Registration and orientation for new students of birdsong Academy After School Music Programme and Saturday Programme will be held this Saturday, Sept 17, 2016 at Department of Creative and Festival Arts  UWI  on University Circular Road, St Augustine

We are not discouraged by the occurrences of the past week.  The programmes of the Academy will continue at alternate venues, the music bands and choirs continue to practice and play. Our social enterprise continues to provide employment to 60 workers in the community. Indeed, we feel of the events of the past week are transitional and they may well signal a new dawning for birdsong.

birdsong Academy invites new students to register for the start of the September 2016 to June 2017 programme. New students between the ages of 9-14 years are invited to an orientation and registration session on Saturday, September 03, 2016 at 9.30 a.m. at the panyard, Cr. Connell and St Vincent Streets in Tunapuna.

Without a National Policy for Pan, situations like the eviction imbroglio that is presently confronting Birdsong are bound to occur. If the steelpan is the national instrument then we have to set up the national infrastructure within which steelbands can pursue sustainable development.

I heard the news that birdsong is being evicted.  I’m in no way qualified to discuss the legal issues concerning the real estate involved, but I would like to say a few words about birdsong and music education.   Anywhere you go in the world, when we have discussions about who we are, how we identify ourselves as a people, you will inevitably hear the words literature, music, and art.  We define ourselves by our culture – the stories we tell, the music and art that we create.

This is an article by Dr. Bill Pfaff, an Associate Professor of Theory, History and Composition at the Plattsburgh State University of New York. He is also a well renowned composer and producer whose music has been characterized by a  clear harmonic motion and described as profound and extravagant. Dr. Pfaff is a multitalented individual as he has also produced music for theater, dance and art installations that combines electronic sources, traditional instruments and found sounds.

Birdsong Academy should be the model for all community music programmes everywhere. It successfully combines music tuition, music making and a space of sanctuary at the heart of community. Yet unlike any other community music programme I know of anywhere in the world, Birdsong Academy also offers the opportunity for its most talented students to aspire to university places here and also in some of the most prestigious music schools in the world.

From July 11–August 13 2016, Birdsong Academy is hosting its 13th annual Vacation Music Camp. The camp is an extension of the Birdsong Academy; a response to the demand for high-quality, accessible training for children and teens who are poorly served by both the formal and informal music education establishments.