Newpark Music Centre, Dublin Ireland
- First accredited school for higher education in jazz music in the country!
Just wanted to let you know of a recent development at Newpark Music Centre here in Dublin. For many years we've been working on getting a BA in Jazz Performance validated at the school, and I'm delighted to be able to tell you that we have achieved this at last! Although this qualification is very common throughout Europe and the US, it's never been available here - classical music has traditionally dominated third level music education in Ireland and has been the recipient of all government money and grants. This new BA which has just been granted by the Government validating body, is the first non-classical performance degree on the island of Ireland.
This is a major achievement for the school of course, but is also a landmark for jazz in Ireland since it's the first time such a degree has been available to aspiring jazz musicians. It will be a four-year degree encompassing the typical subjects found in such courses internationally.
The IASJ has had a large part to play in the success we had in getting the degree validated. Firstly my visits as a guest teacher to various IASJ schools and my meetings and discussions with other teachers and administrators at the annual meeting was invaluable to me when it came to writing the curriculum since I was aware of international best practice in the subject through my interactions with IASJ schools and teachers.
Secondly members of the IASJ had a major role to play in the validation process itself. Since there was no comparable programme for the validating body (HETAC) to draw expert advice from when considering our proposal, they asked me to suggest suitable candidates from abroad and I was able through my contacts in the IASJ to suggest several people to them. And at very short notice and at a very busy time of the year several teachers from IASJ schools came to Dublin and sat on the advisory panel which considered our proposal. Janne Murto from the Pop and Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki, Bernhard Hoffman from the Jazz and Rock Schule in Freiburg and Michael Küttner from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Mannheim , as well as the great English singer Norma Winstone, very kindly came to Dublin and gave of their very considerable expertise in assisting us to both get the degree validated and improving the content of the degree. I would like to take this opportunity to again thank Janne, Micheal, and Bernhard, as well as Norma, for being so kind as to come at such incredibly short notice and for being so positive and helpful in their contributions to the discussions and the panel. We're very grateful to them and very thankful for our membership of the IASJ that allowed us access to such expertise and such nice people!
Looking forward to seeing many of you at the next IASJ Jazz Meeting in Krakow, Poland,
Best wishes,