Musical Futures Hosts Music Students from the University of South Florida

We’re always delighted to receive requests for visits to see Musical Futures in action in schools across the UK.

This year we have been especially delighted to welcome Amy Spears, Associate Professor in Music Education at Nebraska Wesleyan University. As well as taking in some iconic UK landmarks and cities, Amy is visiting Musical Futures Champion teachers at schools up and down the UK – in London, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Manchester, Lancashire and Scotland.  We’ve all loved having Amy with us and she has really got stuck in to life in a busy music department wherever she’s been.

Schools in Essex, Yorkshire and Bury were also treated to a visit from the David Williams, Associate Director of the School of Music at the University of South Florida and his music education students who performed to as their iPad band ‘Touch’.

The group models a learner-centred educational concept, where all the musicians are responsible for making musical and creative decisions, and each individual has autonomy over instrument choice and what their role in the ensemble will be.Touch plays a wide variety of music from across musical styles including rock, rap, country, classical, improvisational, etc. The band’s concerts are multimedia productions, designed around audience participation and collaboration with other art forms including visual art, dance, theatre and poetry. Most of the music performed is original, having been created through a collaborative process.

In addition to concerts on the USF campus and in the community, the band has also performed at two TEDx events, appeared on ESPN, been invited to audition for ‘America’s Got Talent’ and has played for six national music and technology professional conferences, including the 2018 Meeting of the National Association of Schools of Music in Washington, DC.

School presentations usually include performances of mostly original music, a good dose of audience participation with music making, student stories, information concerning music making
at the University level, and time for Q&A.

It was a fantastic experience for students in the UK to meet the USF students and to be included in a highly entertaining and interactive performance with many students getting the chance to take to the stage and join in with the music making.