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Register now for Con Tutti: A Music Education and Autism Seminar taking place this December in Sligo

2016 Blog MG Sligo Con Tutti 560x370
Music Generation Sligo and St Angela’s College Sligo have announced details of a forthcoming seminar, Con Tutti: Music Education and Autism which will take place on Friday 2nd and Saturday 3rd December 2016. The seminar, which is free of charge to attend, will take place at St Angela’s College, Lough Gill, Sligo. Registration is now open by email: MusicGenerationSligo@msletb.ie. The schedule for the event is below.

Con Tutti is a Music Generation National Partnership Project, providing a Professional Learning Network for Inclusive Music Education.

In 2015 Music Generation Sligo and the Centre for Special Education Needs Inclusion and Diversity (CSENID) at St Angela’s College initiated an innovative Research, Training and Programming Partnership. The Partnership focused on the delivery of music programmes to children and young people with special educational needs, focusing initially on autism.

This seminar will reflect the work to date, inviting national and international educators and musicians to share and reflect on their work in the area of special educational needs.

Rhona McGrath, Co-ordinator of Music Generation Sligo together with Ailbhe O Halloran and Fiona Jennings, Lecturers/Researchers in the Centre at St Angela’s College explained that this has been a strategic response to local demand in an important area of inclusive music education. “We are delighted to combine the work of practitioners in special educational needs and in music education to explore and expand the possibilities for music education for children and young people and their educators.”

Ailbhe O Halloran and Fiona Jennings, together with Eugene Toolan, Head of the Education Department at St Angela’s College, were delighted to respond to the approach from Music Generation as an opportunity to explore music in the area of special educational needs. “Academic staff within CSENID are dedicated to conducting and highlighting research which contributes to a greater understanding of some of the key educational challenges that face professionals, parents, young people, children and educational policy-makers particularly in the area of SEN.”

Keynote speakers at the Seminar will be Professor Adam Ockelford and Pianist Derek Paravicini from the UK.

A composer, researcher, author and music teacher, Adam Ockelford is currently Professor of Music at Roehampton University, where his research interests are in music psychology, education, theory and aesthetics –particularly special educational needs and the development of exceptional abilities. Derek Paravicini is many things: an incredible piano player, a blind man, an excited talker, a musical savant, and a 30-something year-old with severe autism. Together with his teacher, Adam Ockelford, we will get a fascinating glimpse at how he understands music.

The event will include the launch of two publications on music education and autism – a research report by CSENID and a resource book and CD by Music Generation Sligo.

Delegates can also look forward to an informal evening of dinner and music by Music Generation Sligo musician educators at The Model Sligo. Tickets for dinner and the concert cost €20.

Event Information
Con Tutti: Music Education and Autism Seminar
Friday 2 - Saturday 3 December, 2016
Áras Michael, St Angela’s College, Lough Gill, Sligo

Concert performance and dinner
Friday 2 December, 6.30pm
The Model Sligo
Tickets €20

SCHEDULE
Friday 2 December
1.00pm: Registration
2.00pm: Keynote, Derek Paravicini and Prof Adam Ockelford
3.30pm: Performance by Summerhill College Sligo students
3.45pm: Fiona Jennings, CSENID, St Angela’s College
A transformative model to training music tutors to work with pupils with autism
4.15pm: Roisin Egan and Giulia Tesoriero, Music Generation Sligo Musician-Educators
Including children with autism in music programmes - a practical demonstration
5.00pm: Launch of Research Report and Resource Pack, ‘Con Tutti: Music Education & Autism’
6.30pm: Dinner and Music at The Model, Sligo

Saturday 3 December
10.00am: Mary McKenna, Scoil Mhuire Pre-School for Children with Autism, Ballyboden, Dublin
Using music to enhance social and communication skills in very young children with autism
11.00am: Ailbhe O Halloran, CSENID, St Angela’s College
The benefits and challenges of teaching music to students with autism
12.00pm: Rhona McGrath, Music Generation Sligo Co-ordinator
Film Documentary of Music Generation Sligo Con Tutti Programmes
12.30pm: Music Generation Professional Learning Network, lunch and networking

For more information about this and other programmes and initiatives at Music Generation Sligo contact:

Rhona McGrath, Coordinator / Emma Smith, Administrator
Music Generation Sligo, Mayo, Sligo & Leitrim Education and Training Board, Quay Street, Sligo

T: 071 9138306
E: MusicGenerationSligo@msletb.ie
musicgenerationsligo.com