Pavel Lipski is the Subject Leader of Music at CIA First International School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Coming through a rigid childhood music education that saw him lose interest in music by his teens, Pavel was introduced to the guitar by a friend and found his place on stage playing Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. After studying linguistics and education and then completing a year of compulsory service in the Belarusian army, it was until a friend introduced him to Fruity Loops (now FL Studio) on a computer that Pavel truly found his passion for music.

Fast forward a few years and Pavel is now a professional game music composer with credits on games such as Potion Craft and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader.

Pavel now leads the High School music team at CIA First International School and has developed a full Ableton-based music tech production curriculum based in the Understanding by Design (UBD) framework.

In this episode, we explore:

• Pavel's journey to international school music teaching.
• What it's like to live and work in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• His current role as Subject Leader for Music
• What it's like to teach a Music Technology-only curriculum
• How his school has applied the UBD approach to curriculum design.
• Pavel's approach to teaching music production using Ableton, including his horizontal and vertical '4-layer' framework.
• Why Ableton is a powerful DAW to use in the classroom.

Please do check out the links below for everything mentioned in the show!

Get in touch with Pavel:

• Contact Pavel on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavellipski/

Links and resources from this episode:

• Music Tech Pathways by Samuel Wright
• Links to Pavel's music for games:
• DAW's mentioned in this episode:
• Soundcloud - free space to upload/share music: https://soundcloud.com/

EPISODE SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by the Unviersity of Warwick's new PGCEi iQTS program that now includes the perfect qualification to help music educators prepare to find the position of their dreams in an international school. Learn more here: https://warwick.ac.uk/cte

Jeremy Van Sluytman is teaching music at Shekou International School, China. 

Jeremy featured in a short conversation for Episode 29 of the podcast, but we wanted to do a deeper dive on his context and approach to music teaching in international schools. Jeremy is a thoughtful and reflective practitioner who has insights on a wide range of topics.

In this episode, we explore:

Please do check out the links below for everything mentioned in the show!

Get in touch with Jeremy:

Links and resources from this episode:

EPISODE SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by the Unviersity of Warwick's new PGCEi iQTS program that now includes the perfect qualification to help music educators prepare to find the position of their dreams in an international school. Learn more here: https://warwick.ac.uk/cte

Adam Gaensler is teaching music at the American International School of Budapest. As is typical of American-style music education, music learning in secondary school is often siloed into strings, wind band and choir. Adam's role sits alongside these traditional streams by offering students rock, pop and electronic music...and it's no surprise that these courses are mega popular at his school!

Adam hails from Sydney, Australia, where he spent time teaching guitar, before moving to Shanghai, China (where he did a post-grad teaching degree) and then Jakarta, Indonesia. Adam has now been in Hungary for 8 years and is loving living and working in this part of the world!

In this episode, we explore:

Please do check out the links below for everything mentioned in the show!

Get in touch with Adam:

Links and resources from this episode:

EPISODE SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by Musical Futures International. Based in the pedagogy of informal learning from the academic work of Lucy Green in the UK 20 years ago, Musical Futures International has championed and legitimised learner-led approaches to music education around the world for the last 15 years.

Their brand new resource platform puts teacher expertise at the front and gives you multiple ways to apply each unit  or resource to suit your context. This not-for-profit organisation has multiple resource subscription levels and options, and MTIIS listeners can get a 1-month free subscription by going to https://bit.ly/mfinternational and filling in their details for immediate access!

Samuel Wright is the International Baccalaureate Diploma Music Coordinator at the International School of The Hague, a CBI Trainer, Composer, Orchestrator & Author.

Samuel featured on Episode 2 of the MTIIS podcast where we spoke about his background and music technology in general. We welcome Samuel back to the show a couple of years later to specifically look at his brand new book: 'Music Technology Pathways: understanding music technology at all stages of learning'.

If you are a music teacher that struggles with technology, isn't sure where to start, is sick of buying hardware/software and never using it, then this book is for you!

Samuel has been testing the pathways for 10+ years in classrooms in Australia, South Korea, Austria and The Netherlands, and the team at Musical Futures International has been using the framework with teachers at their professional learning events. The results have been incredible!

In this episode, we explore:

Please do check out the links below! There is so much gold right there.

Get in touch with Samuel:

Links and resources from this episode:

EPISODE SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by Musical Futures International. Based in the pedagogy of informal learning from the academic work of Lucy Green in the UK 20 years ago, Musical Futures International has championed and legitimised learner-led approaches to music education around the world for the last 15 years. 

Their brand new resource platform puts teacher expertise at the front and gives you multiple ways to apply each unit  or resource to suit your context. Musical Futures International is a not-for-profit organisation has multiple resource subscription levels and options, and MTIIS listeners can get a 1-month free subscription by going to https://bit.ly/mfinternational and filling in their details for immediate access!

Brad Fuller is a music educator, scholar and jazz musician who has completed a PhD at the University of Sydney, Australia. James Humberstone is a music educator, composer-producer, researcher, technologist, and a Senior Lecturer in Music Education at the University of Sydney (also Brad's PhD supervisor).

Brad, James and their colleague, Caitlin Sandiford, recently hosted a global symposium on the concept of Educative Evidence-Based Practice (EEBP) in Music Education. The symposium brought together hundreds of music educators from around the world to discuss some of the dissonance many teachers face when given top-down directives from school leadership about "what works best" in music teaching. The problem is that much of "what works best" doesn't take into account the unique nature of music education, nor does it draw on a holistic body of 'evidence' when making such suggestions.

This is a MUST LISTEN for Heads of Department or aspiring leaders in music education. Tbh, this is a model that I wish I'd learnt about 10 years ago!

To give you the full context, I STRONGLY suggest watching this short video outlining EEBP: https://youtu.be/MfeZTxHEKNo

In this episode, we explore:

Get in touch with Brad & James:

Links and resources from this episode:

Learn more: https://mtiis.co

Fill in the survey now!

Alison Armstrong returns to the MTIIS podcast after 2 years (she featured in Episode 9) to let us know how things are progressing for her and her team at Tashkent International School, Uzbekistan and to ask for YOUR help with a project she is working on.

We know that designing a new music department space, completing renovations or getting things setup in a new school can be a difficult job. Often we don't know where to start or have trouble communicating our ideas to senior leadership and end up with sub-par spaces, resources and designs. Sometimes this is due to building standards or funding, but often it's due to a lack of information available to effectively communicate what we want!

So, Alison has developed a survey to help gather data and create a resource for the community!

She is looking for international school teachers working with students between the ages of 11-16 and with an interest in using breakout practice rooms during general music classes.

If this is YOU, please listen to the episode on then complete the survey below to help Alison create an incredible resource!

⁠Fill in the survey now!⁠

Get in touch with Alison:

Links and resources from this episode:

Thank you to the episode sponsor Trinity College London.

It can sometimes be tricky to navigate the world of music exams for international school students - but Trinity College London love to help make this whole process a lot easier!

Trinity works worldwide to support the music education of hundreds of thousands of students with assessments across a wide spectrum of styles, including Classical, Jazz, Rock & Pop and theory of music. 

If you’re looking for music exams for your students that are super flexible, learner-centred and come with plenty of local on-the-ground support, then Trinity College London could be the perfect option for your international school setting.

Trinity is kindly giving away their ‘Bitesize Theory’ eBook to the MTIIS community! To get your free copy, usually valued at 9GBP, head to https://resources.trinitycollege.com/mtiis

Adam Ockelford is Professor of Music and Director of the Applied Music Research Centre at the University of Roehampton, London. Adam and his colleagues developed the Sound Of Intent framework, a model of musical development that sets out how we all engage with music, from children in the early years to older people with dementia, from those with profound learning difficulties who are still learning to process sound, to others who are regarded as advanced musicians in their culture.

I was introduced to Adam via Anna Gower (you can listen to Anna's MTIIS podcast episode here), an international school music teacher in Bangkok who recently completed a self-directed course looking at the Sound Of Intent framework. Anna raved about the framework, the course, and Adam's approach and knowledge. We knew we had to get Adam on the show if possible!

Many of us may have had some piece-meal training in special education needs, and often it is quite general and unrelated to the music classroom. This is your chance to hear from one of the world's foremost experts in this area!

In this episode, we explore:

There is so much for everyone in this episode! A massive thank you to Adam for sharing his knowledge and expertise with our community 👏🏻

PLEASE check out all of the links below

Get in touch with Adam:

Links and resources from this episode:

Desta Olds is a Performing Arts Teacher at the International School of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Desta joins the long list of cellists that we've had on the MTIIS podcast - this is purely a coincidence of course 😅!

Originally from the USA, Desta worked in South Korea and Hong Kong before joining ISPP a few years ago. Desta came to the recent Big Gig Japan (hosted by Canadian Academy Kobe and delivered by the team at Musical Futures International and MTIIS) and was such a vibe! She was a fantastic presence at the event and we wanted you all to meet her as well!

In this episode, we explore:

A mega thanks to Desta for sharing her insights in this episode! See below for lots of links and ideas, including Desta's amazing blog chronically her international school music teaching journey so far.

Get in touch with Desta:

Links and resources from this episode:

Thank you to the episode sponsor Trinity College London. It can sometimes be tricky to navigate the world of music exams for international school students - but Trinity College London love to help make this whole process a lot easier!

Trinity works worldwide to support the music education of hundreds of thousands of students with assessments across a wide spectrum of styles, including Classical, Jazz, Rock & Pop and theory of music. 

If you’re looking for music exams for your students that are super flexible, learner-centred and come with plenty of local on-the-ground support, then Trinity College London could be the perfect option for your international school setting. 

As you can see in the image above, Trinity is kindly giving away their ‘Bitesize Theory’ eBook to the MTIIS community! To get your free copy, usually valued at 9GBP, head to ⁠https://resources.trinitycollege.com/mtiis⁠

Asta Hodgson is the Head of Music at Prince of Wales Island International School in Penang, Malaysia.

Beginning with her formal music training as a cellist, and subsequent music teacher training focusing on Dalcroze, Asta then completed a dissertation looking at how entrainment interventions impact prosocial behaviours in early years children. This is such a cool study! Asta has so many practical and strategic ideas for how to integrate Dalcroze, strings and play-based music learning together.

In this episode, we explore:

A massive thanks to Asta for sharing her insights and providing some valuable challenges and inspo for the community. Get in touch with Asta or grab some links to resources mentioned in the episode below.

Get in touch with Asta:

Links and resources from this episode:

Teaching Resources:

Dalcroze Societies:

Further Reading:

Other links:

Kerry Wickersham is an Apple Distinguished Educator and the Head of Music and CAS Coordinator at Sotogrande International School in Spain.

He has spent 20 years in Spain and has developed some incredible opportunities for his students. In fact, as you'll find out in this episode, many of these opportunities have been led by his students.

In this episode, we explore:

Please take a minute to check out the links below! Some amazing resources and inspiration for your events!

Get in touch with Kerry:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerry-j-wickersham-9167592a1/

Links and resources from this episode:

El Cañuelo - songwriting trip and playlist

Building the Sotorox stage + setting up the event

This is Sotorox! video

The Coalition To Honour All Learning website

EPISODE SPONSOR:
This episode is brought to you by AIM - the Australian Institute of Music. AIM is Australia's first, and only creative institute entirely dedicated to music. AIM has more than 50 years of experience in the industry, empowering over 6,000 artists, and teaching them the tools and knowledge to hone their skills and find their place in the music world.

We often get asked by international school music teachers for fantastic institutions for further study for students, especially in the wider Asian region. Instead of having students go to the US or UK to study Western music, many students are now opting for AIM due to timezone similarities and the epic lifestyle of cities like Melbourne and Sydney.

If you have students who are looking to study diploma, bachelor’s, or master’s degree courses in classical or contemporary music performance, composition, creative technology, musical theatre, or arts and entertainment management, then AIM is a brilliant option. You can find everything you need at https://aim.edu.au