Music education right on track
MUSIC education in the country is on the right track with more focus given to creativity and innovativeness, said Deputy Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Maglin Dennis D’cruz.
He said the teaching staff in the music field had been playing a big role in producing music talents and in fact, works that could be the country’s treasures.
“We look back at many of the songs and music that bring us happy memories or nostalgia in our lives,” he said in his speech at the opening of a music conference and music education session at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI), here, recently.
D’cruz said local music was now going through a transformation which would give rise to a glorious music industry.
“We are aware that our local music industry has a limited domestic market to be tapped, with a population of 28 million, different tastes for music and all the other challenges that musicians face today. I understand it is a challenging scenario that we face today.
“But I strongly believe that with seminars such as this, it is possible to raise the standard of our local music industry to a much higher level,” he said.
Dean of UPSI’S Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Assoc Prof Dr Mohd Hassan Abdullah said the faculty hoped to establish closer cooperation in music education with other higher learning institutions in future.
“Music is still a small field in Malaysia, but with cooperation between the public and private higher learning institutions, we can further boost our music education system.
“So far, we’ve held discussions with some private colleges which have provided good feedback for our next conference,” he said.
The conference was organised by UPSI in collaboration with Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.
The conference with over 200 participants saw the presentation of 27 working papers by the speakers and nine workshops that discuss developments in the music field and performing arts. — Bernama