The making of a star
THE International College of Music (ICOM) is the foremost college in Malaysia and the Asia-pacific region offering formal education in contemporary music up to tertiary level.
Icom believes that formal music education is crucial because it relates oneself to society, enhances creativity and increases the level of musicianship.
Annmarie Stanislaus is a 21-year-old singer and songwriter from Malaysia.
She graduated from Icom’s two-year Berklee transfer programme. She studied core music courses such as ear training, performance studies, contemporary harmony music technology and arranging and studied voice with Icom president Irene Savaree.
When asked about her decision to do the Berklee transfer programme at Icom, she said, “After my A-levels, I was doing some research to further my studies. I chanced upon Berklee College of Music in Boston, and to my delight, Icom offers a Berklee Transfer Program which allows me to do 2.5 years here before transferring to Berklee to complete my degree. So, without any hesitation, I immediately enrolled at Icom.”
Annmarie also said the programme has helped her tremendously in all areas of music expertise: not just in vocals, but has opened up a whole new world of musical knowledge.
She added: “Before I started at Icom, my music background was not that strong. I could read music notes, but not at the level of ‘first sight reading.’ ”
“I also thought that it would be all singing and performing during my duration of studies, but to my surprise, I eventually learned and mastered other areas of music, especially songwriting and music arrangement.
“All these important skills give me the confidence to move into my third year at Berklee.
“Also, I recently auditioned for admission at Berklee, and the entire experience is very similar to that at Icom. I must convey my heartfelt thanks to all my lecturers who taught me at Icom.”
The important aspects Annmarie gained from Icom are skills and knowledge of all areas in music, the highest standards of music education available here, and the activities, and industry networking.
Annmarie intends to major in songwriting at Berklee.
To date, she has written about 20 songs and she hopes to take her songwriting craft to a higher level. She also aspires to be a prolific songwriter, and music arranger in general.
Of course, she wants to pursue her dream of mesmerising audiences with her vocal cords through the songs that she has written and churn them into “hit-songs” worldwide!
Annmarie was one of the three winners of the David Foster “Born To Sing” competition and performed at the David Foster and Friends concert in KL, 2011.
She added: “It was an invaluable experience, I learnt a lot, performance-wise, and being onstage with the ‘hit man’ David Foster himself, was already a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Before the concert, David was giving words of encouragement to us, telling us to relax and sing naturally with our own feel, which I did to the best of my ability.”
Annmarie’s advice to students who are going to Icom is to immerse themselves into the programme, and be prepared to take the challenge of excelling in all areas of music. This means “not just performance only”, but all other areas like music arranging and scoring, and also music production and technology.
This will set a solid music foundation and prepare them to complete their music degree at Berklee College of Music.
For more information, log on to www. icom.edu.my or e-mail admissions@icom.edu. my or call 03-4023 6000.