The Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) was established in 1967. Its establishment followed discussions between nationwide representatives after the successful UNESCO Conference on Music Education held in Sydney in July 1965.
The purpose of ASME is to encourage and advance music education at all levels as an integral part of general education and community life, and as a profession within the broad field of music.
The Aims of ASME are:
- to support the right of every person in Australia to access a quality music education
- to promote continuous, sequential and developmental music education experiences
- to foster the development and extension of professional knowledge and skills in music education
- to seek to improve the status of music education in all learning contexts
- to provide opportunities for the exchange of ideas and research
- to encourage Australian music and composers
- to promote the rich diversity of musical traditions within Australia
- to encourage the use of emerging technologies in music education
- to recognise and encourages innovative pedagogies in music education.
The ASME Strategic Plan (2021-24) can be found here.
ASME’s aims are implemented by such means as:
- publishing The Australian Journal of Music Education, ASME Update, Chapter Newsletters and Journals, reports of ASME conferences and other relevant publications
- organising conferences, lectures, seminars and workshops at both national and Chapter levels
- encouraging increased involvement in music and music education by ASME members and students
- establishing and promoting liaison between music educators at all levels – within each Chapter, across Chapters, and in other countries
- co-operating with all music organisations, with other official bodies representing other fields of education, and with those responsible for administration at all levels of education throughout the nation.
ASME is Australia’s only affiliate organisation of the International Society for Music Education (ISME), which exists under the auspices of UNESCO’s Music Council. ASME also represents music education on the National Advocates for Arts Education (NAAE).
As an Australia-wide organisation, ASME operates under a National Executive and representative National Council who work through Chapters in Australia’s States and Territories in accordance with the Constitution.
At the State and Territory levels, ASME is represented by Chapter Councils which include the positions of Chapter Chair, Secretary and Treasurer, as well as non-office bearing Chapter Council members. All ASME personnel work in an honorary capacity.
At the National and Chapter levels, ASME represents music education in its broadest sense.
ASME national Facebook page: Here is the link to the ASME national Facebook page. Or search for: australian society for music education (asme)
Make a donation to ASME
On June 29, 2022, the Australian Society for Music Education Incorporated was registered with the Australian Charities and Non-for-profits Commission.
If you wish to make a donation to ASME please refer to details here.
Donations to ASME’s Trust Fund will be used for activities with the following objectives:
- the encouragement of young Australians in the fields of performance and composition;
- the sponsoring of the development of young music educators;
- the housing of resource material and provision of professional development activities for music educators
ASME Patrons
There are currently two Patrons of ASME
Dr Andrew Ford
They are Dr Andrew Ford who has been a significant contributor and supporter of music and music education around Australia for many years. As a presenter, composer and advocate, ASME is thrilled that he is one of our long standing supporters and a patron of ASME. More information is available here .
Ford was a recipient of the Peggy Glanville-Hicks fellowship (1998–2000), and during this period, he began work on The Waltz Book, to a commission from the pianist Ian Munro. Recent works include Blitz (2011), for orchestra and recorded voices, premiered in Hobart by the Tasmania Symphony Orchestra under Marko Letonja, String Quartet No 5 performed nine times in 2013 by the Australian String Quartet, and the song cycle Last Words, commissioned by the soprano Jane Sheldon and first performed by her with the Seraphim Trio at the 2013 Port Fairy Spring Festival.
Last Words was named Vocal Work of the Year at the 2014 Australian Art Music Awards. Ford’s other prizes include the Yorkshire Arts Composers Award, which he won jointly with Mark-Anthony Turnage in 1982 (for Portraits), the Sydney Spring Festival award in 1998 (forTattoo) and the 2002 Jean Bogan Prize (for The Waltz Book). In 2004, Learning to Howl received both the AMC award for the best composition by an Australian composer and the prestigious Paul Lowin Song Cycle Prize; Tales of the Supernatural was named APRA vocal work of the year in 2005; Ford’s opera, Rembrandt’s Wife, to a libretto by Sue Smith, won a 2010 Victorian Green Room Award; and Rauha, for wind, brass, percussion, keyboards and double basses, won the 2012 Albert H. Maggs Award.
Ford has also won prizes for his writing about music, notably the Geraldine Pascall Prize for critical writing in 1998. He has published eightbooks, most recently Earth Dances: music in search of the primitive (2015), and has written and presented four acclaimed radio series, Illegal Harmonies (1997), Dots on the Landscape – an oral history of Australian music (2001), Music and Fashion (2005) and The Sound of Pictures(2007–10).
Lorraine Milne
Lorraine Milne has had a long association with music and music education across a variety of different settings and genres.
She has had extensive experience in the theatre as both a composer and stage manager. A founding member of the APG (Pram Factory) and Melbourne Writers Theatre, she has also worked at Playbox, La Mama, The Church, Organ Factory, VCA Drama School, Theatreworks, Athenaeum, Universal Theatre, Handspan, Polyglot, Perth, Flinders and Deakin Universities, Rusden Drama Department.
Milne has worked in the Artist in Schools program (song writing workshops), taught on the Experimental Teaching Program established by Max Cooke at the Faculty of Music (Melbourne University), produced an album of Australian folk songs with Denis Gibbons, toured with the Victorian Arts Council, been commissioned as a composer/lyricist by both the Yamaha Foundation and AMEB and played keyboard in various function bands.
Over the past decade or so Milne has been writing curriculum materials and presenting Professional Development courses for Musica Viva In Schools, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Opera House, Oz Opera and most recently the National Gallery of Victoria.
More information can be found here and also her more recently acclimed work Maiden Voyage and other recordings are found at this site. ASME is honoured to have her as a patron for music education.
Research
Bibliography of Australian Music Education Research (BAMER)
Visit the BAMER website – http://music-ed.net/bamer/ or http://musicinaustralia.org.au/index.php?title=BAMER:_Bibliography_of_Australian_Music_Education_Research
ASME NATIONAL CONFERENCES
(A list of all previous ASME conferences are listed below)
I Brisbane 1969 Music in General Education
II Adelaide 1971 New Perspectives in Music Education
III Canberra 1977 Music Education in the Community
IV Melbourne 1981 Growing with Music
V Sydney 1984 The Future of Music Education in Australia
VI Adelaide 1986 Australia Makes Music: Action for a Changing Society
VII Alice Springs 1990 Let’s Get to the Heart of the Nation
VIII Melbourne 1991 Reaching In – Reaching Out
IX Perth 1993 Music on the Edge – Desert to Surf
X Hobart 1995 Honing the Craft: Improving the Quality of Music Education
XI Brisbane 1997 New Sounds for a New Century
XII Sydney 1999 Open the Umbrella: An Encompassing View of Education
XIII Adelaide 2001 A Musical Odyssey: A Journey of Discovery in Music Education
XIV Darwin 2003 Over the Top
XV Melbourne 2005 A Celebration of Voices
XVI Perth 2007 Celebrating Musical Communities
XVII Launceston 2009 Musical Understanding
XVIII Gold Coast 2011 Making Sound Waves
XIX Canberra 2013 Redefining the Musical Landscape: Inspired Learning and Innovation in Music Education
XX Adelaide 2015 Music: Educating for Life
XXI Melbourne 2017 Uniting Voices
XXII Perth 2019 Footprints – Creating Pathways to the Future
XXIII Hobart 2021 Online – Music: Nourish Life