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Artistic Directors Development - Upskilling Project for Choral Educators

2016-1-PL01-KA202-0264482016Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and trainingfinalized
Countries: PL|UK|IT|FR · Grant: €59,625
Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learningCreativity and culture

Project summary

The project "ADD UP – Artistic Directors Development - Upskilling Project for Choral Educators" is targeted at the development of substantive skills and transversal competences of artistic directors, choral conductors and choral coaches dealing with formal, non-formal and informal musical education. The composition of the partnership enables the exchange of experiences and peer learning between choral educators cooperating with ensembles of different sizes and characteristics, embedded in different educational structures. Through the exchange of experiences and peer learning activities, direct meetings and on-line cooperation between highly professional, experienced educators and less experienced, amateur or young choral staff members, ADD UP contributes to the enhancement of the participants’ skills, and furthermore strengthten the participating organisations through development of their potential (better skilld trainers within the organizations) and educational offer (tailor-made programme of trainings for choral conductors).The aquired competencies and the pedagogical methods exchanged and practiced during the project lifetime will be adaptable not only in the partner organizations but also easily shareable with other cultural organizations dealing with choral education.The role of the musical directors and coaches in the choir is to serve as a high-profile, enthusiastic advocate and promoter of choral music. The system of work during the project lifetime and the goal of the peer-learning method integrated into the project aims to improve these capacities to inspire and energise. The local activities combine online activities based on Social Media, self-paced learning on the theoretic material and practical work with local choirs active within the participating orgnizations. The project includes short-term training activities for participants, organized in all countries of the partnership: the practical workshops incorporated in the transnational trainings will constitute a possibility of work-based learning and each training event will be ended by a short concert open to the public. These concerts will be a good ocasion to disseminate the project idea and it’s results. In the frame of the project activities, especially during the paractical workshops and concerts a set of video and audio recordings will be created and will be made accessible through the project’s and partners’ websites along with conducting tips and written presentation of the music analysed during the project lifetime.The Strategic Partnership, thanks to its international dimension brings an essential added value enabling an exchange of experiences between participants presenting different cultural approaches to the choral music, a profound analysis of different types of choral music from the project countries and presentation of their subjective perceptions, and by these means an improvement of intercultural skills, cultural awereness and cultural intelligence. The possibility of work in international group boosts also other social competences of the participants, notably flexibility, freedom from prejudice, handling stress, self confidence, sense of belonging and, last but not least language competences and digital competences (i.e. use of Social Media and virtual workgroups).To certify the competences and skills acquired during the transnational staff training events, the participants of the project will get the Europass Mobility documents and complete or update the Europass CV and Language Passports.ADD UP involves also other, less direct and indirect target groups:- choral conductors and educators from collaborating organisations (about 80 educators);- choristers from ensembles and choirs collaborating with the participating organisations and project’s participants (about 400 choristers) - will be involved in the activities at all stages off the project and their contribution in the project realisation will be fundamental. During the transnational training events the choristers will be invited for the working sessions with the project participants and will present the results of the workshops at a short concert ending each training event. Between the transnational trainings, the choristers will work with the local participants of the project on the repertoire chosen for the project;- people from other indirect target groups - formal and informal partners of participating organizations, including professional and amateur choristers, artistic education providers, cultural centers organizing artistic events in the local communities, stakeholders interested in the development of the cultural sector, it’s educational offer and traising standards (about 100 persons).

Final report summary

The project "ADD UP – Artistic Directors Development - Upskilling Project for Choral Educators" aimed at the development of substantive skills and transversal competences of artistic directors, choral conductors and choral coaches dealing with formal, non-formal and informal musical education. ADD UP involved organizations from four countries (France, Italy, Poland, UK) which are active in culture and education sectors. The project contributed to the enhancement of the participants’ skills thanks to the exchange of experiences between highly professional, experienced educators and less experienced, young choral directors and coaches. The project included short-term training activities for participants, organized in all countries of the partnership: these international workshops ensured peer learning activities and hands-on experiences. The Strategic Partnership, thanks to its international dimension brought an essential added value enabling an exchange of experiences between participants presenting different cultural approaches to the choral music, a profound analysis of different types of choral music from the project countries and presentation of their subjective perceptions, and by these means an improvement of intercultural skills, cultural awareness and cultural intelligence. The possibility of work in international group boosted social competences of the participants, notably flexibility, freedom from prejudice, handling stress, self-confidence, sense of belonging and, last but not least language competences and digital competences. After the workshops the participants received the certificates and updated their Europass CV and Language Passports. ADD UP involved also other, less direct and indirect target groups:- choral conductors and educators from collaborating organisations (about 80 educators) - choristers from ensembles and choirs collaborating with the participating organisations and project’s participants were involved in the activities at all stages off the project. (over 300 choristers) - people from other indirect target groups - formal and informal partners of participating organizations, including professional and amateur choristers, artistic education providers, cultural centres organizing artistic events in the local communities, stakeholders interested in the development of the cultural sector, standards raise and it’s educational offer (about 100 persons). The international trainings enabled the cooperation with several ensembles of different sizes and characteristics (i.e. mixed adult and children choirs, male and female choirs) which were involved in the practical activities during the workshops including rehearsal practice with choirs and open concerts open to the public. As the role of the musical directors and coaches in the choir is to serve as a high-profile, enthusiastic advocate of choral music, the goal of the peer-learning method integrated into the project aimed also at improving the capacities to inspire and energise. The practical workshops included also several concerts open to the public. These concerts were a good occasion to disseminate the project idea and it’s results. During the concerts video and audio recordings were created and then watched and commented providing professional tips. The local activities combined online consultation activities and self-paced learning on the theoretic material and practical work with local choirs active within the participating organizations. Between the transnational trainings, the choristers worked with the participants of the project on a specially selected repertoire. The project contributed to a strengthening of the participating organisations by developing their potential and educational offer but the acquired competencies and the pedagogical methods exchanged and practiced during the project lifetime will be adaptable not only in the partner organizations but also easily shareable with other cultural organizations active in choral education.

Project partners (4)