Tommy Smith & Scottish National Jazz Orchestra

SNJO website Saturday 12 Sept - Concert Hall, RSAMD, Glasgow 7:30pm

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SCOTTISH NATIONAL JAZZ ORCHESTRA

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play the music of WAYNE SHORTER featuring GARY BURTON directed by Tommy Smith Vibes master Gary Burton joins the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra to pay tribute to another of jazz’s true greats, saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter -

• creative force with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers
• crucial member of Miles Davis’s quintet
• co-leader of fusion masters Weather Report
• enduring inspiration to a world-wide audience.

Featuring Shorter jewels including:-

• Nefertiti, ESP and Virgo Rising
• commissioned arrangements by Mike Gibbs, Joe Locke, Issie Barratt, Florian Ross, Manu Pekar, Michael Abene, Christian Jacob and Geoffrey Keezer

Burton and SNJO present music of extraordinary subtlety, passion and melodic character played by a first rate orchestra of collective skill and solo firepower.

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Teachers! Teaching students! Scottish Learning Festival

Celebrating Excellence in Learning

23-24 September

SECC, Glasgow.

Visit the website here.

Warwick Folk Festival

24-26 July 2009. Visit the website here.

Karen Marshalsay, Scottish clarsach player, releases two new harp books this month:-

• The Clarsach Collection
• First Steps

Find out more!

Scholarly books and journals at risk: responding to the challenges of a changing economy

The Research Information Network (RIN) has published a briefing alerting academics and librarians to the effects of global recession on library budgets. Read it here.

• Curious about what RIN does? Visit their homepage.

Edward Harper, Scottish Composer and Pianist

Edward Harper died on 12 April 2009 aged 68. Conrad Wilson wrote the obituary in The Herald. Michael Tumelty has written an appreciation, also in The Herald today (15 April 2009).

David Johnson, Scottish Composer and Musicologist

The eminent musicologist, David Johnson, died 30 March 2009 aged 66. Read his obituary in The Herald.

Free e-books!

There are over 500,000 free ebooks available as part of the Google Book Search service. Read more

e-dance choreography project

e-Dance: Shaping Internet Choreography. Here is some research which might interest dance students - you can find out more on the Open University website:- "Amidst strong competition, a bid from the Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) has emerged as only one in seven funded in an innovative, joint AHRC+EPRSC+JISC e-Science programme. The two year e-Dance project started in September 2007. Under this project, KMi is working in collaboration with leading choreography researchers at the Universities of Bedfordshire and Leeds, and the national Access Grid Centre at the University of Manchester, to break new ground in the world of digital choreography. The project will provide new opportunities for exploring ways in which dance, the most ephemeral of art forms, might be documented." Want to read the rest of the article? Click on the links above. You can also read about it in the Spring 2009 issue of JISC Inform (Issue 24) which has been catalogued and added to stock at the RSAMD Whittaker Library. A .pdf of the magazine is also available here.

Vitae.ac.uk

http://www.vitae.ac.uk/ Vitae is a portal for researchers. So, if you're engaged in research, you might find useful support here. Do take a look!

Flooding at National Library of Scotland

Update on public access here.

Read The Herald - major flood caused by damage to sprinkler system.

Also more news in the Edinburgh-based The Scotsman

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.