From the Conference Organising Committee

The Conference Organising Committee is delighted to invite you to attend the 2009 ASME XVII National Conference – ‘Musical Understanding’ - to be held in the beautiful state of Tasmania. The National Conference was last held in Tasmania in 1995 with ASME X in Hobart, and 2009 offers participants the beautiful northern venue of Launceston as a backdrop for this important biennial event. Following the success of the ASME XVI 40th Anniversary conference – Celebrating Musical Communities – held in Perth in 2007, ASME XVII seeks to provide music educators with a stimulating, joyous and collegial conference experience for all.

The Committee has been successful in attracting four of the most highly regarded and internationally esteemed music educators to this event, and to this end we commend to you the four keynote speakers for 2009: Professor Jackie Wiggins, Professor Craig Kirchhoff, Professor Margaret Barrett and Professor Susan Hallam (see page three). Each of these speakers will reflect upon different aspects of the theme of Musical Understanding from within their own areas of expertise and thus contribute to the depth of the discussion surrounding musical understanding and what this means for all music educators.

The Conference is open to school instrumental and classroom music teachers, private music teachers, tertiary educators and academics, community-based musicians, choir and instrumental ensemble directors and their members, music therapists, composers, performers, and students. As we have come to expect from ASME National Conferences ASME XVII will feature high quality performances by a variety of local and interstate performing groups in addition to workshops, posters and papers within the theme of Musical Understanding presented by music educators from Tasmania and throughout the nation.

ASME XVII will also feature the ASME Young Composers project and Composer-in-Residence project, and we are delighted to welcome Karlin Greenstreet Love as Composer-in Residence. These two programs will feature the work of young composers from throughout Australia in the workshopping and presentation of their original works for Concert Band. The featured ensemble for the performance of the works of the 2009 Young Composers will be the highly regarded University of Tasmania Community Music Programme Wind Orchestra under the direction of Mr Stephen King.

We strongly encourage ASME XVII registrants to take advantage of the Conference to see some of our magnificent state, to sample some of the vast array of fine wine and food that is such a feature of Tasmanian life, and perhaps to visit one of our natural wonders such as Cradle Mountain or Wineglass Bay. We do hope that you join us in our beautiful state for what promises to be a memorable experience.