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The highest human note?

10/30/2017

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That would be G10 by Georgia Brown -- the highest note ever sung by a woman, giving her the Guinness World Record for the highest note for a female.
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Bethlehem International Performing Arts Festival: October 2018

7/17/2017

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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.
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bipaf18invite.docx
File Size: 54 kb
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Performers must be over 16 and
​productions should be between 40 and 60 minutes.
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Hear a Stradivari Sabionari, 1679 guitar

6/22/2017

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In the video below, Rolf Lislevand plays Tarantela on a Stradivari Sabionari, 1679 guitar, one of the five surviving guitars made by Antonio Stradivari. At the present time it is the only playable one in the world.

A 'score" can be found here.
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more news here 
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Sydney Opera House Getting Acoustic Makeover

5/12/2017

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The first such undertaking since its 1973 opening

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Sydney Opera House, one of the world’s most famous music venues, has long had a problem. Everyone loves the building, but not everyone loved the way it sounds, especially in its largest venue, the Concert Hall, Some felt that the acoustics lacked power; actor and director John Malkovich quipped (of the old design) that "an airplane hangar would sound better".  
After 43 years of mixed reviews, the Concert Hall is getting a major upgrade. The air-conditioning is being replaced, better access and more room to accommodate wheelchairs. The biggest change will be to how the hall sounds: the stage will be lower, the walls beneath the boxes will tilt differently and new acoustic reflectors will replace the plastic ‘donuts’ that have been hanging above the stage since the Opera House opened in 1973.
TRIVIA:

​​The Concert Hall Grand Organ is believed to be one of the largest mechanical organ in the world, with 10,154 pipes ranging in size from as small as a drinking straw to as large as a telegraph pole. It took 10 years to complete.

A sneak-peek at the acoustic improvements
Renewing the Joan Sutherland Theatre 
The Exterior: Conserving a Concrete Masterpiece

Read more here about the transformation including how lasers help design the acoustic space.
Images and material from ​www.sydneyoperahouse.com
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more news here 
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The Nation's Report Card on 8th Grade Music

4/26/2017

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The NAEP arts assessment measured students' knowledge and skills in the arts disciplines of music and visual arts. Average scores for eighth-graders were not significantly different between 2008 and 2016, nor were there significant differences in the percentages of students who reported taking music and/or visual arts classes.​

Typical questions asked include:
  • Identify the solo instrument beginning "Rhapsody in Blue"
  • Identify a correct time signature for a piece of music
  • Identify the name of piano dynamic marking and explain its meaning
  • Identify type of note duration​​
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Sixty-three percent of eighth-graders took a music class in 2016.
An included poll asked about students' opportunities to access and engage in music, both in and outside of school.  The reporting method of the study allows you to break down the results by ​various student groups.
more news here 
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The Schalmei

8/29/2016

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... or Martin-Trumpet

In any other context, the “Schalmei” (French chalumai, English shawm) is a completely different instrument: a woodwind forerunner of the modern oboe tracing back to the Middle Ages (see the sidebar) . How the name came to be applied to two such unrelated instruments is not clear, but this otherworldly German cousin to the military bugle is also called a Martin’s Trumpet (named for the inventor Max Martin

​Martin may best be remembered for the hi-low tone used on emergency vehicles 

Shawm: the Predecessors

Shawm are  double-reed woodwind instruments made in Europe from the 12th century to the present day. Their classic Renaissance sound was gradually eclipsed by the oboe family of descendant instruments in classical music. 
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More on Max B. Martin

​The foundation stone for the German signal instrument factory Max B. Martin GmbH & Co. KG which opened in 1880 were hunting horns, cavalry trumpets and fanfare trumpets for two- or four-note signals. The now-famous Kaiserfanfare signal, "now here, now there," announces vehicles of the royal family.

In the early days, motor car horns and fire horns were production-priorities. These were also the years when many volunteer fire brigades called Martin Chapels were already responding to fires using onboard 8-tone Martin trumpets, 

In 1932 they developed the German signal instrument factory to manufacture for fire and police departments a horn with a "prescribed priority warning". Up to World War II, these horns were made for emergency vehicles only.
Thanks to the Max Martin Company and the Wende Museum
more news here 
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Variations on "Happy Birthday" a viral sensation

8/2/2016

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

6/23/2016

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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
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Music Program Improves Reading in Children

4/8/2016

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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?


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Playing a Musical Instrument Can Actually Improve Your Health?

12/22/2015

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