National Organisation of Media Arts Database

WAAPA Composition Dept.

Provided by
Edith Cowan University // Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts

Run since 2007

In 2007 the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts totally re invented its music courses, and this was the start of the first composition and music technology dept. at the Academy.
The department is devoted to furthering the idea that music and sound art are the same thing, its ethos is to teach music composition from a conceptual and historic basis and boasts a very open minded definition of composition, welcoming many different styles of music creation.
The composition course (acoustic) sits beside the music technology course (electronic) with common aims - the interrogation and creation of new Western Australian music and it's presentation.
The performance of new work is an important element to the course, and all undergraduate courses culminate in a final recital or installation. Students have works performed out of the university from their first year.
The Dept. has close links with the dance, film and video, theatre, screen and electronic arts departments accross the university, where students collaborate on a project every semester.
The course is augmented by a close association with the Music Research Group (eMRG, a level one research group that fosters a wide range of music enquiry.
The Department won an ARC Linkage for the Australian Music Centres new music database/archive project, in partnership with the University of Western Sydney. It is also involved in a Western Australian new music archive, looking particularily at ways of archiving more experiemental music forms such as sound art, installation, film music etc.