UPEI hosts fourth annual meeting of AIRS

The Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing (AIRS) project will hold its fourth annual meeting and international conference from August 22 to 24 at the University of Prince Edward Island. More than 50 participants and researchers representing institutions from more than a dozen countries will be at the University for a packed, three-day schedule dedicated to the sharing of ideas, research findings, and music.

'Our schedule is so overflowing with regards to our three main research themes that even our mealtimes are filled with presentations and singing,' said Dr. Annabel Cohen, Director of the AIRS project. 'Three years into this project, outstanding researchers from many disciplines are working together to advance our understanding of what, at a first glance, is a seemingly simple subject matter: singing.'

The public is invited to participate in the official opening of the conference, from 4:30-5:30 pm on Wednesday, August 22 in McDougall Hall 246. The opening will include an overview of the research project and regional partnerships (for example, Culture PEI, Music PEI, Veterans Affairs Canada, Alzheimer's Society) plus vocal performances of several songs, including a presentation by the Young at Heart Musical Theatre group.

The public is also invited Wednesday from 7:30-9:00 pm for the 'Celebration of Singing' concert in the Steele Recital Hall, organized by Sung-Ha Shin-Bouey, Associate Professor of Music, featuring performances by many talented AIRS researchers, as well as some well-known PEI musicians.

The second day of the conference will allow participants to explore the three main themes of AIRS through 15-minute presentations from individual researchers and research teams. The first theme is singing and development.

'There are thousands of research papers dedicated to how humans develop the ability to speak,' said Dr. Cohen, 'but there are only a few dozen with regards to how we learn to sing. And yet, it's something we can all do, in every culture on the planet. AIRS is working to broaden that area of research and to ultimately share knowledge that can benefit society and the welfare of individuals.'

To aid in this goal, Dr. Cohen's research team has developed the AIRS Test Battery-an automated, online test, created with the assistance of post-doctoral fellow Dr. Bing-Yi Pan, to gather data about singing that can be used by researchers around the world.

The second research theme of AIRS is singing and education. Presentations on this topic include research by June Countryman, Assistant Professor of Music, and Dr. Martha Gabriel, Associate Professor of Education, about how children use informal chants and songs on the school playground to learn musical literacies.

Presentations on AIRS's third theme, singing and well-being, will focus on singing's role toward a cross-cultural understanding. One of the projects within this theme is the 'AIRS Quadcultural Songbook,' created with the assistance of UPEI student Kelly Gillis, which compiles music from Brazil, Canada, China, and Kenya. The project examines the benefits of incorporating these materials into Grade V classes in those four countries as studied over the last year.

'We have research from Portugal which shows that children who learn the traditional songs of one of the smaller marginalized cultural groups of that country, gain a better attitude toward that group,' said Dr. Cohen.

AIRS is a major collaborative research initiative funded by SSHRC to explore development, education, and well-being with regards to singing.