Home Who's Who On this site FAQs Victoria Sings Upcoming Services WantToSing Connect Links Newsletter
The October issue of Shout! has been uploaded.
And new events keep leaping onto the calendar. Check them out.
Here in the office, we've been flat out like lizards drinking for the last couple of months, coping with the mountains of paperwork that are the inevitable consequence of preparing grant applications and then fulfilling the reporting requirements for those that we get. So, our website has been quite static these last couple of months.
At our Annual General Meeting in June, three Board Members stood down and two new ones stood up. Departing are Sarah Berry, Phil Splitter and Fay White. Sarah and Phil sat round the table for a year, and for their presence and contribution we thank them. Fay has been deeply involved with us since 2002 and is taking a much needed break. We confidently expect she'll be rejoining the team before we've had time to get used to her absence. Fay has been integral to envisioning and implementing CMV's direction since bringing us the Victoria Sings program in '02.
We'll try really hard not to disturb her during her 'sabbatical', but we're hoping that, even though she's no longer a Boardster, she'll still be there to offer her wisdom when we need it. The new Board members are Belinda Glass and Emily Hayes - both singers, choir leaders and group singing facilitators with a passionate belief in the value of musicking.
Another new person to enter our ambit is researcher Carol Dore. She's doing a PhD in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University, Bendigo. Her research is on the lived experience of community singing - how it affects participants. She's confident that her explorations will lead her to able to develop some models for the effective use of community singing by social workers (supported by the sort of scientific material these workers need to convince their agencies that it's worthwhile).
We were so impressed by her enthusiasm, commitment, perspective and initial findings that we've named her our Resident Researcher. We are pleased and lucky to be associated with Carol. Please treat her like an old friend when she comes calling. Meanwhile, if you think of a contribution you can make to her excellent project, you can email her.
We've reached the end of the 'Year of the Catalysts'. On June 1, 07, five exceptional people - Lyndal Chambers (Metro), Betty McLaughlin (SE), Elizabeth McKay (SW), Karen Roben (NE) and Fay White (NW) - along with their wonderful Co-ordinator, Jane Coker, began the job of spreading and supporting group music-making around the State. Their year-long contracts (supporting them for between one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half days per week and supported by funding from the Community Support Fund) are now over. The ultimate goal CMV asked them to aim for was to help develop the 'groundwork for an independent and ongoing network of community music-makers in the(ir) region(s)'. They more than fulfilled the hopes we had for the initiative and, looking back, we feel enormously privileged to have been able to support them for this tiny section of what, for all of them, is a life's work. To all of them, thanks for both the difference they've made to CMV and for the difference they've made amongst their communities.
Responses to Fay's email plea for financial support have been spectacular. As of today, we've banked $10,400 in donations along with $1,400 from benefits, $1,555 in subscriptions and $590 in CD sales. There are still some promises to be delivered on plus more fundraising events being organised by our friends. For any of you still thinking about sliding some dosh our way, we're more than ready to receive. (To secure deductibility you'll need to fill in this form).
Thank you all so much for your generosity, and for the many accompanying testimonials - the money has been great and so too have been the many heart-warming descriptions of the value you have found in our work.
While all this has being going on, researchers the world over continue to develop new ways of convincing the sceptics that music is good for us. Some of this is mentioned on our new research page.
The August issue of Shout! has been uploaded.
Belinda McArdle has written a fine report on her research into the Features Of Good Singing Leadership. While she says that her findings make no claim to any definitive conclusions, her paper is still a great contribution to our growing understanding of what it takes to effectively transform a free and fearless space into one that is full of joyful sound.
The May issue of Shout! has been uploaded.
The expansion of our music research links just keeps on
The transcendental Swedish feature film, 'As It Is In Heaven', with a plot surrounded by the revivifying power of choral singing is now available in Australia on dvd.
The February issue of Shout! has been uploaded.
YouTube is hosting an excellent video lecture on music and neuroscience.
Music in Communities Awards 2007
With a prize pool of $20,000 and a an extended closing date of 29/2/2008, this initiative from Music.Play For Life is another strategy to raise the profile of community music-making.
They're open to any organisation that has been involved in community music making activities for more than three years. Among other things, the judges want to hear about the main activities undertaken to encourage music-making in a community; how they make a difference to the lives of participants and how, as a result of these activities, the community now has more people making music.
The latest issue of Music Forum contains a couple of must-be-read summaries and analysis of music research
Having become belatedly aware of the many Primary Care Partnerships across Victoria, we've put together some suggestions of how those working in health promotion may take advantage of community music-making in their pursuit of wellbeing.
Betty McLaughlin, our Catalyst in the South East, has found a great new source for repertoire called Songs for Teaching.
This year's program has undergone some slight date modifications and some additions, the most recent being a new song swap on March 14.
The summer break was used by our researcher to add masses of new material to the music research page. It has become so overwhelming that he's now developing a 'keywords' section in an attempt to make it more accessible. This is very much a work in progress so keep an eye out for further developments over the next few weeks.
Oh, to be in England. We have just received notification from the Sidney de Haan Centre of their Conference and Seminar program for 2008.
It's hard to imagine topics for talk festing that could be more useful (music and health; biological and psycho-social perspectives on singing) nor speakers with more to contribute. We can only hope that those that attend will let their siblings in the antipodes know all about it.
We concluded our 2007 schedule of events last weekend, and have now confirmed a whole bunch of 2008 events.
The news from Britain about new support for music in primary schools is very exciting - could have applications in other parts of the world (along these lines, the British have picked up on Venezuela's 'el sistema' as a model for the instrumental side of their initiative).
WADE IN THE WATER: a new community singing DVD
On Sunday 17 February 2008, Wade in the Water, a documentary featuring the South of the River Choir, will be launched by singing groups across the country gathering in their own communities to view the doco, to sing together and to support Breast Cancer Network Australia. To be part of this nation-wide event, check out the website or call Linette Etheridge on 0432 329 214.
MAKING MUSIC BEING WELL 2007
The Australian Music Therapy Association & Music. Play For Life are preparing for a week long national celebration of active music-making for wellbeing in the week of May 12-18, 2008. They (and us!) are encouraging community music makers across Victoria to think about scheduling an event during this week: it will be a wonderful way to demonstrate to the world that Victoria really is the State of Singing.
You can download a registration form (deadline 1/2/08) from the AMTA website and/or contact the program co-ordinator, Catherine Threlfall, on 08 8931 4324 or by email.
Music in Communities Awards 2007
With a prize pool of $20,000 and a closing date of 15/2/2008, this initiative from Music.Play For Life is another strategy to raise the profile of community music-making.
They're open to any organisation that has been involved in community music making activities for more than three years. Among other things, the judges want to hear about the main activities undertaken to encourage music-making in a community; how they make a difference to the lives of participants and how, as a result of these activities, the community now has more people making music.
The awards are supported by NAMM - the International Music Products Industry Association. This is the first time the US-based Association has funded an advocacy program outside North America.
Jane Coker will be facilitating a training day for new community singing leaders on 16/2/08.
And it's fantastic to have one's own sousaphone blown for one - in the latest edition (14/1 Nov07-Jan08) of Music Forum, the best music periodical in the world (in our opinion), the editor Richard Letts (on p51) does a brief review of our website that includes the words, 'fabulous', 'top notch' and 'extensive'.
We've put together links to films and docos about people singing together. This is our first trawl, so if you know of others please let us know.
A reminder that Sunday December 9 is The International Day of Choral Singing. Its purpose is to 'extol the values of solidarity, peace and understanding'. In 2005, more than a million voices sang together (the last year for which figures are quoted) - seems totally in line with our slogan, 'Making A Sound World Together'
Our latest double repertoire CD 'Short Stuff' is now in stock and selling quickly.
We've developed a page of over 100 links to repertoire sources
And the November issue of Shout! has been uploaded - our last for 2007.
Still two months until Xmas and already the tree is up in Melbourne's City Square, so, not to be outdone, we've published the 2008 deadlines for Shout! and Sing It!. Last Sunday the mercury in Melbourne topped 30 degrees, so it's time to be saying 'Season's Greetings'.
The ABC has put a list of all the songs from their annual Primary School singalong books back to 1975 up on the web. It's part of Sing Online, a relatively new site that tells the story of the ABC's 40 years of servicing singing in primary schools.
And on the subject of singing schools, the Brits are getting active. There's a movement called Music Manifesto that is focusing energies on increasing opportunities for young people to make music. One of the initiatives they are running with is called 'Sing Up', that sounds very like some of our activities.
Both these sites have been added to Community Music Around the World.
Preparing grant applications sometimes focuses the mind - emerging from our latest effort came a one page summary of our main program, Victoria Sings, that is a reasonably effective precis of the what and why.
We've added a couple of notifications of new research-type stuff. The first of these is about the creation of a singing map of Victoria (or perhaps, a map of singing Victorians) - is this the first time in the world that singing has been visually tabulated?
A new song swap has been confirmed for 23/11/2007
We've simplified the forms for singing leaders and group music making opportunities so that it's now much easier for Victorian enthusiasts to let us know what they're up to. So, if you're associated with group music making in Victoria and we don't know about you, please use one or other or both of these forms to introduce yourself.
The new editon of Sing It! is now available
We've redesigned our great big research bibliography to make navigation easier and added yet more entries (10% more!)
Our team of Catalysts have been extraordinarily busy. The calendar of upcoming events shows stuff planned all across Victoria.
The new repertoire CD, 'Short Stuff', will be available on the 24th of October. You can place orders now.
We've come across a couple of big reports on music education that may be worth looking at.
The next song swap has been confirmed (17/9/2007) and the August issue of Shout! is now available
We've started a new section called new research and reports where we list the latest stuff we've found
Details of an upcoming community singing leadership day on 15/9 in Wodonga
Details of an upcoming workshop on 7/10 entitled How do I work out a harmony part?
We've uploaded a bunch of speeches and reports including a recent interview with Anne-Marie Holley and Fay White about the origins of 'Victoria Sings'.
In recognition of the fact that we tend to rabbit on a bit, here's the short answer to why making music together is so important.
Also the Singalong faq has been more expansively answered.
We've re-done our links page, more than quadrupling its size and making the categories a bit more useful.
Over the last four days, we have entriely rebuilt the site. If you've been here before, it will look much the same, but the content has hugely expanded. Here is some of what we've added:
we hope you have fun exploring (and do let us know what you think).
Home Who's Who On this site FAQs Victoria Sings Upcoming Services WantToSing Connect Links Newsletter
Page © Community Music Victoria