West Virginia University has teamed up with three other universities, including two in Brazil, to establish an international music education project that will celebrate diverse cultural traditions in both North and South America.
The projectcalled Music Alive!will give students and faculty in WVU s Division of Music at the College of Creative Arts opportunities to travel to Brazil where they can collaborate internationally with other musicians and educators. Students will have the opportunity to study abroad in northeast or southeast Brazil for one semester and earn at least 12 credit hours.
The Brazilian partners are the Federal University of Esprito Santo in Vitoria and the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife. East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., is the other North American partner.
Music Alive! will be a valuable addition to WVU s World Music Program, said David Bess, chair of the Division of Music.
I feel very positive about the project,Bess said.This will greatly expand our World Music Program. The music of Brazil has influenced music throughout the world. Helping our students to obtain a better understanding of world music will help boost their knowledge, experience and skillsand help them to be more successful in their careers.
Funding for Music Alive! is provided by a $201,000 grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). The grant was awarded in July through the United States-Brazil Higher Education Consortia Program of the U.S. Department of Education. WVU was among only 11 universities in the United States chosen for the grant in 2006.
The project will run through 2010 and will integrate music education, performing arts, language training and cultural learning activities. It combines traditional student study abroad and faculty residencies with the development of an online virtual studio. Music students and faculty at WVU will contribute to the virtual studio to enhance the curriculum. Faculty will produce a cluster of music credit courses, including a customized music and language program and a Web portal to serve as an archival record of student and faculty performances, blogs, course syllabi and interactive virtual media.
Student musicians will improve professionally, by earning course credit toward a degree and expanding their portfolios in a cultural immersion experience, Bess noted.
Music professors Janet Robbins and Paul Scea will serve as faculty team leaders for the project and are currently working to develop music courses. The courses will be offered through WVU s Extended Learning beginning in spring 2008. Officials anticipate sending at least two WVU students to Brazil during the spring 2008 semester. Brazilian students will begin coming to the United States beginning in July/August 2007.
The Music Alive! study abroad experience will include four to six weeks of continued language training in Brazil. During the study abroad semester, students will also be enrolled in music courses, including performance, education, theory, ethnomusicology and musical therapy. Students will be given opportunities for independent study as part of a cultural immersion through participation in concerts, festivals and community music performances.
Music students at WVU interested in studying in Brazil during 2008 will begin preparing this year. Students must complete at least a semester of prerequisite language and cultural preparation before they will be approved to go to Brazil for Music Alive!
The Division of Music has worked with Sandra Dixon, a professor in WVU s Department of Foreign Languages, to establish an intensive Portuguese language training course to give students the basics of the language. While directly benefiting Music Alive! students, the language course will also be open to all students at WVU , as well as anyone in the community.
For music students preparing to go to Brazil, the course will help them learn how to talk about music in Portuguese and further develop musical vocabulary,Dixon said.
The two-credit hour coursetitled Portuguese 493 Brazil Language and Culturewill be offered in fall 2007. The course, which will be supplemented by tutoring and self-paced study, will be taught one day a week by Livia Lirio, who was born and raised in Brazil.
This (Music Alive! project) is a really good example of interdepartmental collaboration at WVU ,said George Lies, OIP senior program coordinator, who worked with OIP director Daniel Weiner and other staff members to obtain funding.Were working with exceptional music and language faculty. The faculty involved will make this a very vibrant program for WVU .
The project will greatly enrich studentseducational experiences, Lies added.
Brazil is rich with culture, music, food and tradition,he said.There are many amazing things students will learn by going there. Im real happy with the way this has worked out.
This is the fourth FIPSE grant awarded to WVU between 1999 and 2006 and the second FIPSE project administered by the Office of International Programs. For more information, contact Lies at 304-293-6955, ext. 4.