Accolades News - Accolades Tours for the Arts

Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival: October 2018

7/17/2017

Diyar Theatre / Diyar Academy for Children and Youth announce the Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival (BIPAF) to be held in October 2018 in Bethlehem, Palestine.

During the day participants will take part in a variety of training sessions and workshops.

Groups (performers and staff) of up to 20 people are invited for whom the organizers will provide all meals and accommodation and transport costs within Palestine.

Applications will be accepted through Nov 30, 2017 . More information via Rami Khader.

bipaf18invite.docx
File Size:	54 kb
File Type:	docx

Performers must be over 16 and
productions should be between 40 and 60 minutes.

Accolades Mug a Big Hit

3/27/2017

Because people own dozens of mugs, we realized that if we ask clients to embrace our mug, it had better be a good one.

That's the approach we used with our latest gift project. Attendees at the last two choral conferences agreed with us, loving them.

more news here

Variations on "Happy Birthday" a viral sensation

8/2/2016

Nicole Pesce at a 2011 concert displayed virtuosity, creativity, and humor as she speculates on how master composers might have performed "Happy Birthday". We've also included a Victor Borge performance recorded 60 years earlier..

Study finds some people can be trained to learn absolute pitch.

6/23/2016

Perfect Pitch

Excerpt from Neuroscience news:

If you’re a musician, this sounds too good to be true: UChicago psychologists have been able to train some adults to develop the prized musical ability of absolute pitch, and the training’s effects last for months.

Absolute pitch, commonly known as “perfect pitch,” is the ability to identify a note by hearing it. The ability is considered remarkably rare, estimated to be less than one in 10,000 individuals. It has always been a very desired ability among musicians, especially since several famous composers, including Mozart, reportedly had it. The assumption has been that this special talent has a critical period to be established in childhood based on early musical training and that it was not possible for adults to acquire this skill.

In this 2015 study published by the journal Cognition, Howard Nusbaum, professor of psychology, and colleagues tested how much an individual’s general auditory working memory capacity can predict the success of acquiring absolute pitch. Other UChicago authors on the paper are psychology doctoral student Stephen C. Van Hedger, post-doctoral scholar Shannon L.M. Heald and College undergraduate Rachelle Koch.

more

A Match Made on Tour!

5/10/2016

On an Accolades tour to Poland, Hudson High School Choir director and Accolades client Andy Haase had shared with our co-owner Janet Tollund that, while he’d like to be married, his busy schedule as teacher and director left little time to find that special person.

Sigismund Bell Clapper

Andy Haase at the clapper

In Krakow, our local guide had secured access to the famous bell tower at the Wawel Cathedral. With the entire group gathered round the 14-ton bell, the guide explained that it also carried a legend: Should an unmarried person touch the bell, he or she will be married within the year. Everyone (including Andy's mother) encouraged him to touch the bell.

A few months after the tour, Andy called us with the news he was getting married -- and to one of the chaperons he had met on the tour! Andy and Jen are happily married with two beautiful little girls.

Accolades itineraries are second-to-none, yet off-itinerary moments can be just as memorable.

More About The Royal Sigismund Bell

The Royal Sigismund Bell is the largest of the five bells hanging in the Sigismund Tower of the Wawel Cathedral in the Polish city of Kraków. It was cast in 1520 by Hans Behem and named after King Sigismund I of Poland, who commissioned it. Weighing almost 28 thousand pounds, it requires 12 bell-ringers to ring it.

It is rung on special occasions, mostly religious and national holidays, and is regarded as one of Poland's national symbols.

The body of the Sigismund Bell is cast in bronze and weighs 9,650 kg. Its diameter at the lip is 242 cm and its height is 241 cm.[1] The wall of the body is from 7 to 21 cm thick.[2] The crown of the bell is attached to a yoke made of oak wood and measuring 308 cm in length and 219 cm in height. Within the bell, suspended on a leather belt of up to 12 layers, attached to an iron supporting structure, is a Gothic clapper, weighing – together with the belt – 365 kg.[1]

Royal Sigismund Bell

image and history courtesy wikipedia

“If you see something, say something"

4/19/2016

... can we be more vague?

Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak addresses the balance of vigilance and common sense, especially regarding unknown cultures, in her April 18 article.

What’s even scarier is the “something” that was part of a leaked TSA checklist ... included such gems as:
~ arrives late for flight,
~ increased perspiration,
~ increased breathing rate
~ or excessive fidgeting.

That describes just about every parent who has ever flown anywhere with small children.

-Petula Dvorak
more

TSA See Say

Music Program Improves Reading in Children

4/8/2016

Ann Kay

Lifelong music educator Ann Kay has devoted her retirement to using music to help children read better. Two years ago she and her husband bought an old city bus.

They drove it to North Minneapolis and turned it into a mobile computer lab outfitted with innovative sing-along software that research shows helps students make rapid improvements in literacy.

Kay’s “Rock ‘n’ Read” nonprofit has also helped establish computer labs in several Minneapolis public schools.

Singing and “steady-beat activities” result in better auditory processing, which is associated with higher reading achievement, Kay said. Selcer said it was important look at all available tools in helping struggling students, and the “startling results” of the “simple yet potentially powerful” method were worth exploring further.

MINNESOTA LEGISLATURE TO
FUND RESEARCH

Sponsored by Rep. Yvonne Selcer (Mtka), a proposed bill would provide money to explore the effects of the music software on student reading ability at three Minnesota schools, using assessments developed by the University of Minnesota.

The pilot program would be aimed at students reading below grade level, she said, and would reach up to 150 students in grades 3 to 5 in each school.

A companion bill sponsored by Sen. Alice Johnson (Blaine), awaits action by the Senate Finance Committee.

Other Studies

Music to Enhance Reading Skills of
2nd Graders w/wo disabilities

Can Music Be Used to Teach Reading?

Playing a Musical Instrument Can Actually Improve Your Health?

12/22/2015

Did you know that playing a musical instrument can actually improve your health?

Yamaha's Music and Wellness Institute has been conducting research on the health benefits of active music making.

Less than 7% of American adults actually play a musical instrument today.

The institute supports the notion that as a society, we are in need of healing, a process that has been described as "putting back into one's life what is missing." Perhaps that healing element is creative musical expression.

Their first finding, "Making Music Switches off Stress", WebMD, looked at 45 stress-related genes. Nineteen of these genes were reversed in the study group that participated in a recreational music-making program, The study group who spent time just relaxing only had six stress genes reversed.

Careers

10/2/2015

We are always looking for talented, hard-working people who embrace world travel.

If you are energized by the thought of enriching lives and have been a group leader or in service-based sales, please contact us. Accolades provides excellent benefits including the potential of working from your home, uncapped earning potential, and the opportunity to work with a company of the highest integrity.

Accolades News

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