ISME National Affiliate
To all visitors of this site
If you have chosen to visit this site, then interests of music education are not foreign to you. By exploring corresponding sections, you can read about us, who we are and what we do (our intentions). In this introduction, we would like to explain and specify who we invite to join us: everyone who is connected to music and music education in any way. Your interests can concern performance of music or training, application of computer technologies or composition of music in the old manner, music therapy or jazz, academic music, pop-rock. You can be a teacher or a student, the head of musical collective or a researcher, you can be a professor or give private lessons, you might study in an official institution or perhaps you are "the educated layman", you can live in Russia or in any other country - everyone is welcome!
The only mandatory condition of membership is fluency in Russian. This condition is not meant to be imperial in manner nor is it discriminatory. For example, for the ISME organization the official language is English. If one does not know English even at a level of reading a report from a translated text and being able to coherently answer the questions of an English-speaking audience, then it can be difficult to participate in ISME. If you can read our Russian text, then it is unimportant what kind of the accent you have and whether you can correspond in Russian - we shall be glad to assist you as we can. If it is more convenient for you to write in English - you may send us your letters in English, we will be able to understand them. However, if you want to join our organization, you have to be ready that we shall answer all correspondence in Russian as it is more convenient for us. The fact that we have chosen Russian as a language of national dialogue is natural since our organization is Russian. And your readiness to understand Russian tells us that you, most likely, belong to the same musical-pedagogical tradition, as we. The style of music education and the attitude towards music education were similar to all areas of former Russian empire, and then also the Soviet empire, and to some extent also on geographical space of the former socialist camp. And, basically, it was not a bad style. All of this is still alive, though it starts to collapse under the influence of that which only looks progressive. There are many remarkable things in the West, including ideas and philosophies of music education, but we on the other hand own something, that is not present there. Today many of our western colleagues are ready to address, and already are addressing, this important element: our experience. And our concern is to gather of all who are ready to share and promote this experience.
Such a wide spectrum should not
make us the organization with the undetermined program. An understanding of
Russian will be the sufficient test for a certain "musical-pedagogical
mentality". However, there are several reasons for an English page on
our site. First, we want our colleagues from all over the world to know who we
are. The English language is intended here for dialogue with those non-members
of our association who do not know Russian. Secondly, we carry out international
events, as well as international publishing projects, and we also represent
an international organization in Russia. We participate in the organization of
the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and we are hopeful of that
our activity will find reflection at forums of this organization and in its
publications. At the same time, we enter into ISME with "our very own
face". Our English page is only a passing on what we are engaged in. We
invite the following people to take part in our organization: the citizens of
Russia and former Soviet republics, the citizens of the East Europe who do not
have "post-imperial complexes" and did not forget Russian, which they
have learned at school, students from all over the World, who studied musik in
Russia or in Republics of the former USSR, as well as our former compatriots in
the West. If you accept what we have to offer, then please join us.
Non-profit association