Following bushfires and a pandemic, Bega Valley children are having their confidence lifted and their voices heard as they create original musical compositions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Rebecca Stewart, a passionate and experienced piano teacher from Candelo, has been awarded seed funding from the Bega Valley Business Boost program for a new educational initiative.
Through her Imagination Regeneration Project, children will enjoy meaningful learning opportunities in musical improvisation, composition and performance, creating original musical works to facilitate expressing themselves following a period of trauma and being isolated.
Ms Stewart has a 20-year background in musical composition with children at Yamaha Music Education Centres in Melbourne.
Now teaching at her home studio in Candelo and at Sapphire Coast Anglican College, Ms Stewart said she brought a unique professional history to local students.
She said at the time of evacuations due to the 2019-20 bushfires, an 11-year-old piano student of hers wrote a song about waiting for the rain.
Ms Stewart said she realised that musical composition could be a valuable tool for improving mental health for young bushfire survivors.
"Our local children lived through a season of isolation and fear for their lives in the bushfires which was only exacerbated by the pandemic drama that followed.
"With some children losing items precious to them in the fires, like their musical instruments or their horse, and their parents having their livelihoods threatened or destroyed, music education has become less affordable.
"Bega Valley children need to have their creativity validated and celebrated, their voices heard, and their confidence restored through sharing innovative original music with their community of school friends and neighbours.
"In turn, the community will be connected and uplifted, bringing more resilience to the children then to their parents and neighbours, who will then have more energy to support the children, in long-term circularity for Bega Valley residents in all stages of life."
Ms Stewart said through the Imagination Regeneration Project, children would create original musical works through improvisation or composition, and work at performance skills through collaborative lessons and small group workshops.
Students creating compositions will receive a published score of the sheet music and a digital recording.
Throughout the pilot of Imagination Regeneration, the process will be documented to form an education program available to other Bega Valley music educators so they can assist their students in creating original compositions.
This project has been assisted by the Bega Valley Shire Council Community Grants Program.
