Socio-musical connections and teacher identity development in a university methods course and community youth symphony partnership

In this article we describe the experiences of nine preservice music teachers enrolled in the first semester of a newly designed instrumental methods course in which a traditional lecture format was replaced with experiential, student-driven, service-oriented activities. Students were entrusted with organizing and directing a community youth symphony, including sharing of teaching and all administrative responsibilities (e.g., recruiting, fundraising, repertoire selection, community outreach). While the first author was the professor and designer of the course, the second author acted as an outside observer, collecting data through rehearsal observations, student interviews, and study of course artifacts. Findings suggest that students benefitted from opportunities to observe and collaborate with the professor and classmates in real-world teaching settings. Furthermore, students demonstrated evidence of growth and maturation over the course of the semester in teaching skills, professional identity, and socio-musical connections. The article closes with a description of how student recommendations for course improvement were implemented in subsequent semesters

Building ArtsSmarts' Research Capacity: An Interim Report

In 2006, the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) created an initiative to build Canada's capacity to conduct research on learning, inviting not-for profit organizations to apply for Researcher in Residence grants. ArtsSmarts was one of the successful grant applicant organizations. Saad Chahine was hired by ArtsSmarts to take on the researcher-in-residence role. Several meetings resulted in the development of a work plan (Appendix A) and an outline of the various activities to be carried out by the researcher-in-residence. The work plan was approved by CCL, and the residency commenced in June 2007. What follows is an interim report on the residency, documenting what has been accomplished since June 2007, and providing direction for continuing to build ArtsSmarts' research capacity going forward

An architecture for life-long user modelling

In this paper, we propose a united architecture for the creation of life-long user profiles. Our architecture combines different steps required for a user prole, including feature extraction and representation, reasoning, recommendation and presentation. We discuss various issues that arise in the context of life-long profiling

DataHub: Collaborative Data Science & Dataset Version Management at Scale

Relational databases have limited support for data collaboration, where teams collaboratively curate and analyze large datasets. Inspired by software version control systems like git, we propose (a) a dataset version control system, giving users the ability to create, branch, merge, difference and search large, divergent collections of datasets, and (b) a platform, DataHub, that gives users the ability to perform collaborative data analysis building on this version control system. We outline the challenges in providing dataset version control at scale.Comment: 7 page

Empathic social enterprise: the role of empathy and shared intentionality

Research conducted with the UKs first professional symphony orchestra cooperative provides evidence and insight into how empathy and shared intentionality impacted upon their cooperative governance. Individual semi-structured interviews, conducted with 36 of the orchestral musicians, were analysed and four themes emerged from the data, which were interpreted as: ‘empathy’, ‘shared intentionality’, ‘provide and preserve’, and ‘cooperative governance’. Findings of the research indicate that performing arts groups such as symphony orchestras can be social enterprises. The paper examines the relationship between empathy and social enterprise. Empathy is presented as a multidimensional moral and psychological concept. New concepts of ‘external’ and ‘internal’ empathy are also proposed in relation to social enterprises and their beneficiaries. Empathy and social enterprise leadership is explored and implications for business leadership education are discussed. Finally, a new model for the definition of a social enterprise based upon the intersection of high-levels of innovation and entrepreneurship and empathy and shared intentionality is presented

Best Practices in Disaster Grantmaking: Lessons From the Gulf Coast

Summarizes NYRAG members' response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, highlights innovative grantmaking, and outlines best practices, practices to avoid, and strategies for promoting the recovery, transformation, and revitalization of the Gulf Coast

The digitization of music and the accessibility of the artist

©Journal of Professional Communication, ISSN: 1920-685. All rights reservedThis article uses case studies to explore two ways in which technology can impact on artist production. First, technological innovations could facilitate many things that are not new by rather making existing processes better or cheaper in ways that might alter the situation meaningfully. Second, technology can change art through the more profound revision of the role of artist and art-perceiver (Fineberg, 2006). This article examines several examples of how the music industry has been impacted by new technology: Radiohead Rainbows, slicethepie.com, Ditto Music, Music Rainbow, YouTube Orchestra, micro-chunking and LiveFi. The article examines the impact of new technologies on classical music.Peer reviewe

Culture Is Our Common Wealth: An Action Agenda to Enhance Revenues and Resources for Massachusetts Cultural Organizations

Looks at current support provided by the state of Massachusetts to arts and cultural organizations, and recommends ongoing advocacy to encourage additional support -- specifically, increased investment in existing and new cultural facilities