Coming together for music

The South Asia Regional Conference of the International Society of Music Education will feature talks on the importance of music in education

The three–day South Asia Regional Conference, organised by the International Society of Music Education (ISME) in the city, will see nearly 40 speakers from across the globe talking on music education, special education needs in music and digitisation. The conference will be hosted by co-partners at the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS) from November 27 to 29. ISME is the premier international organisation for music education founded by UNESCO in 1953 and is affiliated to International Music Council in over 80 countries.

The theme of the conference is 'Learning to live together in and through music' and will feature prominent speakers from the fields of music and music education. ISME has built a coalition of partners within the country who are interested in music education for children with special education needs and the emerging field of digital humanities in music, says Vikram Sampath, who represents ISME in India. "The South Asia Regional Conference is one of the largest, bringing representations from the UK, Australia, China, Japan, Norway, Finland, Dubai, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh among others to interact with musicians, educationalists and scholars. The content will include a set of recommendations to the Government of India on how music education can be part of the new education policy and how lessons can be taken from other countries and customised to suit Indian realities."

The topics in the conference would hover around global challenges and opportunities with music in education programmes, customising educational practice to indigenous systems of learning, and using and creating digital resources for the multicultural classroom along with the preservation and archiving of our intangible cultural heritage.

"The conference's larger goal is to create long-term, sustainable projects in these domains," says Vikram Sampath, who is reperesenting ISME in India.

For example, as part of the discussions on the impact of music on children's special education, Bombay Jayashri will speak on how her own trust HITAM addresses children with Autism. Jayashri had noticed that music education and a strong exposure of music to children magically brings out better motor skills and makes them relatively sharper in their responses. Vikram adds: "There is only anecdotal evidence, but no scientific evidence though. We are therefore partnering with NIAS which is keen to incubate such findings for a scientific deduction at a later stage."

Prof. Baldev Raj, the director of NIAS, says, "We are truly excited with the prospect of this collaboration, which we are looking at from a long-term sustainability perspective and not just this conference. Creating a regional cooperation, interdisciplinary studies and building scholarship and research capabilities in the domains of music with various stakeholders, is encouraged at NIAS and this conference is the starting point."

At the Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts that works to create music educators, Bindu Subramaniam and Ambi Subramaniam say that building a teaching community is central to everything that they do.

"We work to the cause of having high-quality music education," chorus Bindu and Ambi, who are excited to partner with IMSE for the world conference.

Grammy Award winner Ricky Kej, who will be sharing his experience at the ISME conference, says, "My album Shanti Samsara is also dedicated to creating environmental consciousness. The album was launched at the Climate Change Conference in Paris by Prime Minister Modi.

The songs were created with themes of coexistence with nature; there are songs about the importance of rivers, effects of human – animal conflict, and there was also a song that I created in the Pacific Island nation of Kiribati, which will be the first country in the world to completely submerge due to climate change. All my music is about environmental consciousness, and I have dedicated my life and my art to this cause. Songs that we are taught during our childhood are songs that we remember till the day we die. So I use my art of music to spread a message for our planet."

Sandra Oberoi, founder of Harmony Music School, says, "This collaboration between ISME, a world authority on the advancement of music education, and several advocates in and around India, will surely bring about a change for the better."