Music Jamboree 2009

This year’s jamboree teachers came from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Except for a few returning teachers, the rest were first-timers at the event. The clinicians were Mr. Wilson Quah, Mr. Seng Tak Pin and Ms. Lucy L.

As always, the 4-day jamboree was held during the school term break and began on the 25 August 2009 where the teachers studied and explored innovative approaches to teaching music to young beginners in a group class.

After two days of studying and preparing, all the teachers were brought to a school over the remaining next two days where close to 300 young students were eagerly awaiting their first experience in music learning and music making. The teachers quickly set about to take charge of their respective classes and begin the program.

The program at the school finished by midday and then it was back to the jamboree venue for reviews, discussions, etc about that morning’s activities and to prepare for the next day’s activities.

The results of the jamboree program with students concluded with performances by all the teachers and students on the final day of the jamboree. The performances reflected the various activities that were carried out at the school that included lyric writing and singing, music and movement, and percussion ensemble performances.

A visit to the Music Department of the School of Arts at USM (University Sains Malaysia) was also organized for to promote one of the country’s top tertiary institutions. Two faculty members of the USM music department, namely Cik Fatin and Dr. Jason Tye graciously conducted a presentation during the visit. While Cik Fatin’s presentation focused on promoting USM’s music programs and their illustrious faculty members, Dr. Jason’s talk was on a presentation he recently did in Italy about the comparisons of music education in this part of the world as compared to others.

Again for this year, the jamboree and all the teachers were put up at a hotel downtown in the UNESCO listed historical enclave where we hope the teachers can get better acquainted with Penang by exploring the surrounding area.

• Reflections of the Music Jamboree '09