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Byline: XIAO XU, Staff VANCOUVER -- Lead 'Row, row, row your boat. Gently down the stream ... 'Tina Dai, along with several dozen immigrant seniors, is warming up for a [...]

You're never too old to learn to play a musical instrument, but finding a tutor and the time for lessons is another matter. If working with a personal teacher isn't [...]

Byline: E.B. Boyd KABUL, Afghanistan - 1st Lt. Philip Tappan, a composer and conductor with the U.S. Forces Afghanistan Band, sat Wednesday in a large circle in the basement of [...]

CORRECTION APPENDEDA LITTLE more than three years ago she was a quiet, serious-minded 16-year-old flutist in the West Bank with posters of the Berlin Philharmonic flute soloist Emmanuel Pahud on [...]

Byline: Caroline Alphonso Every Tuesday, seven expectant mothers in Toronto listen to classical music, do folk dances and sing lullabies while tapping their tummies. It's not your usual class at [...]

PROFESSOR Margaret Kartomi, head of the School of Music, a conservatorium at the Clayton Campus of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, is a woman with a deep and abiding passion [...]

You've written a story and nobody but your Mom is willing to read it. Well, Ann Ireland is ready to receive your manuscript. The award-winning author (her book, A Certain [...]

Gdansk Music Academy director Professor Waldemar Wojtal is determined to fight to preserve the music education system that has produced top-class Polish composers and musicians. Musical education in Poland is free, begins at the age of six, lasts 17 years, and is generally provided on a one-to-one basis. Wojtal believes that standards will suffer if entrepreneurial politicians move financial and administrative control of music schools in the primary and secondary levels from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Education and absorb all higher education institutions into universities.

Public schools in the US virtually abandoned arts education in the late '70s and early '80s, but are slowly returning to it now. A recent study showed that students with 4 or more years of arts education performed better on tests than students with 6 months or less of arts education. Music and other arts programs can nurture artistic talent in children much the way sports programs do, giving otherwise disadvantaged children an advantage. Evidence also suggests that students involved in music programs improve their performance in academics.

The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, has seen significant changes since it opened in 1973. The first students merely received intense training in singing or on an instrument, but today's students are expected to study aural skills, music history and musicianship. They must work extremely hard during their four-year course, which leads to either a BA or a BMus qualification. The college has also become more involved with community and pre-18 education.

UK Education Secretary David Blunkett's announcement in Jan. 1998 that the Government wants primary school teachers to concentrate on the basics of literacy and numeracy has raised fears that music and the humanities could disappear from school timetables. The importance of the arts in education is being highlighted in a campaign being launched by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) in the week of Feb. 9, 1998. The Historical Assn. will officially launch its campaign to retain history's place as an essential part of school education on Feb. 11, 1998.

The devolution of budgets to schools is affecting the provision of music education. Many education authorities had central music services providing peripatetic instrumental teachers. Schools are now free to choose whether to buy such services. Some authorities have dismissed all their peripatetic staff. Berkshire has set up an independent trust which is contracted to schools for a period. East Sussex has a mix of services, including a trust, an agency and charges for tuition. Some teachers believe one-to-one tuition is unreasonable and the aim should be to reach large numbers of children.

The UK government's policy that all children should take at least one technology subject at GCSE, together with the time involved in teaching the core national curriculum subjects, is leading to a fall in the number of children taking art, music and drama. A continued fall in the number of children taking art GCSE will not only inhibit talent but will affect many aspects of industry in the long term. A decline in instrumental teaching is accompanying the fall in the number of children taking GCSE music, with potentially disastrous consequences for the quality of UK youth orchestras.

The devolution of budgets from the education authorities to the schools has led to reluctance to spend money outside school buildings and hence to the disbandment of county youth orchestras and extracurricular musical activities. The counties of Hampshire, Berkshire and Surrey have dissolved their youth orchestras and many peripatetic music teachers have been lost. Sales of instruments and sheet music have fallen accordingly and the industry is worried about this. Also of concern is the likely effect on training of musicians and a possible lack of well trained players in a few years. Around 80% of the instrument business relates to education and the other 20% to professional musicians.

Six Japanese musicians, aged from nine to seventeen, received a standing ovation after a concert in Prague. They had played their own compositions on piano and electronic organ, both alone and with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. They are all products of the Yamaha music schools in Japan which provides small classes, and encourages four- and five-year-olds to sit and play with their mothers by their sides. Most musicians are girls since boys are expected to spend their education learning skills for future careers.

The first International Tchaikovsky Competition of Young Musicians was held in Moscow and featured contestants ranging from 12 to 16 years old. The contest aimed at exposing young musical talents because it was believed that a person's creative peak occurs in the early teens. The development of musical acumen comes with huge expenses in special schools but results to competitive and brilliant young musicians. The competition also developed public recognition of the musical talents. Winners were given a chance to go on tour and eventually leave their mark wherever they go.

The national music curriculum's emphasis on European classical music and dismissal of hands-on musical experience reveal a narrowness of vision which could result in the death of music. Since the 1970s educational programmes have involved composers and orchestras with school children in practical creative music sessions and composing. Continuance of a music tradition depends on contemporary composers who are neglected in the Draft Order for Music. These recommendations will only be applied in England.