELIA biennial Conference took place in the Concert Hall. Inaugural addresses were given by representatives from the University of Gothenburg, the City of Gothenburg, the European Commission and ELIA. The speakers emphasized the relationship between arts and the surrounding society, which was not surprising. I was more impressed by the focus on arts and environmental issues. The problem of climate change now seems to be on everybody's mind and I think it is a good idea that we are reminded about it in different contexts.

After the speeches there was a performance made by students from the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg and the University College of Dance in Stockholm. The performance was in the form of a happening with elements of circus included. It was the first time I heard a classical violinist playing Brahms while cycling on a one wheel bike!

Then good food and drink was served and the party continued in a tent completely built up for the conference by beer crates(!) right in the middle of Götaplatsen - Gothenburg's main cultural square. The purpose with the tent is to offer the delegates a place to meet in the evenings - maybe have a drink and exchange ideas and information. There is also a small exhibition with material from different schools. In addition presentations in the tradition of a "Pecha Kucha Night" will be given. Maybe you also come across this expression for the first time? This is a definition I found on Internet:

"Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a† demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation."

The Importance of Artistic Research and its Contribution to "New Knowledge" in a Creative Europe

As some of you may remember one of the topics for the "LIMTI" session in Göteborg 2006 was "Artistic research". I just noticed that ELIA recently has composed a strategy paper on artistic research, which is now available online, also for downloading.

Pia

ELIA Biennial Conference in Gothenburg

Dear Colleagues,

Today the 10:th ELIA Biennial Conference opened in Artisten, Göteborg (the same venue as the IAML-IAMIC-IMS Conference 2006). There are about 500 delegates from 39 countries. Again the Artisten foyer is full of people speaking foreign languages, which brings back nice memories!

"The European League of Institutes of the Arts, ELIA , founded in 1990, is an independent network of approximately 315 Arts Education Institutes covering all the disciplines of the Arts - Dance, Design, Theatre, Fine Art, Music, Media Arts and Architecture - from 47 countries." (from the web site of ELIA)

I will attend as much as I can during these days and keep you informed on the blog!

Pia Shekhter

Open Access to University Music - the Challenge of YouTube and Ning

Peter Berry, Faculty librarian at the Malmö faculty of performing arts/Lund university, has written a paper on Open Access in connection with music, which he kindly shares with us:

"Open Access to University Music - the Challenge of YouTube and Ning"

Peter Berry
through Pia Shekhter

"LIMTI"

I just realized that I should point out that the abbreviation"LIMTI" is not "official". I have taken the liberty to use it on our blog for simplicity.

~Pia~

Programme for LIMTI in Amsterdam 2009

Hello everybody!

I hope to see many of you at the IAML conference in Amsterdam next year (5 - 10 July 2009)! Maybe you are already interested in the programme for our branch?

Our branch has been invited to have a joint session with Public Libraries Branch by the chair Hanneke Kuiper, which I gladly accepted.

The second session will be "our own" and have the theme "The Music Librarian as a Pedagogical Resource". I am very happy that the following speakers have accepted my invitation:

* Steven K. Gerber; George Mason University USA
"Drive-By, Drop-In Musicology"

* Jane Gottlieb, The Juilliard School, New York USA
“Libraries and the Universe of Information About Music: Keeping Our Books, Preserving our Values.”

* Dorothea Baumann, Secretary General of the International Musicological Society
Bibliography and Internet - Teaching Search and Valuation Strategies".


Kind regards,
Pia Shekhter
PS: I write this with the reservation that the programme may change.

Welcome to our new blog!

Dear colleagues in Libraries in Music Teaching Institutions - welcome to our new blog!
I have created this blog as a forum for discussions for our branch in between the annual conferences of IAML. I am very much looking forward to meeting you here!

Kind regards,
Pia Shekhter