Beijing choir kids to get Vienna teachers
- By Chen Boyuan
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 9, 2016
Children interested in choir singing in Beijing will have the chance to receive Vienna-style musical education starting in September, following a bilateral cooperation project for musical education established on May 5, 2016 at the Austrian Embassy in Beijing, China.
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Choristers of the VBC Choir Friends Choir sing at the inauguration ceremony of the Austrian-Chinese Research Project of Music Education at the Austrian embassy in Beijing on May 5, 2016. [Photo by Chen Boyuan / China.org.cn] |
The Austrian-Chinese Research Project of Music Education plans to establish an experimental class of the Vienna Boys' Choir music pedagogy, with children of both genders being eligible for enrollment.
The Vienna Boys' Choir has a history of more than 500 years and enjoys high esteem across the world. The five centuries' deposit of experience and knowledge in training choir boys, from kindergarten through to middle school, are the foundation of the choir's success.
The choir's cooperation with China will feature the music teaching method established by Prof. Gerald Wirth, president and art director of the Vienna Boys' Choir; he was also a Vienna boy chorister. The approach has been recognized by the Austrian government and been promoted worldwide.
Wirth will co-chair the Austrian-Chinese Research Project of Musical Education, together with Prof. Yang Limei from the prestigious Beijing Normal University. The teaching and research team will consist of music educators from both countries, according to the Austrian embassy in Beijing.
At the project's inauguration ceremony, Wirth said that the cooperation "starts something important, also to the Vienna Boys' Choir." With this new cooperation project, the Vienna choir can also make further improvements.
He said that although it has toured around the world for many years, the choir only started to emphasize the improvement of educational methods, pedagogy and research 10 years ago, focusing "mainly on how we can improve the pedagogues."
"It's great that we can have a tradition to build on, but a tradition is only positive when it can be built on, rather than something that stays the same," said Wirth.
Calling it "a new chapter of Austria-China music education cooperation," Arnold Obermayr, the cultural counselor for the Austrian embassy, said the project will be dedicated to bridging the musical education of the two countries, which in turn, will strengthen the ties between the two peoples through music.
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