AIRS is a Major Collaborative Research Initiative that focuses on singing: theory and applications. Our proposal to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Major Collaborative Research Initiative received approval in December 2008. Participants in the project are shown under the Research Team page. The support of the SSHRC MCRI program is gratefully appreciated.

This Virtual Research Environment was developed primarily for the benefit of the AIRS research team. We are currently working on making this Web site more interesting to the general public. We also hope to be able to provide the results of our research, so that information can be shared.

AIRS Researchers welcome connections at this early stage with others committed to the importance of singing in human development, education, health and well-being. AIRS welcomes contact with individuals or groups having similar interests: Please contact us via our contact page.

Overview of The AIRS Project

This seven-year major collaborative research initiative aims to Advance Interdisciplinary Research in Singing through cooperation of over 70 researchers representing every province in Canada and 15 other countries on 6 continents. Aiming to understand individual, cultural, and universal influences on singing and the influences of singing on individuals and societies, the AIRS researchers will focus on three themes:

1. Development of singing ability;
2. Singing and learning, and
3. Enhancement of health and well-being through singing.

These themes may be regarded respectively as defining what singing behaviours are theoretically possible given mental, physiological, and environmental constraints; what singing behaviours occur in practice, and what are societal implications of singing. Within and across these themes, researchers will share their knowledge and expertise from numerous disciplinary perspectives, including psychology, musicology, music therapy, education, sociology, anthropology, folklore, medicine, and audio and computer engineering. They will share their work audio-visually using a digital library and VRE, the foundations of which are already established at UPEI.

Several common motifs integrate the collaboration: an emphasis on student training opportunities; researcher meetings supported by electronic technology fostering transfer of findings across themes; and an AIRS test battery of singing skills woven through the research themes. The research results will be disseminated through traditional academic means (peer-reviewed journals, books, conferences) and through real world activities and settings (school curricula, homes for seniors, medical interventions, performances). Such dissemination will provide a foundation for decision making in education, health, culture, immigration, and foreign policy.

The Project Director is Dr. Annabel J. Cohen.