US Universities and Colleges Program - Paros International Creative Music Program

Greece

Other Cities in Greece:

United States

Term: Fall, Spring
Dates: AUTUMN SEMESTER 15th of September to 14th of December 2010,SPRING SEMESTER 8th of March to 4th of June 2010

Description: Paros International Creative Music Program is a study abroad program of studies for second, third and fourth year undergraduate students of music specializing in composition or with an interest in creating music and contemporary (classical) music and musicology, who are looking for an opportunity to enhance their future postgraduate study and career prospects by experiencing a semester/year of study and living abroad, on the island of Paros, Greece, a very popular holiday destination.

Through an 'open forum' style of teaching, a series of activities of creative engagement with music making and a carefully selected curriculum of courses taught by experienced and enthusiastic young tutors who are specialists on the subjects they teach, our approach to learning is exploratory and creative, yet rigorous. The program is an opportunity to experience a saturation of information on different pathways of creativity in music, supplemented by workshops and personalized tuition where emphasis is given both to the creation and presentation of each individual artistic vision as well as to the instigation of partnerships and the experience of joint collaborations in developing creative projects.

Students are free to select from a variety of courses that are designed to cover a broad spectrum of creative interests and introduce the aesthetics behind the raisons d'etre of 20th century music.

We recommend that students select a minimum of two Core 3credit and three Supplementary 2credit courses, or one Core and four Supplementary courses (12 Credits in total) per semester to suit their own interests and pace of creativity, at a reduced combined price of USD10,830 (EUR8,600) that includes all tuition and accommodation fees, inter-island travel to either Syros or Delos islands for our semester break excursion and some complementary dinners. The cost for individual courses is USD2,950 (EUR2,340) for 3 credit courses and USD2,450 (EUR1,950) for 2 credit courses, including accommodation.

Art for Musicians /Music for Artists is an interdisciplinary course offering a thorough survey of the most important artistic currents and trends of the 20th century as they were almost simultaneously developed and expressed throughout a variety of art-forms, (fine art, music, literature, sculpture). By examining key 20th century musical works in juxtaposition with their 'corresponding' movements in other disciplines this course will broaden and consolidate your understanding of contemporary music and the arts with a particular focus on the rethinking of your work in relation to the most important theoretico-philosophical concepts at play discussed in class.

Unraveling New Music puts some pioneering works of the 20th century under the microscope in order to examine the changing compositional techniques and strategies in the music and at the same time introduce some key analytical tools for the unraveling of these works' structures and their meaning. Particular emphasis will be given on analytical methods such as semiotic analysis, motivic theory and pitch class set theory, as well as on the different analytical interpretations that musical works allow for, with emphasis on the interchangeability of musical structures and their 'fields of play'.

This course aims to expand creativity and spontaneity in music making, by examining the historical context in which improvisation developed in the last century by referring to the key ideas of 20th century practice and our times. The most important underlying concepts, from completely free improvisation to improvisation restricted by aesthetic or purely musical parameters are not only introduced but also put in practice, both on an individual and a collective basis through participation in workshops and the Improvisation Ensemble.

Composition Studies focuses on creating two musical woks for small combination of instruments, by examining a number of similar contemporary music works by established composers as models. Touching upon issues such as pitch content, rhythm, form and structure and general aesthetics, particular attention is given on exploring each student's aesthetic preferences in relation to his/her choices of musical materials and creative strategies, as well as to the possibilities inherent in the selected choices of instrumental forces.

Introducing Electronic Music provides an introduction to the most important movements and tendencies in sonic art, by highlighting a range of different compositional philosophies in the genre, from music concrete, to environmental listening to the work of K.Stockhausen and Xenakis. Knowledge of these theories will then be used to inform the creation of one electronic music work by students, which will involve software such as Pro Tools and the program's electronic music recording facilities. Contemporary Music Theatre (2 credits).

The course will look at different aspects of contemporary music theatre ranging from modern opera to mime opera and physical and experimental theatre. By taking her own works, including the mime opera 'MiE' as well as an operatic collaboration with physical theatre designer Roswitha Gerlitz, as a starting point, composer Catherine Kontz will lecture on the visual and musical facets of this growing contemporary cross-media art-form with references to K. H. Stockhausen, M. Kagel, Robert Wilson/Philip Glass and Robert Lepage amongst others.

The aim of the course is to explore briefly the aesthetics of 4 contemporary composers: Elliott Carter, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, and Pascal Dusapin. These composers have a distinct approach to composition but share a common preoccupation with the organization of pitch in the last 30 years, through the use of pitch-class sets, harmonic fields, fixed chords, or modes. All these techniques will be discussed in the following pieces: Carter´s Anaphora and 90+, Berio´s Points on the Curve to find, Boulez´s Dérive, and Dusapin´s So full of shapes is fancy.

Highlights: Paros is the third biggest island of the Cyclades, a group of islands situated at the middle of the Aegean sea and can be reached in a four hour ferry trip from Athens. Amongst Mykonos and Santorini, it is one of the most developed islands and a very popular tourist destination, especially in the summer. It is the home of a very active international community of writers and artists, which together with the relaxed bohemian atmosphere and idyllic beauty of the place makes Paros a wonderful environment to work and learn. At the same time, the island's proximity to numerous other popular tourist destinations such as Mykonos, Santorini, Naxos, Delos and Syros as well as Rhodes and Crete, which are served by daily ferry, makes Paros an ideal base from where to explore and get to know the Greek islands. Important places to see include the old Byzantine church of a Hundred doors, numerous monasteries, the archaeological sites of Paros, Naxos and Delos and the beautiful 1864 Apollo theatre at the stylish neo-classical town of Ermoupolis, Syros, home of the International Music Festival of the Aegean in the summer.

University Attributes: Paros International Creative Music Program is an independent study abroad program that is not officially affiliated with any particular University.

In our program, we value our academic freedom to select our courses according to our ethos, which is to treat students as young artists as soon as possible, mapping our classes on to the artistic needs that each student has, as opposed to offering a uniform 'staightjacket' curriculum for all to follow.

Instead, through an 'open forum' style of teaching, a series of activities of creative engagement with music making and a carefully selected curriculum of courses taught by experienced and enthusiastic young tutors who are specialists on the subjects they teach, our approach to learning is exploratory and creative, yet rigorous. The program is an opportunity to experience a saturation of information on different pathways of creativity in music, supplemented by workshops and personalized tuition where emphasis is given both to the creation and presentation of each individual artistic vision as well as to the instigation of partnerships and the experience of joint collaborations in developing creative projects.

We recommend that students select a minimum of two Core 3 credit and three Supplementary 2 credit courses, or one Core and four Supplementary courses (12 Credits in total) per semester to suit their own interests and pace of creativity, at a reduced combined price of USD10,830 (EUR8,600) that includes all tuition and accommodation fees, inter-island travel to either Syros or Delos islands for our semester break excursion and some complementary dinners. The cost for individual courses is USD2,950 (EUR2,340) for 3 credit courses and USD2,450 (EUR1,950) for 2 credit courses, including accommodation.

This Program is open to American, Asian, Canadian, European, Kiwi, South African and Worldwide Participants.