Island Songs: A Global Repertoire - Edited by Godfrey Baldacchino (2011) has just been published by Scarecrow Press, a highly regarded publisher in the field of music and an imprint of the Rowman & LIttlefield Publishing Company.  Godfrey is the co-leader of AIRS Theme 3.1 Singing and Cross-Cultural Understanding, and is a Canada Research Chair in Island Studies at U. P. E. I . Congratulations Godfrey on this extraordinary volume arising from your leadership linking the AIRS initiative and Island Studies.  For more information  and how to order, click the hyperlink above.

Welcome  to AIRS!

Therese Antonini - AIRS Project Manager

Ross Dwyer - AIRS Administrative Assistant

Teleconferences are taking place for each of the 9 AIRS subthemes  Jan 9 to 20.

Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing  (AIRS)

University of Prince Edward Island

December 2011

To AIRS members:

Just 2 ½ years ago AIRS held its first annual meeting at the University of Prince Edward Island. Since then, over 70 researchers in 9 teams have collaborated in research on singing and development, education, and well-being. We have shared our growing knowledge in many different ways over these months-- a highlight being the annual meeting, coast to coast. The second one was in Seattle in conjunction with the International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC), and the third was in St. John’s, Nfld, in conjunction with the Festival 500 Phenomenon of Singing Symposium.

For the AIRS Season Greeting in Song  (click on the hyperlink) Bing-Yi Pan has transmographied 4 human AIRS member voices in gladsome harmony, accompanied by moving images of the participants in the 2011 AIRS Annual Meeting.  Enjoy! (If you would like to add snowflakes to the video, be sure to click on the snowflake at the right of the screen).

After a pilot project in London Ontario, the AIRS  Intergenerational Singing program  ( directed by Professors Rachel Heydon and Carol Beynon, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Education) has had a successful run at a second site -  in Chatham Ontario.  The Co-ordinator of the Seniors home called in the press in recognition of the value of the program for the residents. Congratulations  AIRS 3.2 - on its way to the development of a handbook so that the developing curriculum for IG singing programs can be shared more broadly.

According to Carol Beynon, Associate Vice-Provost, School of Graduate Studies, University of Western Ontario  "Both the residents and children are so disappointed that the program has come to an end, and I am hopeful that it will continue on a monthly basis. We learned a great deal through the process and have just completed the interviews.

Sincere thanks to graduate student assistants Joelle Nagle Crestan and Jen Hutchison who contributed so much to this part of AIRS 3.2"