December 2006 / January 2007


RCM shares the music through advanced connectivity

Expanded use of network means more students can learn from master instructors

September 2007 is when the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) is scheduled to move in to its newly renovated and expanded facility. The project includes a restoration of the original Victorian-era building on Bloor Street West, and a new expansion of a high-calibre, technologically advanced academic facility complete with performance venues. Once complete, the new TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning at the RCM will be one of the world's top arts education venues, with full connectivity to global advanced networks.



Artist's rendering of the restored Conservatory with new Telus Centre, to be completed September 2007.

With enhanced connectivity to ORION and CAnet 4, the new facility will be able to regularly provide more opportunities for specialized music instruction to remote communities, international professional development clinics, remote auditions and examinations, and virtual performances in real time via advanced videoconferencing technology.

The Conservatory, connected to ORION since 2004, has been experimenting with various ways of using high-speed networks to provide enhanced music instruction to students in remote areas of Ontario and throughout Canada.

The RCM has been a partner in MusicPath, a groundbreaking innovation in music instruction developed at Acadia University with the research collaboration of the RCM. The program, funded by CANARIE, allows a pianist to simultaneously play two digital acoustic pianos located distances apart but connected through high-speed networks. In this manner, for instance, Acadia student Lucas Porter has been able to train with internationally acclaimed piano instructor Marc Durand in Toronto.



Internationally acclaimed piano instructor Marc Durand poses in front of MusicPath equipment.

This technological innovation means talented music students in remote communities are no longer cut off from receiving high calibre instruction from teachers based in Toronto.

In another example, the Conservatory is also part of the Strings across the Sky program that re-introduces aboriginal youth in Northern Ontario and the High Arctic to the fading art of fiddling. The program's co-founder and musical director, Andrea Hansen, is a member of the RCM's Academic Council who, along with a number of other volunteer instructors, provides lessons via broadband between her quarterly visits to the remote communities. This way, the instructors are still in touch and can give detailed instruction through advanced videoconferencing.

"At the beginning, videoconferencing technology for the purpose of music instruction and performance was considered untenable by skeptics in the music profession since generating superior sound quality was difficult due to large signal compression," said Sean McShane, Vice President of Information Technology at RCM. "Now that we'll have more bandwidth through ORION, there's considerably little compression, meaning greater fidelity and audio quality needed for determining precise musical nuances."

The technology is supported by Polycom VSX 8000 equipment which offers StereoSurround capability that enables enhanced sound quality, including full-duplex stereo echo cancellation. The equipment affords greater depth of sound and image, imparting a more realistic virtual environment.

The RCM is part of a test project using the equipment, along with the Manhattan School of Music in New York City and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the only three institutions in North America using this advanced technology.

The three institutions, as well as the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, which has recently connected to Internet2, are also collaborating on future projects to reach as many students and musicians as possible.

The Manhattan School of Music, which has been using the equipment for several years now, already has a successful program in place, offering master classes, private lessons, workshops, professional development clinics and performances through its Distance Learning Department. It also offers interactive music education programs for K-12 schools. Once the new TELUS Centre is completed with enhanced connectivity, the RCM anticipates it will offer similar programs to Ontario schools on a regular basis.

For example, the Royal Conservatory of Music is planning arts education outreach into more public schools through its successful Learning through the Arts (LTTA) initiative. Currently, its innovative lesson plans are being used across Canada and internationally in more than 350 schools. The new Matthews Family Centre for Integrative Education in the TELUS Centre will bring together teachers, families, schools and artists through the LTTA public school initiative with the use of advanced technology.

More partnerships with other educational and cultural institutions are planned upon completion of the new Centre. The Conservatory is already collaborating with Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary to bring its theory classes to RCM students. Since the education and training at the RCM is mainly performance-based, it decided to bring Mount Royal's string literature class into its Toronto classroom through videoconferencing. The RCM is planning to expand these sorts of opportunities to more schools.

The RCM is also exploring remote auditioning and examinations, so that neither students nor examiners would have to travel great distances. RCM remote auditions have already been held at Memorial University in Newfoundland, with great potential to become a regular practice with higher bandwidth and increased connection in the new facility.

One anecdote in particular illustrates how the RCM's creative use of ORION made a difference for at least one student.

A French horn student was practicing overtime for a final recital and at the same time preparing for an audition to the Master's program. However, she could feel the muscles of her embouchure starting to "blow out" from the strain - a potentially damaging result of over-practice. She contacted the Conservatory immediately and, by using RCM's connectivity and videoconferencing equipment, the musician was able to enlist the help of the school's embouchure specialist in Ottawa. Fortunately, the specialist was able to assist her by seeing her embouchure in action and recommending treatment in time for her recital and audition.

The numerous and creative ways in which the Royal Conservatory of Music expects to make use of the advanced technology may help position it as one of the leading arts education institutions in the world, says McShane.

"We are really excited to start enjoying the full GigE connectivity once we move to the new TELUS Centre facility," he said. "It will open up a whole new range of teaching opportunities that will provide the best learning experiences for the Conservatory's students. Part of the fun will lie in discovering these new and creative avenues."

For more information about the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning at the Royal Conservatory of Music, please visit www.rcmusic.ca.

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