The Associated Board receives Culture Online commission
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music is to produce a new online music education resource.
Over the next 18 months, the Associated Board will be developing an interactive digital learning tool for music education called SoundJunction. The project is aimed primarily at young people aged 13 to 18 and will be freely available on the internet and on a CD‑Rom. This exciting new resource has been commissioned by Culture Online, part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
SoundJunction will open up new opportunities for discovering, exploring and creating music. Users can navigate deep into musical sound worlds, stepping into the music itself to hear how it comes together, how it is inspired, is built and evolves. They will be able to interact with real sounds and musicians, learning how to make music, forging connections between different cultures and branching out into new kinds of music.
Although aimed at young people aged 13 to 18, SoundJunction will also appeal to adults of all ages and to younger children. Within this audience will be those with no musical education or experience, beyond listening to music, and those who already have several years of training.
During project development and dissemination the Associated Board will be working with musical outreach initiatives and organisations, such as The Drake Music Project, to bring new experiences to otherwise hard-to-reach or disadvantaged audiences and those who have few music-making opportunities.
Richard Morris, Chief Executive of the Associated Board, comments:
“The Associated Board has long recognised the potential of online technology to enrich musical understanding, exploration and creativity. We are delighted that, in collaboration with Culture Online, we now have the opportunity to realise these ideas in fashioning a practical and interactive resource for the widest possible audience of young people.”
Jonathan Drori, Director of Culture Online, comments:
“This is the kind of experience we hope will be typical of Culture Online – bringing together partnerships which otherwise might not have happened to produce projects with real ‘zing’! This project will really make a difference to a lot of new people enjoying and learning about music.”
Mike Greenwood, Development Producer of Culture Online, comments:
“We are delighted to be working with a team with such in-depth experience of music making. We’re convinced that together we will create an experience which will attract new audiences and which will be fun, creative and rewarding.”
Note to editors
The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music is the world’s leading provider of graded music exams and assessments. Each year more than 600,000 candidates in over 90 countries take Associated Board exams. It also runs professional development courses for teachers and ABRSM Publishing produces a wide range of repertoire, music books and CDs. In all its activities the Associated Board aims to encourage musical enjoyment through achievement and to foster and enhance quality in music teaching and learning.
Culture Online is a £13m programme from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The overall aim of Culture Online is to use new technologies to increase access to and participation in arts and culture. It will bring together cultural organisations with cutting-edge technical providers to create projects that will delight adults and children of all ages and backgrounds. The intention is to commission 15 to 30 projects between now and the end of 2004.
For a more detailed outline of the SoundJunction project click here.
Contacts
Ben Sandbrook, SoundJunction Project Manager or Derek Richards, SoundJunction Project Co-ordinator:
Telephone 020 7467 8265