Cork School of Music

CIT Cork School of Music is located in the center Cork City, Ireland. The college was founded in 1878 and became a school of Cork Institute of Technology in 1993. The school currently operates from a state of the art, five floor, music center, where all operations are currently based. The School is Directed by Dr. Geoffry Spratt.

The School

The Cork School of Music is considered to be one of the best musical institutions in Europe.fact|date=April 2008 Tutoring students in the leading Musicianship Music Program, professional instrumental work, performance (including drama) studies, composition, ensemble work, basic instrumental work, music history, music technology, and Irish traditional music studies. The school also teaches a variety of other subjects.

The Building

Cork School of Music currently operates from Europe's most modern Musical Building,fact|date=April 2008 boasting the largest number of Steinway pianos under the same roof (Worldwide)fact|date=April 2008. It is designed by [http://www.murrayolaoire.com/education/projects/csm/index.html Murray O'Laoire architects] who are based in Dublin. The world classfact|date=April 2008 acoustics were provided by [http://www.aad.co.uk Applied Acoustic Design] . It incorporates two performance spaces, the Curtis Auditorium, and the Stack Theater.

While the building hosts a full Recording Suite, it also boast six lecture theaters, the full Fleischman Library, 2 audio labs, an I.T. Lab, over 150 tutoring suites, 45 medium sized classrooms, 25 full sized classrooms and a number of acoustically isolated practice rooms. Each room in the building is equipped with at least one Apple iMac, projector and a JBL Speaker System, Sennheiser Evolution Radio microphone, Rane rack mixer and dual 15 band graphic EQ and a Lab Gruppen stereo power amplifer installed Professional Audio Ltd to enhance interactive learning. Under the same roof is a restaurant, and a common room for full-time students with large open plan areas on all floors.

There are a number of light wells, bringing natural light to rooms in the center of the building, where light would not have been possible. The School is equipped with audio technology that makes it easy for tutors to teach students with at least one Steinway piano in every room, if not two (to facilitate one on one tutoring and preventing the need the use one piano for two). The school also hosts two new harpsichords constructed by the renowned harpsichord-maker Michael Johnson.

Programme

The main programme taught at CSM is the Bachelor of Music degree programme. The school has a very large number of staff, many of whom teach part-time in their area of musical expertise in addition to working as full-time musicians.

History

Founded in 1878, the Cork School of Music was the first Municipal School of Music to be established in th then United Kingdom. (The Guildhall School of music in London was founded in 1880, and the Dublin School of Music in 1890; most of the other Schools of Music in these islands were founded during the 20th century.) The Cork School of Music Committee reported, as late as 1892, on the '...numerous enquiries received from time to time from Governing Bodies of schools of music as the rules of the Cork School of music with a view to their guidance.'

The Cork School of Music's early records show an initial enrolment of 161 and a staff of 5. The 1930 Vocational Education Act resulted in significant growth of staff and student numbers and had considerable impact on the scope of the School's activities. The next 50 years brought particular development in the area of third-level education and the Cork School of Music, operating under the aegis of the City of Cork Vocational Education Committee, became the first institution in the State to offer a Music Teaching Diploma Course embracing academic, pedagogic and practical training. (The course was cited in the "Benson Report" [The place of the Arts in Irish Education by Ciarán Benson, The Arts Council, 1979] as a model for a proposed national Diploma qualification.) In the early 1980s the Department of Education & Science recognised the School's commitment to higher education by granting it third-level VEC College status. On 1 January 1993, under the terms of the Regional colleges Act, the Cork School of Music became one of the two Constituent Schools of Cork Regional Technical College - renamed in 1998 a Cork Institute of Technology. During the last decade the School has established notably successful BMus and MA courses and established research that complement its performance traditions which feature so prominently on local, regional, national and international platforms.

The initiative was with Cork again when, in 1956, the Cork School of Music occupied the first school in Ireland specifically conceived and built for music education. This building, on Union Quay, was demolished in September 2005 and Hochtief has overseen the construction of magnificentfact|date=April 2008 new premises for the Cork School of Music s a Public Private Partnership project on behalf of the Government's Department of Education & Science.

Demographic changes in the greater Cork are in the 1960s, '70s and '80s led to a greater demand for tuition in music and drama. To cater for this demand the Cork School of Music, during the 1970s, acquired a large annexe on Wellington Road, and in the 1980s established satellite centres at various suburban locations around the city. From 1993 to 1999 the Annexe was located in the Vincentian Community building in Sunday's Well. While the new Cork School of Music was being constructed the School was temporarily located in Moore's Hotel and the Ancient Order of Hibernians building - both on Morrison's Island -and rear of Connolly Hall, Lower Oliver Plunkett Street.

External links

* [http://www.cit.ie/Schools.cfm/type/page/section/details/id/12/type/Page/action/page/aID/191/CatName/Schools_&_Departments.html CIT Cork School of Music]