The Australian Society for Music Education (Victorian Chapter) will offer an annual prize for the best student completing Music Education Method Studies at each Victorian University.
Prize
- ASME membership for one year
- An opportunity to serve as a new graduate representative on the Victorian Chapter Council
- An opportunity to present a paper at a research forum
Candidate
The candidate in each university must be a full-time student in their final year of study undertaking double music education method studies. If there is no suitable candidate undertaking double music education studies, a graduating student who shows outstanding potential as a music teacher may receive the prize. This will be at the discretion of the Head of Music Education at the relevant university.
ASME will be responsible for the provision of the prize and will not be involved in the selection. The criteria for selection, based on academic results, will be at the discretion of the university. Closing date for nominations: December each year.
Purpose
The purpose of such a prize is to increase awareness of ASME and to include newly qualified music teacher graduates in the membership with the hope that these high-achieving graduates will be encouraged to take on a leadership role in the profession. By awarding these prizes, ASME will be promoting music education as a profession and seen to be a resource to new graduates in Victoria.
Congratulations to our winners:
2022
Thomas Baldwin – The University of Melbourne GSE
Stewart Taylor – Deakin University
2021
Jake Muir – The University of Melbourne
Anna Jones – Deakin University
ASME Music Educating for Life Awards
These Awards, provided biennially, are in recognition of exceptional contributions to the provision of quality music education, in order to improve learning outcomes for students through innovation in teaching approaches.
In 2017 the ASME (Victoria) Award was presented to Michael Travers, the music teacher at St Matthew’s Primary School, Fawkner North. Michael’s classroom music program, which has student composition as its basis, supports to a high degree the school’s diverse population, one that includes many Iraqi refugees.
Michael’s triennial musical productions, involving every student and teacher, have become legendary. He has written and produced many productions for school students over the past two decades, including ‘An Act of Parliament’, filmed in the Legislative Assembly Chamber of the Victorian Parliament in 2004. A DVD of this was distributed by the Federal Department of Immigration to all Federal MPs and subsequently distributed by the Federal Government to over 5000 schools.
Michael’s song ‘The Last ANZAC’ was composed in 2005 and performed at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the AFL Anzac Day match of that year, marking the 90th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing.
Other major works include:
* ‘Eureka: the Musical’, first written for St Matthew’s PS and featured in many community projects celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade in 2005.
* ‘Albert Einstein: the Boy who moved the Stars’ (2005), performed at Melbourne’s Scienceworks.
* ‘Over the Water’ (2010), based on Vietnamese immigrants’ stories. Excerpts from a DVD of the performance were screened at the Victorian Immigration Museum for six weeks in 2010.
* ‘Called to Bring Hope: the Mary McKillop Story’ (2010), selected for presentation at McKillop’s Canonisation Celebrations in the Royal Exhibition Buildings, Carlton.
* ‘Coates’ Cube’, written for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, an initiative of the Environment Protection Authority.
Michael’s latest project – the Student Composition Project – has been developed for ASME (Victoria), details of which can be found on this website under Resources.
