About ASME I National Executive I ASME Chapters I ASME Membership I ASME Publications
ASME exists:
ASME 's aims are implemented by such means as:
ASME is Australia's only affiliate organisation of the
International Society for Music Education (ISME), which exists under
the auspices of UNESCO's Music Council. ASME also represents music
education on the National Affiliation of Arts Educators (NAAE).
As an Australia-wide organisation, ASME operates under a National
Executive and representative National Council who work through
Chapters in all of Australia's States and Territories.
At the State and Territory levels, ASME is represented by Chapter
Councils which include the positions of Chapter Chair, Secretary and
Treasurer, as well as non-office bearing Chapter Council members. All
ASME personnel work in an honorary capacity.
At the National and Chapter levels, ASME represents music education
in its broadest sense.
Honorary life membership is reserved as an honour to be bestowed by ASME in recognition of an individual's outstanding contribution to music education. It is ASME's highest accolade. To be given honorary life membership, a proposal in writing by a State Chapter or National Council member must have been made. The proposal is then circulated among all members of National Council, before it is then debated and accepted or rejected at a formal National Council meeting. If successful, the granting of honorary life membership is then publicly announced, and if possible, presented at a public ASME forum such as a National Conference of a formal State Chapter event.
Sir Frank Callaway was appointed as Reader in Music at the University of Western Australia in 1953, followed by Foundation Professor of Music in 1959. He was Head of the School of Music until his retirement in 1984. Sir Frank has travelled to most countries and cities of the world in his participation in ISME conferences and seminars, as well as his work for the International Music Council of UNESCO, notably as a member of its Executive Board, as Vice President from 1977 to 1979 and President from 1980 to 1981. He has been the Australian Government delegate to IMC Assemblies since 1971, and from 1982 to 1985 Sir Frank was an elected individual member of the IMC. He is also a Life Member of Honour of the IMC. Sir Frank was Chairperson of the AMEB from 1964 to 1966 and again from 1977 to 1979. He was Chairperson of the Western Australian Music Examinations Board for thirty years from 1954.Sir Frank Callaway was the Foundation National President of ASME from 1967 to 1971 for which he was made the first life member. He was the Chairperson of the Organising Committee for the XI ISME Conference held in Perth in 1974. He was Foundation Chairperson from 1970 to 1979 of the Western Australian Arts Council and has been Chairperson of the large-scale Australian National Eisteddfod, the Indian Ocean Arts Association since 1978, the first Indian Ocean Arts Festival in 1979 and the Indian Ocean Festival of 1984.
One of Sir Frank's greatest contributions to music education has been as an editor. He was responsible for starting and editing three important journals. Studies in Music (in collaboration with Professor David Tunley), launched in 1967 has attracted notable scholarly contributions from all over the world. It has an associated Music Series and Music Monographs. The Australian Journal of Music Education, the official journal of ASME has a wide circulation and worldwide reputation. The International Journal of Music Education, the official journal of ISME, was started by Sir Frank on the understanding that the editorship should pass on to others after two or three years so that the future of the journal is assured. In addition, Sir Frank has edited many other publications, notably reports of conferences and symposia.
Sir Frank Callaway's work for ISME is well known. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1958, International President from 1968 to 1972 and Treasurer since 1972. He succeeded Dmitri Kabalevsky as Honorary President of ISME in 1987.
On the occasion of his retirement in October 1984, a unique concert was held during which the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia announced the establishment of the Frank Callaway Foundation for Music. The proceeds from the Foundation's capital sum are used for projects to recognise Sir Frank's achievements. One of these enterprises if the Callaway International Resource Centre for Music Education (CIRCME) within the University's School of Music.
Many awards have been conferred upon him. He has received Honorary Doctorates of Music from the Universities of Melbourne and Western Australia and been honoured with an OBE in 1970, a CMG in 1975 and a Knighthood (Australian Commonwealth List) in 1981. He received the Australian National Critics Award for Music in 1977, the Sir Bernard Heinze Award for Services to Australian Music in 1988, the International Percy Grainger Medal in 1991 and, in 1975, was named Western Australian Citizen of the Year (Arts). Sir Frank is also a Fellow of the Australian College of Education, and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London.
Dr Doreen Bridges is the third life member of ASME and is highly regarded as a music educator and researcher both in Australia and internationally. Dr Bridges has taught at all levels of music education though her special interest is in Early Childhood education. In 1971 she became the first person to be awarded a PhD in music education by an Australian university, leading to the development of the Australian Test for Advanced Music Studies (ATAMS).After the award of the Bachelor of Music degree in 1941 and service in the WAAAF in World War II as an education officer, Dr Bridges travelled to England in 1946 for further study. She studied composition and obtained all three School Music Licentiate diplomas offered by the Royal Academy of Music. On her return in 1950, she conducted adult education classes for the University Tutorial Class Department, taught children's theory classes at the NSW State Conservatorium and was a member of the Music Teachers' Association of NSW. In 1957 Dr Bridges commenced a long association with the Music Deprtment of the University of Sydney.
Following her 'retirement', she collaborated with Deanna Hoermann in re-writing the latter's Kodaly-based Developmental Music Progam, Stages 1 to 3 and in compiling Catch a Song - a collection of songs used widely throughout Australia and published also in the USA. Dr Bridges has taught in the NSW Conservatorium's graduate program in primary music education, conducted inservice courses for teachers of music in early childhood and is a Consultant for the Conservatorium's developmental music program for young children.
During her professional life, Dr Bridges held office in many organisations. She has chaired the NSW Chapter of ASME and been a member of the National Council, was President of The Dalcroze Society of Australia for many years, and a member of the Governing Boby of the Kodaly Music Education Institute of Australia. Dr Bridges was a member of the NSW Deprtment of Education's Board of Senior School Studies Music Committee, as well as an examiner, and a member of the K-6 Music Syllabus Committee. From 1974 to 1980 she served on the ISME Research Commission and she has taken an active part also in the ISME Early Childhood Commission. She was on the Council of the Canberra School of Music for many years, also a member of the NSW Conservatorium Board of Governors, of which she was Chairperson from 1979 to 1982. For her services to music education Dr Bridges was made a Fellow of the Australian College of Education in 1982 and a member of the Order of Australia in 1984.
Patricia Holmes maintained a professional commitment to music education for over fifty years. In that time she has been widely accepted and respected as a music educator, a vastly experienced colleague, a constant source of fresh ideas, and, above all, a profound awareness of the importance of nurturing the students with whom she came in contact.From her initial appointment as the first itinerant advisor with the Education Department of South Australia, through her beginning lectures at the old Adelaide Teachers' College in 1951, through to her retirement as Senior Lecturer and Coordinator of the Bachelor of Education (Music) program at the South Australian College of Advanced Education in 1985, Patricia Holmes has had a continuous professional association with music teaching. When she was appointed to the newly opened Western Teachers' College in the suburbs west of Adelaide, she established new standards and procedures for the development of music in the education of primary school teachers, using experience she had brought to the development of comprehensive teacher education courses in music for secondary school teachers. She also taught topics in music education at the University of Adelaide. During her retirement she has continued an active involvement in music education, teaching, lecturing and being sought after for workshops and conference sessions. She also took up with renewed vigour a life long concern for Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and did much to sustain and develop the work of the Dalcroze Society.
As a founding member of ASME in 1967, Patricia Holmes was involved in the earliest conversations that lead to the establishment of the Society. She was the first Chairperson of the South Australian Chapter, from 1967 to 1969 and participated in the national affairs of the Society from its inception, as a member of National Council. She organised the most success Second National Conference of the Society in Adelaide in 1972, at which 600 delegates attended. In 1979 she was elected National Vice-President and from 1981 to 1984 served as National President of ASME. At a time when the Society was weathering some difficult financial and organisational storms, Patricia Holmes provided a steady and consistent leadership, gave long hours to reconstructing the Society and helped to strengthen the importance of the local chapters in the affairs of ASME. At the National Conference in Hobart, 1995, she was made the Society's fourth life member. One of the last tasks she carried out for the Society was the preparation of the position paper Music: a vital element in the curriculum, published by the National Arts in Australian Schools project in 1991.
Patricia Holmes has probably influenced the course of music education in South Australia as profoundly as any figure in the state's history. There can hardly be a music teacher who has not been affected - if not directly, then indirectly - through ideas and policies initiated by her: a task not made easier by prejudice generated by her high profile as a woman in the profession, long before the present awareness of positive discrimination was able to support her determined approach to the significance of music in our society.
Olive McMahon was originally trained as a kindergarten teacher in Brisbane and she pursued further training in both the United Kingdom and Canada. She has held teaching positions in the early childhood departments in teachers' college in Western Australia and Queensland. Early childhood music education has always a special interest for Olive McMahon. Her postgraduate studies in London and at the James Cook University involved independent studies in that field. Since her retirement, she has continued to be active as a consultant in the early childhood area.Olive McMahon has long been active in ASME, and served a term as National Treasurer from 1972 to 1974. She has chaired the ISME Early Childhood Music Education Commission and is served a term as a member of the ISME Board of Directors. Olive McMahon is the Society's fifth life member, the occasion celebrated at the ASME X National Conference in Hobart, 1995.
Dr Martin Comte is ASME's sixth life member. The award was announced and presented at the ASME XII National Conference in Sydney, 1999. Dr Comte has had an illustrious career in music and arts education. He earned his PhD in 1983 from the University of Michigan, with a study of arts education in the state school system in Victoria from 1945 to 1980. After a number of school and then tertiary positions he finally was awarded the first Chair of Music Education in Australia, a position he occupied from 1993 to 1997. During this time he also acted as Associate Dean of Research and Cultural development at the RMIT University.Dr Comte has worked extensively in curriculum design, consultancy (in Australia and overseas, and including other arts as well as music), and has been active in professional education and arts associations in addition to ASME. He has numerous publications (articles, contributions to books, editorships) and conference presentations to his credit.
Dr Comte is a foundation member of ASME. He was active in the Victorian Chapter, and served as a National Council member from 1979 to 1994, and as National President from 1984 to 1986. He continued on the National Executive until 1994, having taken over editing the new series of the Australian Journal of Music Education (AJME) in 1989, and serving as ASME's Publications Editor for a number of years. The tribute from Dr Warren Bourne that appeared in AJME 1995, No 1 upon his retirement from this position and the National Executive succinctly sums up Dr Comte's outstanding contribution in this area.
In enhancing the scope and breadth of ASME's national publication, Martin Comte has made a significant contribution to the Society as its Publications Editor. I acknowledge and applaud his vision and the dedication which has turned it into a reality for our common edification.National President Barry Palmer, in his 1992 annual report (AJME 1992, No 1) also paid tribute in the following words:
Victoria's Martin Comte is flamboyant, unconventional, uncompromising and creative. . . his tenacity in hauling ASME up by the bootstraps during the 1980s was a display I'll never forget. It is one of the reasons why we are here today contemplating the recent past and anticipating a productive future. His incisive mind and his unfaltering faith in the value of this society to Australian music education demand acknowledgement and I give it freely.