PARTNERSHIPS
Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore) and Royal University of Fine Arts (Cambodia) performers celebrating after a recital
Asian Ambitions
Has the music education sector been hit any harder than other areas of the economy in recent times? We report on one entrepreneur’s responses
W
ith both public sector education and general arts funding in the firing line, there seems to be little cause for optimism – or so
press reports would have us believe. But is it all doom and gloom?
Ian Clethero, entrepreneur and publisher
of Music Education UK magazine and organiser of the musiclearninglive! series of national conferences, launched a groundbreaking new music education project in Asia earlier this year. He has taken the bull by the horns and set up a brand new music education-based venture in Singapore, having lived there during the 80s and following recent discussions with a contact there. The launch of Music Education Singapore magazine in July 2011 was the result. The title is published bi-monthly and carries local, regional and international content, complemented by news and events listings on the project’s website. The Singapore Ministry of Education allowed them to distribute the first issue of the magazine at a two-day conference marking the launch of the Singapore Teachers’ Academy for the Arts (STAR) in July. Ian says, ‘This openness and enthusiasm is typical of the response to the project in Singapore. At the launch, we had people coming up to us saying how great it was that someone had finally produced a music education magazine for Singapore – and many people have offered to contribute as writers or help in other ways.’ From the first issue, the publication has
also been supported by advertising from a range of organisations, including the Yamaha Music Schools in Singapore and ABRSM and Trinity exam boards in the UK.
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There are also plans to publish local magazines for other territories, including Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong over the next three years. In the same way that the Singapore magazine shares content with its UK counterpart, Music Education UK, these other magazines will be clearly part of a developing Asian network. And from November 2011, the Singapore magazine will be published in iPad format as well as in print – reflecting the fact that Singapore is one of the most digitally connected societies in the world. But magazine publishing is only part of the whole project. They will be presenting the first, four-day musiclearninglive!Asia, along the lines of their UK equivalents, in July 2013. Work is already under way on the programming, with the programme advisory team led by David Price (formerly of the groundbreaking Musical Futures project in the UK) and an international faculty of presenters and performers.
The overall project includes a major digital
strand with announcements of plans expected early in 2012. Both social media networks and mobile content will feature alongside conventional websites but at this stage further details are under wraps. The conference will be formally
announced in Singapore in November and both ABRSM and Trinity College have confirmed sponsorship, with a range of other partners about to come on board. How will the project develop in the future?
‘We are very excited by the potential of all three areas: magazines, conferences and digital media. We are planning to run musiclearninglive!Asia biennially and alternate this with a conference in London (the existing
musiclearninglive! UK event, which we want to take on an international flavour and benefit from what we are developing in Asia). ‘We also want to develop international partnerships linking Asia with other regions. One example of this is the link between Music Education Singapore and the new Portsmouth Music Hub which we have just created in the UK.’ News from Singapore feeds directly into the Portsmouth Hub, giving the Portsmouth site an international perspective. And what about mainland China, with its staggering statistics? There are a reported 80 million piano students, for example. ‘We don’t want to run before we can walk and doing business in China presents a number of interesting challenges, particularly for an organisation involved in publishing. One of the reasons for choosing Singapore as the base for the project is the fact that mainland China looks to Singapore for models of best practice. Naturally, we want to establish ourselves firmly in Singapore and build our relationships there first. But put it this way: we are certainly not going to ignore opportuni-ties in China!’
WEBLINKS
Music Education Singapore:
www.musiceducationsg.com
Music Education UK:
www.musiceducationuk.com
musiclearninglive!2012:
www.mll2012.com
Portsmouth Music Hub:
www.portsmouthmusichub.org
Photo: courtesy Music Education Singapore magazine
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