MaltaMedia.com

Several organisations involved in music both locally and overseas have teamed up to organise the first National Conference on the Future of Music Education in Malta between 26th and 29th October.

Each session of the conference started at 17:00 CEST at the Robert Samut Hall in Floriana and St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity in Valletta.

Conference director Antoine Frendo told a press launch, held at Dar l-Ewropa in Valletta on 25th October that the initial idea was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Malta chapter of the European String Teachers Association (ESTA).

This then developed into a fully fledged conference, thanks to the valuable input of MAME (Malta Association of Music Educators), the Mediterranean Institute at the University of Malta, and GHEMM, which is a federation of Maltese music NGOs that includes the Malta Cultural Institute and the Malta Band Clubs Association. Also noteworthy is the contribution of a number of private and public music school teachers, and freelance teachers.

Among the highlights of this conference’s events were violin master classes by Sventha Denneberg, first violin teacher at the School of Music in Valetta, and a hands-on activity for children attracted to the violin.

During the official launch, Martin Prchal chief executive of the Association of European Conservatories (www.aecinfo.org), delivered a presentation on “Training for the Music Profession – Observations from a European Perspective”. Dr Nils Franke, director of the Music Centre Institute of Education at Reading University and Werner Schmitt from ESTA International will be participating in the conference. Mr Schmitt is president of the Yehudi Menuhin Foundation, Germany, and the retired director of the Bern Conservatory in Switzerland.

The full conference programme is on the ESTA web-site www.estastrings.org. Entrance to all activities was free.