Education

Musica Viva In Schools is proud to announce that it has taken its program completely online. To support schools during COVID-19 and beyond, and to provide much-needed employment for 60 musicians, the company now offers a full suite of online performances and teaching resources tailored to Australian primary classrooms everywhere.

National theatre company Bell Shakespeare has announced that it will open its archives for a special limited release of production recordings from its recent history, exclusively for schools.

Right now, Queensland Theatre’s Education team would have been be rolling out over 100 different workshops across Queensland, taking some of the best teaching artists into classrooms.

The Australian Ballet’s STEAMDANCE education program is now live and online to support Australian teachers and students during the COVID-19 restrictions.

Term two for schools around the country are shifting into gear, with a blended style of delivery that will include learning via online and interactive technologies, and face-to-face delivery. Performing arts companies' education teams across Australia have been working hard to adapt and develop new digital learning resources and events to support teachers and students' learning and engagement online.

With music teachers in mind, Sydney Symphony Orchestra will be sharing content shaped around the current syllabus to help you keep your virtual classroom inspiring. Each week they will be releasing a variety of teachers kits, classroom activities and resources free of charge during this period.

In the face of the challenging situation surrounding COVID-19, the health and safety of our community – including our musicians, teachers and students – is our highest priority.

Victorian Opera opens its doors to youngsters and their families for a musical adventure and a first chance to experience opera.

Get ready! The search for the inaugural winners of Strike A Chord, Musica Viva’s new National Chamber Music Championship, begins when entries open nationwide.

Bangarra's Regional Tour is an important part of their annual schedule, and a unique opportunity to share their stories and cultures beyond major cities.

The National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE) announced the appointment of John Nicholas Saunders as Chair. John will take over leadership of the NAAE from Julie Dyson AM in February 2020 as the network celebrates its 30th anniversary.

90 students from 58 different schools came together for a three-day pop-up music camp at our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.

In a first for arts education in Victoria, VCE Theatre Studies will be available online in 2020, and VCE Drama in 2021, thanks to a partnership between Melbourne Theatre Company and Virtual School Victoria (VSV).

This year’s language week theme was Italian on stage and Italian Consul of Perth, Dr. David Balloni hosted more than 100 Italian language studies high school students and their teachers at West Australian Opera's performance of Macbeth.

To celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2020, Musica Viva Australia is proud to announce the introduction of a National Chamber Music Championship (NCMC) for secondary-school-aged students with support from Creative Victoria and in partnership with Melbourne Recital Centre and the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM).

Musica Viva In Schools is partnering with The CASS Foundation on a new teacher professional development initiative to support music education and teacher capacity in disadvantaged schools throughout Victoria’s south-west in 2019.

Winners have been announced across 11 national categories and eight state categories of the 2019 Art Music Awards.

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's Festival of Learning held in the last week of July was an immersive week of activity dedicated to educating and encouraging students to be involved in orchestral music. The week included both professional development for teachers, and inclusive concerts that encouraged participation for students of all ages and abilities.

Wyniss bring traditional song, dance and games to Perth kids with Musica Viva In Schools.

The leading Japanese electronic musical instruments brand has joined forces with Musica Viva to support music education programs in schools nationally. Casio is providing keyboards as prizes for competitions organised by Musica Viva In Schools (MVIS) which will go to winning schools across the country, encouraging students and teachers to explore more musical activities in the classroom.

Melbourne Theatre Company marked the first day of its 2019 First Peoples Young Artists Program with a welcome to country and smoking ceremony at MTC Headquarters in Southbank, performed by Janet Galpin and David Tournier from the Boon Wurrung Foundation.

Musica Viva Australia have premiered three new ensembles to inspire, educate and deliver joy to students and teachers in classrooms throughout Australian in 2019.

Students and staff at the University of Melbourne will have unparalleled access to education and research opportunities with a $1 million partnership with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

WASO is hitting the road this October and November with a touring party of over 70 musicians to share a complete live symphony orchestra experience in Esperance and Albany.

Opera Australia launched its 2019 Victorian Schools Tour with a performance of The Barber of Seville at South Melbourne Park Primary. Thousands of Victorian primary school students will attend more than 80 performances between 20 May and 23 August.

Since 2015, Queensland Ballet has been delivering four-day Dance Camps to regional areas during school holidays.

Musica Viva’s current FutureMakers artists Aura Go and Matthias Schack-Arnott are offering Monash music students an open door into their individual artistic practice as part of a two-year education partnership between Musica Viva and Monash University.

Opera Australia continues its mission to inspire schoolchildren with its Schools Tour program extending its reach to over 55,000 this year.

Australian adult arts and cultural participation grew by 4.4% between 2013/14 and 2017/18 with women's participation a driving force, up 6.1% while men's participation rates were up 2.4% according to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2017-18 Australian youth participation rates in creative activities totalled 63.4% and that adult participation rates are highest for people between the ages of 15-34.

Musica Viva will present a diverse range of music programs and initiatives amking the city of Orange in central-western NSW a music hub thanks to the support of two local music trusts, dedicated to the Orange region.

Victorian Opera’s Access All Areas: Livestream Program is revolutionising arts education using online technology, and has given 1,400 primary school students state-wide their first taste of opera.

The It Takes a Village — Education is everyone’s business campaign is highlighting the positive role caring communities can play in helping our young people realise optimistic and confident futures. There is no shortage of positive, life-changing stories that have led young people to better futures through their engagement in the arts, and AMPAG as a campaign partner calls for everyone in our sector to get involved in the campaign.

It is with great sadness that The Australian Ballet and The Australian Ballet School announce the peaceful passing of Dame Margaret Scott AC DBE, a much-loved visionary, pioneer and stalwart of dance in Australia.

Three students from regional schools across Australia came together for the John Bell Scholarship. A life-changing opportunity for budding performers, students were selected to spend one incredible week training with Bell Shakespeare.

Two Queensland schools will immerse themselves in music this month thanks to Arrow Energy. Wallumbilla State School in the Maranoa Region and Dysart State School in the Isaac Region will each spend four days with composer and educator Nicole Murphy in an intensive Musica Viva In Schools residency – a rare opportunity for students and teachers to work closely with a professional musician.

Queensland Ballet’s Kindy Moves program is winning the hearts and minds of pre-schoolers, and as QUT research reports, increased children’s self-confidence and enabled greater use of social competencies - skills that will support their ongoing learning journey.

The 2018 success of Victorian Opera’s new education initiative – Access All Areas: Livestream Program is set to continue in 2019, aligning with the company’s education production Alice through the Opera Glass.

Malthouse Theatre has just wrapped up a regional tour of Atomic, the 5th Suitcase Series play, by Amelia Chandos Evans. The programme visited Bendigo, Geelong and Wangaratta.

What is an opera without its lush costumes, elaborate sets and foreign lyrics? To students at Yeronga State High School, it is the perfect medium to tell the stories that resonate with them. The inner-south Brisbane school has partnered with Opera Queensland to develop a stripped back opera to spotlight the remarkable stories and vocal abilities of its diverse student body.

Circus Oz recently concluded a fantastic season of SKILLZ, a circus education show and workshop program developed for students in Foundation – Grade 4.

Following the very positive learning, physical and behavioural outcomes of the program’s pilot year at St Marys North Public School throughout 2018, this innovative Foundations program will continue in 2019.

As part of Country Arts SA’s 25th birthday celebrations this month, five local Riverland high school students are receiving intensive musical training from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, as well as the opportunity to play alongside the orchestra this month, thanks to support from the RAA.

Young Wharfies is an engaging and free learning program for Year 11 Drama students (in 2019) who are inspired by the power and creativity of theatre. The group of students selected to be 2019 Young Wharfies will spend a year attending productions, participating in workshops and meeting artists and creatives at STC.

Every year, as part of Musica Viva's ongoing focus on artist development and nurturing the next generation of musicians, the MVA Masterclass Program gives secondary and tertiary students and emerging professional ensembles the opportunity to learn from master musicians touring as part of MVA’s International Concert Season.

On 22-23 October 2018, three Illawarra schools will receive a visit from one of Australia’s leading music education groups thanks to the generous support of Energy Australia.

Small but nimble: that is how one could describe the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, not only in its performances but also in its particularly well developed educational program.

In South Australia, Musica Viva In Schools is spearheading a long-term music residency program in disadvantaged schools thanks to the support of a growing group of local donors, trusts and foundations.

School students in remote areas of Western Australia and the Northern Territory are seldom able to travel to see live performances from highly talented professional musicians, but thanks to generous corporate and philanthropic support, Musica Viva is able to take the music to the students.

​In a joint initiative between the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Credit Suisse, primary school students from low socio-economic areas have been given access to world-class music education.

The benefits of a STEAM-based curriculum are well documented, and so is the need for teachers to be supported by quality arts education with additional specialist resourcing — which is where The Australian Ballet leaps in.

In association with Sydney Dance Company, The McDonald College will launch the inaugural Senior Contemporary Dance Program in 2019. The program is open to students in Years 10 – 12 wishing to develop into creative, forward-thinking contemporary dance artists.

‘…brilliantly magical! It was so engaging and creative, four year olds and 34 year olds alike were enthralled!’ Home School Family.

​At the end of a dusty 30 kilometre driveway in the Northern Territory you can find Tipperary Station School. There are only 6 students, but when Musica Viva’s Gypsy Tober visited in August, they were greeted by students from 5 local schools - one of which had driven over 2 and a half hours to visit!

The ACO recently held it’s ACO Academy program for talented young string players, in Melbourne for the very first time.

For the first time, Sydney Theatre Company is offering a regional scholarship for its acclaimed Work Experience Week program in 2018.

​Sydney Dance Company’s teaching artists are currently on the road as part of the regional tour of Rafael Bonachela’s ab [Intra]. Each year the teaching artist team tours Australia to bring dance to communities and schools in regional areas.

Musica Viva in Schools (MVIS) aim to bring quality music education to as many students in Australia as it can. Last month, the popular band Zeeko transported their catchy vibe to students from Alice Springs to Croker Island thanks to the generous support of the Northern Territory Department of Education and a private donor.

As an organisation focused on music making, music education sits at the heart of the ASO’s mission. In SA, however, music education is complex and perplexing.

At Port Melbourne Primary School, the Hon Martin Foley MP, Victorian Minister for the Creative Industries, launched a newly commissioned production for Opera Australia’s 2018 Victorian Schools Tour, helping mark 21 years since this vital outreach program began.

Professional musicians and outstanding post-graduate students will work side by side in a world-first masters degree program being launched by The University of Western Australia (UWA) and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (WASO).

Clare Watson brings FITTER. FASTER. BETTER. to BSSTC - a unique experiential, intergenerational performance event where our ideas about the body in motion are refocused through the eyes of a child.

In June, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's annual Festival of Learning returns to the Adelaide Town Hall for a week-long celebration of music-making.

West Australian Opera have announced their 2018 secondary student youth ambassadors.

More than 100 teenagers from across Sydney had fun at the theatre, without a teacher in sight.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School has announced the launch of its unique Education Partnership with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, providing students with the extraordinary opportunity to be mentored by, and perform with, some of Australia’s finest musicians.

Sixty-four students from regional New South Wales mentored by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when the orchestra held its annual pop-up music camp Playerlink!

Bell Shakespeare hosted the 2018 recipients of the Regional Teacher Mentorship in Sydney in March.

​Meet the brand new batch of bright and curious minds who are joining the SSO Young Ambassadors program in 2018.

​(Wiradjuri language for hear, think, listen). With the Australian Curriculum determining Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures as one of three priorities across the curriculum and the States curriculum incorporation of more Indigenous content there is high demand for professional learning in this area.

The Diploma of Dance (Elite Performance) and the Advanced Diploma of Dance (Elite Performance) are, from 18 Jan eligible for VET student loans, both with a $10,000 cap.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) continues supporting the next generation of musicians with its award-winning TunED-Up!™ program in 2018.

​Filming is underway in Perth on Don’t Stop the Music, a new three-part landmark documentary series for ABC TV, highlighting the transformative effects of teaching music in primary schools. The series has joint funding from Screen Australia and Screenwest and is backed by Musica Viva and the Salvation Army.

There hasn’t been a locally-based music teacher in the Cunnamulla region for a number of years, but in October music was the focus for many students. Workshops with school students from Cunnamulla, Eulo and Charleville took place in Cunnamulla from 17 to 20 October 2017.

To mark World Teachers’ Day on Thursday 5 October, Queensland Ballet and World Alliance for Arts Education released a joint statement recognising arts educators.

Melbourne Theatre Company is thrilled to announce a new partnership with the Victorian College of the Arts for MTC’s upcoming production of Vivid White by Eddie Perfect.

Musica Viva Australia despatches its well-crafted music education program to Hong Kong schools in October.

Screening at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival to be held in Sydney next month, Kings of Baxter follows the Bell Shakespeare workshop program at the Frank Baxter Juvenile Justice Centre for Boys.

2018 MVA in Schools includes three new shows; Water, Water, Everywhere with music by Grammy-winning composer, Tan Dun; Da Vinci’s Apprentice, which brings out the inventor in us all; and Wyniss, a dynamic group from Müa Island in the Torres Strait.

​MTC launched its 2017 Indigenous Scholarship Program last month with a smoking ceremony conducted by Boon Wurrung Senior Elder Arweet Carolyn Briggs and Jaden Williams at MTC HQ.

Following its successful release in Australia last year, The School Drama Book: Drama, Literature and Literacy in the Creative Classroom by Robyn Ewing and John Nicholas Saunders, is launched this weekend in New York. The event is part of the New York University Forum on Ethnodrama: The Aesthetics of Research and Playmaking, hosted by the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University's Steinhardt School.

What orchestras arguably need most of all these days are skilled, talented and enthusiastic individuals who can bring the experience of orchestral music to young people. Oddly, they tend to be a small and rare bunch. This is because their abilities need to be spread so widely, across education, conducting. composing, and perhaps above all, communication. by Graham Strahle for Music Australia

​Promising young musicians from Western New South Wales will get a glimpse in to the world of a professional symphony orchestra when the SSO takes its prestigious Playerlink program to Orange.

In March more than 4,800 school students witnessed the SSO in action across eight interactive schools concerts held at Parramatta’s Riverside Theatre.

A two-year Master of Music (Orchestral Performance) launched at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music (MCM) when the University of Melbourne Vice-Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis and Chair of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) Board Michael Ullmer signed an official Memorandum of Understanding.

Musica Viva SA targeted Schools Residences in 2017 generating positive impact from first visit.

This case study explores the benefits of long-term dance engagement with St Kilda Primary, an inner city multicultural school in Melbourne who have been working with The Australian Ballet Education over 10 years.

Significant student benefits have been gained through the long term dance engagement between St Kilda Primary, and The Australian Ballet Education team.

Sydney Theatre Company launches The School Drama Book: Drama, Literature and Literacy in the Creative Classroom by Robyn Ewing and John Nicholas Saunders.

Opera Queensland’s Open Stage program creates education and community engagement programs for all ages.

The MPAs deliver on performing arts as an essential element of education.

Musica Viva ensemble Fiddlesticks returns from an extensive tour of Hong Kong.

This week, in the South China city of Guangzhou, an ensemble of 20 SSO musicians held a day of musical workshops and rehearsals with the talented students at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music as part of a program with the City of Sydney.

Tassie Students' composition talents nurtured through university, art gallery and symphony collaboration.

Young audiences in Newcastle, Taree and Port Macquarie get the Sydney Symphony experience.

The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's The Bush Concert schools program is up scaling and going national.

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra builds a free music education program.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra held its sixth annual Education Week – a mini festival of music making activities for the young, and young at heart – at Arts Centre Melbourne, Hamer Hall.

ACO collaborates with Gondwana Indigenous Children's Choir in Cairns.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will take Melbournians on a fun filled adventure introducing the wonderful world of classical music to people of all ages for the annual MSO Education Week, taking place 3-7 May.

Sydney Dance Company launched its DancED program for 2016 this week, showcasing an example of a primary school workshop with students from Bronte Public School, and topped off with a performance from its recent season of Triptych by two Sydney Dance Company dancers, Janessa Dufty and Bernard Knauer.

On Thursday 23 July, students from the Victorian College of the Deaf (VCD) joined music educator and workshop facilitator Karen Kyriakou and British-born practising and profoundly deaf musician Danny Lane for a day of musical exploration with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Applications are now open for Sydney Dance Company’s pre-professional training for 2016. It is open to Australian and New Zealand dancers aged 18 or older, and those who are turning 18 in 2016.

The West Australian Symphony Orchestra understands the importance of supporting and mentoring the next generation of young artists. Its Young & Emerging Artists Program nurtures aspiring performers through unique training opportunities.

Bell Shakespeare Educator, Huw McKinnon, will spend a week with students from Blackwater State High School, as part of a specialised Artist in Residence programme from the 13 July.

In a first for the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Education Week will inspire, delight, inform and challenge audiences and participants across a broad range of musical performances.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 's annual Education Week flagship program is a week-long celebration of music making programs and activities.

Fifteen students from across Victoria were announced as Melbourne Theatre Company’s 2015 Ambassadors.

On Friday 27 February, Opera Australia launched the Cinderella tour at Marrickville West Primary School, before more than 300 children.

Richard Gill OAM starts today as Artistic Advisor of Musica Viva In Schools, having had a long association with the company.

‘The simulcast was a whole new frontier for theatrical experience … we were undaunted as an audience and gripped by the power of ‘almost’ live theatre.’ So said Bundaberg North State High School, Judith Thrupp, following Queensland Theatre Company’s simulcast of Black Diggers to nine venues around the state in October.

The first Bell Shakespeare Schools Festival runs this week in partnership with Canberra Theatre Centre.

The report of the Australian Curriculum review has been released this week. While the report stresses the importance of arts education and the need to support professional development of teachers, it has suggested that only two arts subjects—likely visual arts and music—need be mandatory.

​This week the Sydney Theatre Company is holding its inaugural Work Experience Week, with 20 Year 10 and 11 students from across NSW attending.

Education can take on many hues—and it does in the programs run by the West Australian Opera.

Queensland Ballet has announced it will launch a new Senior Program in 2015, giving talented students the opportunity to pursue intensive ballet training while completing face-to-face senior academic studies in Years 11 and 12.

​Opera Australia has launched a new regional scholarship program for senior secondary students.

Queensland Symphony Orchestra will perform with two young soloists in its Secondary Showcase education concert—It’s a Riot!

This year over 45,000 children in greater Sydney and regional NSW will experience the timeless comedy of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville—and for many it will be their first encounter with opera.

​AMPAG has called for a strong arts component to be retained in the Australian Curriculum, endorsing the five separate subject areas of music, dance, drama, visual arts and media arts.

The 2014 MPA Education Forum was held in Brisbane on 30 June–1 July, and featured keynote speakers: Eric Booth, teacher, actor, arts advocate and Founding Editor of the Teaching Artist Journal, and Professor Julian Meyrick, practitioner, academic and media commentator on matters of cultural policy.

All our 28 member companies make a huge contribution to arts education. In 2015 close to 566,000 school children and teachers attended education activities for schools, of which more than 160,000 were from regional and remote Australia. Education and workshop attendances around Australia, inspired, delighted and extended students’ knowledge and supported teachers ongoing arts teaching practice

The 4Arts Education Festival in Western Australia kicked off this morning, with the four major WA companies coming together under the same roof with two days of free performances and workshops.