ISME @ Bologna - Part 2

More posts and notes from Bologna. All of the photos from the ISME conference and around Bologna can be viewed at my MobileMe Photo Gallery or via RSS feed. Here, there's a small selection: 

Don Lebler caught up with Prof Göran Folkestad (Malmö University, Sweden) at the courtyard of one of the conference venues, the Accademia Belle Arti:

Followed by a presentation by Don Lebler (Qld Con) and Rosie Burt-Perkins (RCM) entitled 'What the students bring: Examining the attributes of commencing conservatoire students' (check out the venue):

Another beautiful location was the Palazzo-Malverzzi:


Here, the Qld Con's Stephen Emmerson presented some of his multmedia-based research on 'Around a Rondo' to a fascinated audience:


Don Lebler and myself presented on a Symposia panel with Bo Nilsson and Anna-Rita Addessi, chaired by Göran Folkestad & entitled 'Music Education 2.0: How refelctive practice, peer-review and a participatory culture is enabled in the new curricula'. 


This symposium examined the idea of Music Education 2.0 in response to transformed notions of music-making enabled by 21st century culture and associated web 2.0 practices. Through the lens of new formations in university music curricula from around the world, the symposium examined i) the nature of both personal and distributed technologies and their effects on innovation in teaching, learning and music-making; ii) the advent and impact of the Internet on cultural value systems; and iii) a higher education imperative to embed judgement, negotiation, reflective practice and peer review into learning practices which enable the kinds of literacies required for new careers in global knowledge economies.

Don and myself presented work from the Qld Con Popular Music and Music Technology programs, while Bo and Anna-Rita showed us some wonderful work in early childhood education, in particular, the amazing interactive software called 'The Continuator' from the Sony Computed Science Laboratory in Paris.

We also caught up with Frank Millward (Kingston University, UK), Heather Keens (Surrey University, UK) and Miikka Salavuo (Sibelius Academy, Finland) who is doing some wonderful work in music technology and web 2.0. Hope to see Miikka in Australia in the near future!

I also presented a paper, co-authored with Qld Con Matt Hitchcock, entitled 'The hidden music curriculum: Utilising blended learning to enable a participatory culture'.

Meanwhile, Qld Con's Huib Schippers chaired an engaging panel in the symposium 'Embracing diversity: A new ISME policy on world music in education':


And finally, many thanks for Qld Con's Scott Harrison for hosting a terrific get-together and final drinks in his spectacular apartment at the top of the old city:


Thanks to everyone for making this a memorable conference.

ISME @ Bologna - Part 1

Very pleased to arrive in Bologna, Italy for the International Society of Music Education (ISME) World Conference. Will be here for the week, presenting and listening to papers and concerts from around the world. 

Sunday 20 July, Day 1 was a bit of a blur, recovering from jet-lag (around 27 hrs travel time from Australia), but meeting up with lots of friends and whirling around the beautiful city, its fantastic food (Italian slow cooking), wine and architecture.

We eventually made our way up to the Bologna University (the oldest in the world, pre 1500) and the Conservatorium (200 years old) for conference registration - some 1200 delegates here!


Day 2 was a little more sane and we attended some of the opening sessions (including a great paper by Prof Michael Hannan, SCU on music PhDs in Australia). The ISME opening ceremony was held in Bologna’s beautiful Teatro Manzoni theatre - about the same size as the Qld Conservatorium’s main theatre - with just sensational acoustics.

Perhaps way too many speeches and not enough music, but still very eloquent words throughout and wonderful thoughts about the meaning of music across the world, in so many cultures, in so many settings - united as a vehicle for peace, intellectual and spiritual development.

Again, I can’t get over just how many people are here for this conference - such a powerful representation of music-making and education, from early childhood to university, from Africa, to Brazil, to Australia to Norway.

And some very good corporate sponsorship, for example, the Gibson Foundation have being doing great work with ISME, here presenting them with a check for US$50,000,

And of course, a couple of Gibson Les Pauls as prizes for two of the leading Italian music educators here:

So for now, catching up with old friends and making lots of new ones - and likely far too much drinking, eating. We ended up in the wee hours drinking and making lots of noise around the piano in a little restaurant somewhere: Frank Millward and Heather Keeens (UK), Don Lebler (QCGU) and Michael Hannan (SCU):


And so, now about time we got to work(!). Looking forward to more from Bologna . .