The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra has unveiled an early Christmas present for Canada’s classical music community at large.
Thanks to a landmark partnership with Meludia, an online musicianship resource, music literacy is now within easy reach of all internet users from within the country. The platform will be free to access from Canadian IP addresses until December 5, 2018.
Newly-installed for the Calgary Philharmonic’s 2017-18 season, music director Rune Bergmann wasted no time in implementing the initiative early in his tenure, together with the orchestra’s president and CEO Paul Dornian. “The first thing I thought when I came here: ‘this should be an orchestra for the world,’” Bergmann revealed at Wednesday’s news conference in Calgary.
CPO Mus.Dir. Rune Bergmann’s welcome message to Meludia users:
“Music literacy is a basic human right,” announced Kevin Kleinmann, vice president of Meludia. “You will not find a civilization or a society in this world who does not have music in their culture.”
The service is projected to reach up to 40 million people by December 2018, including 35.2 million Canadians and millions of visitors to the country. “To our knowledge, there’s never been an educational deployment of this size done anywhere,” said Kleinmann.
Kleinmann’s vision extends further than granting public access to the online platform: for him, the initiative will help fill concert halls in the longer-term. “If you have a musically-literate public, you’re going to have an audience. If they have ears that understand music more than just pretty melodies, they’re going to want to hear concerts.”
Meludia’s approach to music literacy is based on strengthening aural musicianship, in contrast to the visual nature of a conventional music theory education. Interactive modules adapt to users of all levels — from children, to uninitiated individuals, to professional musicians. Cognitive science is integrated into fun exercises, complementing music pedagogy methods such as Orff, Dalcroze and Kodály.
Coinciding with its pan-Canadian launch, Meludia is embarking on a tour across the country to introduce the platform to remote communities as well as institutions such as hospitals, Alzheimer’s and dementia care centres, schools, and prisons.
With this deployment, Canada joins Estonia and Malta in enabling nation-wide access to Meludia. Last year, Meludia was also made available to students and faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.
Based in Paris, Meludia was a finalist in the 2015 SXSW Festival’s “Best Music Innovator” category. It is available as a mobile app as well as on the web.
The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra/Meludia offer can be accessed here within Canada.
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