Maeve MacKinnon reviewed by Rob Adams

Maeve MacKinnon, RSAMD alumna, performed at Leith Folk Club and has been reviewed by Rob Adams in The Herald. Read it here.

British Music Information Centre

Particularly useful if you compose or perform contemporary music - the British Music Information Centre.

Composers - lots of opportunities for you!

• Alea III International Prize - Work for solo voice or instrument or chamber ensemble. Duration: 6'-15', and must not have been performed or published before. Deadline 15 March 2009
• String Quartet Competition - invitation from the Molinari Quartet (Canada) for composers to submit an original work. Best compositions to be performed in Montreal, Spring 2010. Email the Molinari Quartet for more info: qm@quartuormolinari.qc.ca. Deadline 1 April 2009
• International Gaudeamus Composition Competition 2009. Born after 1978? You can submit one work in each of the following categories:- orchestral, chamber, and electronic. Visit website or email musicweek@mcn.nl.
• Fifth International Jurgenson Competition for young composers. Born after 1979? Submit published/ unpublished works in the following categories:- soloist ensembles, voice and soloists, string quartet, string trio, marimba/ percussion ensemble. Visit website. Deadline 15th February - hurry, hurry, hurry!!!

Berklee in Dublin - improvising workshop

Berklee College of Music is holding its first-ever improvisation workshop in Ireland, April 13 - 17, at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in collaboration with Newpark Music Centre.

The workshop is designed to teach the art of spontaneous composition - fundamental skills and techniques, stylistic considerations, and how it relates to a composer's craft. Participants will study with Berklee's world renowned faculty, including violinist Matt Glaser, guitarists John McGann and Jim Kelly, bassist Michael Farquharson, and saxophonist Greg Badolato.

All types of musicians, from classical and Irish traditional to rock, pop, and jazz, are encouraged to apply.

Application and program information - click here.

Reseach Libraries - best practice

Ensuring a bright future for research libraries: a guide for vice-chancellors and senior institutional managers New publication from the Research Information Network (Nov.2008) - a hard copy is in the Whittaker Library at RSAMD. RIN website

Research Information Network helping researchers

The Research Information Network is currently running a survey, asking researchers about how easily they can access the resources they need. Do complete the survey - helping their survey will ultimately help you! To quote from their website, Accessing information resources: What obstacles do you face? RIN has launched an online survey to investigate some of the obstacles researchers face when accessing licensed information resources, and how these obstacles can be overcome. The survey is part of a study, commissioned by the RIN, to understand the nature and scale of limitations and barriers encountered by researchers when seeking to access such resources. The survey is hoping to reach as many researchers as possible, across a range of disciplines. The results will provide vital insight into these issues and how they may be resolved going forwards. You can access the survey here from 12 January - 20 February 2009.

Cambridge Early Music Summer Schools 2009 RSAMD has just received notification of this year's courses. Visit the website here.

"In 2009 we are offering two week-long courses. Tuition and accommodation will be in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge."

Happiness Days

Did you know today (19th January) is officially Blue Monday? Well, if you're a Higher Education user or developer of software, help is at hand. Introducing JISC Developer Happiness Days. Here's what JISC says about it:-

Are you: A software developer? A higher education software user? Looking to develop your coding skills? Interested in community collaboration? Want to make new contacts?

Then the JISC Developer Happiness Days event is for you. We're bringing together the cream of the crop of software developers in Higher Education along with coders from other sectors, users, and technological tinkerers in an exciting new forum.

The event is taking place in London on February 9th-13th. The event is modular so delegates can attend as many or as few days as are relevant to them. Full details of the event can be found at: http://www.dev8d.org.

Effective practice with e-Portfolios

Very useful publication from JISC, now in RSAMD Library:- Effective Practice with e-Portfolios: supporting 21st century learning. The Music Librarian has ordered further copies which will be given to registered staff or students on request. Impatient to get your hands on a copy? You can read a pdf or text copy online, or order your own print copy here.

Shetland Fiddle Frenzy 3-9 August 2009

Advertised as 'The Shetland fiddle school with a difference' - visit the Fiddle Frenzy website here.

Music-making at Benslow

Benslow is music at its best. (It also lends superb instruments to budding musicians.) To find out about their short courses, concerts and events this year, visit the Benslow Music Trust website.

Events at the National Library of Scotland

• Zig-zag - an exhibition based on Robert Burns' tours of Scotland.

This is Burns' 250th anniversary and Scotland's Year of Homecoming. The exhibition is well-worth visiting.

Plenty of things going on - visit the website to find out more!

Lake District Summer Music

We've just received our first notification of summer music courses this year. The International Festival & Summer Music Academy in the Lake District offers courses in:-

• Ensembles (3-15 August 2009)
• Piano (3-15 August)
• Violin (3-15 August)
• Viola (3-15 August)
• Cello (3-15 August)
• Double Bass (3-10 August)
• Voice (7-15 August)

Visit the website

Scots Trad Awards

GREENTRAX RECORDINGS PRESS RELEASE (6th December 2008) The Scots Trad Awards of 2008 was this year recorded for TV transmission on MG Alba/BBC Alba. Artistes involved with Greentrax Recordings again picked up some of the premier awards:

• MARGARET STEWART -Gaelic Singer of the year "Togaidh Mi Mo Sheolta" CDTRAX 311
• JEANA LESLIE AND SIOBHAN MILLER - Up and coming Artist of the Year
• THE SCOTTISH POWER PIPE BAND - Scottish Pipe Band of the Year
• THE PEATBOG FAERIES - Live Act of the Year

For further information please contact Ian Green - iangtrax@aol.com Tel. 01875 815888 or Cath Mack - cath@greentrax.com Tel 01875 814155

Soundsgood - project about giving audio feedback

Another one for teachers, here. A lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University has been leading a project about giving audio feedback via the university's VLN (Virtual Learning Network). It has apparently been a popular development with students. Sounds interesting? Visit Bob Rotheram's SoundsGood blog. (http://soundsgooduk.blogspot.com/)

Teacher Training Videos

Tips and tricks for using Word, Flickr, setting up a blog - and much more - at this award-winning website by Russell Stannard, a lecturer at Westminster University. http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ Well-worth a visit for anyone wanting just a few hints about using new electronic media.

Social networking - can you ignore it?

When the sensible and forward-thinking people at JISC start talking about the value of social networking software, then you can't dig your head in the sand any longer. Do you know your Bebo from your MySpace from your Facebook? (Have you found your own music librarian on MySpace, come to that?) JISC has dedicated part of their website to an examination of how institutions can engage with social networking software. Visit it here.

ETHOS - Electronic Theses Online

In brief - accessing British doctoral theses online is currently 'clunky' and cumbersome. The ETHOS project hopes to change all that. Their Beta (trial) website goes live on Tuesday 9th December. There's already plenty of background info at http://www.ethos.ac.uk/001_EThOSnet_Home.html

Here's what they say:-

EThOS Update: We are pleased to announce that on Tuesday 9 December we will be launching a beta phase for EThOS which will mean the system going live. Welcome to the Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) toolkit - the companion to the forthcoming EThOS Service.

• Using this toolkit will enable your institution to work in partnership with other Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and the British Library to ensure a high level of national and international visibility for UK postgraduate theses and dissertations.
• EThOS aims to enable end-users to access the full text of electronically stored UK theses, in secure format, via a single Web interface.
• The toolkit shows how theses produced by students at your institution can be accessed, via EThOS, from the British Library or from your institutional (or consortium) repository.

Effective practice with e-portfolios

The way ahead! Copies of this JISC-funded report are on order for the Whittaker Library, and will be available within the next couple of weeks.

Musica Scotica 2009 call for conference papers

Musica Scotica 2009 will take place on Saturday 25th April 2009 from 10am - 6pm in the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow.* At previous meetings papers have been given on a wide variety of topics, ranging from chant to James MacMillan, and fiddle manuscripts to bagpipe music. We look forward to another successful day, bringing together researchers working in different areas of Scottish music. Abstracts of no more than 250 words are invited for 20 minute papers. They should be sent to Professor Graham Hair (conference2009@musicascotica.org.uk) as soon as possible and no later than 28 February 2009. All general enquiries should be sent to Jane Mallinson, at this e-mail address: MusicaScotica2008 'at' yahoo.co.uk (yes MusicaScotica2008 is correct!). Please feel free to forward this announcement to anyone who may be interested.

Musica Scotica Mailing List (if you'd like to be advised about new publications and events) - http://www.musicascotica.org.uk/contact.htm