A community of musicians

Every two years musicians, educators, thinkers, researchers, teachers and young people gather for the main ISME conference in different parts of the world. This year, Glasgow - 2 years ago Porto Allegre - before that Greece, Beijing....

This is the 32nd annual conference and the knowledge that comes to the sessions in these rooms is wide reaching. How is it relevant to you - the youth music network readers? How many of you are represented here ? I often wonder, because if you aren't at this place how would you know it was going on and what was being discussed?

Is it relevant to you? 

I would answer - yes - because the learning that is being shared is powerful and comes back out to influence practice on a number of levels. On a strategic level through the way it will influence policy and development, and on a practical level because the people who present not only get their work validated and grow in confidence but also because they listen to so many other people.

Tomorrow I will be chairing a symposium on "Partnerships and Progress - Music Hubs in the UK" which will have 4 speakers including Carol Reid (Youth Music), Sam Spence (Ealing Music Hub), Douglas Noble (Drake Music) and Jennifer Raven (Sound Connections). It will share our passion for inclusivity and end with a call out for wider partnerships across the sector.

 So that the wider wordl can hear about the work every day I write a blog on the More Music website - www.moremusic.org.uk/CMA16. This started last week when I attended the pre conference Community Music Activity Seminar, a 4 day gathering in Edinburgh of 110 community musicians from 13 countries. We had great fun, made music and really reflected on our work. Catch up with the themes and ideas either from my blog or the conference website - http://www.cma2016.com.

Meanwhile back in Glasgow over 1000 performers - both young and old - perform in lunchtime and evening concerts. From inclusive ensembles to the Palestine Youth Orchestra, from Evelyn Glennie (as a keynote) to More Music's LYVE (vocal ensemble) and the Baybeat Streetband who will follow their conferenec show with a parade out on Buchanan Street to meet youth section of the brillinat local streetband, Samabybamba.

Follow the conference on twitter #ismeglasgow2016 or read my writings. 

And see when over the next year the resonances of the great gathering come to a workshop near you !