Association for Music in International Schools

Last updated
Association for Music in International Schools
AbbreviationAMIS
FounderGeorgia Bassett
TypeNon-profit Organization
HeadquartersChurch Farm House
North Lopham, Diss
Norfolk IP22 2LP
United Kingdom
Official language
English
Chief Operating Officer
Tim Germann
Amis Consultant
Georgia Bassett
Executive Director
Keith Montgomery
Website www.amis-online.org

The Association for Music in International Schools, best known as AMIS, is an organization that brings together students of schools worldwide who excel in musical achievements for days of music practice and then conclude with a concert. The Association also provides professional development through an annual Music Educators' Conference.

Contents

The Acronym

The association's acronym AMIS is also the French word amis, which means friends. The founders of AMIS chose this name with the purpose of the association in mind. Amis symbolizes friendships established by children all over the world who attend AMIS Festivals. Although the association AMIS is based in the United Kingdom, the association chose a French (as opposed to an English) name to represent the numerous nationalities that participate in and contribute to AMIS festivals all over the world.[ citation needed ]

Mission statement

Two girls captured wearing the 2013 European Middle School Honor Girls' Festival Shirt. TwoGirlsInBlueAmisTshirt2013.jpg
Two girls captured wearing the 2013 European Middle School Honor Girls’ Festival Shirt.

“The Association is an international, non-profit, non-sectarian, politically neutral organization dedicated to the promotion of excellence at all levels of music education. Its objectives are to advance the education of school pupils and teachers throughout the world by developing their understanding, knowledge and appreciation of music; to advance the education of young people and their teachers in global issues and cultural diversity through the performance and study of music; to promote high standards of musical performance in school pupils of all ages and abilities throughout the world; to promote furtherance of educationally valuable music repertoire.” [1]

AMIS Festivals

Once a year, there is a festival for each of the different categories. (See Festival Categories for list). Each festival is hosted by an AMIS Membership school, rotating between them yearly. To qualify for band, strings, and all High School auditions, students must audition by recordings, which are judged by a blind panel of music educators. Middle School Choir auditions are conducted by each participating school's teacher. The successful students travel to the host school and participate in the practice days and the final concert. The format is usually: travel Wednesday, rehearse Thursday-Saturday, concert Saturday evening, travel home Sunday.

Three girls attending the 2013 European Middle School Honor Girls' Choir in Waterloo, Belgium. ThreeGirlsInWaterlooBelgiumAMIS.jpg
Three girls attending the 2013 European Middle School Honor Girls’ Choir in Waterloo, Belgium.

AMIS' member schools mainly lie in Europe and Asia, although there have been festivals added in both Africa and Latin America in the past five years and those regions are thriving. Founded in London, AMIS slowly grew across Western Europe and now has many festivals reserved only for Asian schools. Festivals are conducted in English, though due to the participants coming from within international school populations, most students (and many teachers) speak multiple languages. Concert repertoires always include multiple languages; and concert speeches and introductions are usually held in the (festival's) host country's language in addition to English. (For example: The 2014 European Middle School Honor Girls’ Choir, hosted in Stavanger, Norway, had concert services conducted in Norwegian as well as English.)

Conductors

AMIS selects a different conductor for each festival. Often, conductors are teachers in international schools who are well respected and recommended by their peers.[ citation needed ] At the high school level, the Association contracts premiere conductors from around the world.[ citation needed ]

Music

The repertoire style depends on the AMIS festival and the songs that the conductor wants to perform. Many times, AMIS has commissioned works by composers, making the band/choir present world-premiere songs. Such composers include Philip Sparke, David Brunner, Dr. Richard Prior, Christopher Marshall, and more.

Festival Categories

AMIS presents a multitude of different yearly festivals focused on different music, instrumentation, and musicians. These are:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Choir</span> Ensemble of singers

A choir is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words is the music performed by the ensemble. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which spans from the medieval era to the present, or popular music repertoire. Most choirs are led by a conductor, who leads the performances with arm, hand, and facial gestures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Weston Noble</span>

Weston H. Noble was an American music educator and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Boychoir School</span> Private, non-sectarian boarding school in Princeton, New Jersey, United States

The American Boychoir School was a boarding/day middle school located in Princeton, New Jersey, and the home of the American Boychoir. The school originated as the Columbus Boychoir in Columbus, Ohio. In 1950, the school relocated after receiving property in Princeton, New Jersey from the Lambert estate. The relocated school was renamed the American Boychoir School. It remained in this location until the sale of Albemarle in 2012. The school served boys in grades 4–8, many of whom came from across the United States and from many countries. It was one of only two boychoir boarding schools in the United States, the other being Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City. The school provided opportunity to boys from across the world to experience the rich world of music. The Boychoir toured across the contiguous United States, through Canada, as well as internationally, allowing students to gain diverse cultural perspective while performing at the professional level. The American Boychoir performed with numerous orchestras, frequently including the New York Philharmonic as well as the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School band</span> Group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together

A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. A concert band is usually under the direction of one or more conductors. A school band consists of woodwind instruments, brass instruments and percussion instruments, although upper level bands may also have string basses or bass guitar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solon High School</span> Public high school in Solon, Ohio

Solon High School, founded in 1898, is a public high school located in Solon, Ohio, a southeastern suburb of Cleveland in the Northeast Ohio Region, the 15th largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.

David Sartor is an American composer, conductor, and educator, and is the founder and music director of the Parthenon Chamber Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guilderland High School</span> Public school in the United States

Guilderland High School is a public senior high school, located in Guilderland Center, New York. It is part of the Guilderland Central School District. Constructed in 1953, the high school has since undergone additions in 1955, 1960, 1997, 2010, and 2021. Originally, the building functioned as a Junior-Senior High School, but after the construction of Farnsworth Middle School in 1970, the district divided the schools into two. As a school, Guilderland High School's enrollment jurisdiction also includes the village of Altamont, NY and the North Bethlehem neighborhood of Bethlehem, NY.

Buffalo High School is located in Buffalo, Minnesota, United States off the intersection of County Road 35 and Dague Avenue. There are three communities that contribute students: Buffalo, Minnesota, Hanover, Minnesota, and Montrose, Minnesota, which has helped BHS grow into a large school of 2,145 students starting in the 2022-23 school year, with a staff of approximately 400.

The Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association is an organization of high school, middle school, and elementary school band and orchestra directors within the Commonwealth of Virginia, whose mission is to help promote opportunities of music education to K-12 students. Many of the events that the VBODA organizes schools from around Virginia to compete with each other, and to give outstanding individual student musicians a chance to work with renowned conductors around the United States. The VBODA is the primary arbiter for various band and orchestra events throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liverpool High School</span> Public school in Liverpool, New York, United States

Liverpool High School (LHS) is a comprehensive public high school in Liverpool, New York, northwest of Syracuse in the Liverpool Central School District, serving ninth to twelfth grade students. It is the only high school in the district. LHS generally accepts students graduating from Liverpool Middle School, Soule Road Middle School, Chestnut Hill Middle School, and Morgan Road Middle School. The school is governed under the authority of the New York State Education Department, whose standardized examinations are designed and administered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Jessop</span> American academic, musician and singer (born 1949)

Craig D. Jessop is an American academic, musician and singer best known for his tenure as the music director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (Choir) from 1999 to 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analy High School</span> Public school

Analy High School is a public high school in Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California. It was established in 1908 as Analy High School. In 2021 Analy merged with El Molino High School and was known under the working name West County High School for one year, before returning to its original name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts</span> Public secondary school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , USA

The Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, commonly known as CAPA, is a magnet school in South Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the edge of the Christian Street Historic District. It is a part of the School District of Philadelphia. Students major in one of seven areas: creative writing, instrumental music, visual arts, theater, dance, vocal music, and media, design, television & video (MDTV). Students may also minor after their freshman year as long as they meet the audition requirements. The school is located on South Broad Street, in the former Ridgway Library. Notable alumni include Boyz II Men, Questlove and Black Thought of The Roots and Leslie Odom Jr.

Seoul Foreign School is a Pre-K/Reception to Grade 12 international school located in Seoul, South Korea. The school was founded in 1912 by Christian missionaries to Korea and emphasizes Christian values. The Elementary, Middle and High Schools offer an international curriculum within the International Baccalaureate framework of PYP, MYP and DP. The High School offers the IB Diploma Programme. The British School offers the English National Curriculum - Key Stages 1–3. Seoul Foreign School has been located in Yeonhui-dong, Seodaemun-gu, since 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cedar Crest High School</span> Secondary school in Lebanon, Lebanon County, PA, United States

Cedar Crest High School is a public high school located in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. The school serves over 2000 students in grades 9 to 12 in the Cornwall-Lebanon School District.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ana María Raga</span> Venezuelan musician

Ana María Raga is a Venezuelan musician, choir and orchestra director, pianist, arranger, composer and teacher. She has won national and international prizes in the field of choral singing. She is the founder and president of the Aequalis Foundation.

Founded in 1976, the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras (EYSO) is the oldest and largest youth orchestra program in northwest Illinois and is composed of three full orchestras, two string orchestras, a brass choir, two percussion ensembles, a flute choir, and a large Chamber Music Institute.

Ensemble librarianship is an area of music librarianship which specializes in serving the needs of musical ensembles, including symphony and chamber orchestras, opera houses, ballet companies, wind ensembles and educational institutions. Ensemble librarians acquire printed music and prepare it for performance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joel Eric Suben</span> American conductor

Joel Eric Suben was an American composer and conductor known primarily for his recordings of music by contemporary American and European composers.

The Florida Music Education Association (FMEA) is a non-profit umbrella association of music education groups in Florida that sets standards for the state in music education, provides continuing education and training opportunities to music educators in the state. FMEA is a federated state unit of the National Association for Music Education. FMEA was founded in 1944 during a three way clinic between the Florida Vocal Association, the Florida Orchestra Association, and the Florida Bandmasters Association.

References

  1. AMIS Mission Statement Archived May 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine at www.amis-online.org.uk (accessed 2008-06-18)

Administrative Team