Welcome to the inaugural

2017 Di Bresciani Award for Initiative!

This award goes to....

a student between the ages of 6-12 who shows remarkable and fantastic initiative around the learning of their musical instrument and is not one of Emma's students (don't worry-they don't miss out!).

The Award is named after….

.... the wonderful Di Bresciani OAM who is a painter, musician, teacher, founder of Youth Music Foundation of Australia, and patron of the arts. About initiative Di says “————- “

Students....read this!....

This is for you! A special award for a human quality that is so so special and important to your growth as an awesome and valuable person in this world. Initiative.

Do you know what this means? Well here is the dictionary meaning and a few words that kind of mean the same thing.

Meaning of initiative (noun)

the ability to assess and initiate things independently (in other words to look at and start things by yourself)
the power or opportunity to take charge or act before others do.

Synonyms of initiative- drive, leadership, inventiveness, resourcefulness, spunk, energy, gumption, enthusiasm

Essentially, it means to get out there and go for it-give it all you have!!!!!!

Every great human has had to show initiative in truckloads throughout their life. A few examples of people that have shown insane amounts of initiative are Wangaari Maathi, who reforested Kenya with millions of trees and won the Nobel Peace Prize, Tim Minchin, the comedian and composer behind the fantastic musical Matilda, and Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple.

Of course initiative is most definitely vital to your music education and it is weird how it is hardly acknowledged. This award is not about what level you are at at the instrument--it is about what ideas you have tried out to attempt to improve your practice, playing, and music in general.

If you have been inspired to create something from your own wonderful brain to help you with your practice, then please apply.
If you have been keen-as-a-bean to challenge yourself with a particular musical something or other all on your own, then please apply.
If you love your music very very much and have shown it in your own special way through pictures or composing, then please apply.
If you have an imagination full of fizzing and whirling musical ideas and have tried to make some of these happen in real life, please apply!
If you have asked musical questions and have tried to answer them for yourself ---then you really need to enter The Di Bresciani Award for Initiative!
This award isn't about just one thing! If you have done a couple of the above then please tell us about them all.

Parents and Teachers, please read this....

You are the make or break in this situation as you have ability to take on the responsibility to help your child or student follow through with their solutions, ideas and dreams. Your responsibility is not to help make the idea perfect---no no no! This award is NOT about perfection.

It IS about encouraging children to follow through on their own ideas.

It IS about supporting kids to recognise and improve their own view on the world through their music.

It is NOT about playing a piece perfectly like a little robot in a competition, it is not about having a child or student who does not question anything, it is not for students who have been given specific instructions by you for an outcome you think is correct.

Your role in this award is to give your child or student space in their lives to think their idea through no matter how small- to encourage, support, and guide. Your role is to give quality lesson time and precious driving-of-car skills. You can support by laughing and being joyful. As you know showing initiative means the likelihood of failure goes up so please embrace the failures when they come and tell us about them!

Help your child or student to have the courage to question, learn and improve things for themselves.

The award is....

$200 generously donated by the lovely and initiative-filled Di Bresciani and Emma Cutting.

To apply....

Round 1 Steps and Guidelines

This award is open for children who are aged 6-12 as of 8th September 2017(application closing date).
There is no application fee but there is a limit of 40 applicants. Once that limit is reached unfortunately no more will be accepted.
To be completely fair and unbiased in this award, Emma's students are not permitted to enter.
In every application there must be a separate letter from the student, the teacher and the parent to demonstrate how the initiative has been shown and applied by the student to their music education. So that's three (3) letters for a successful entry.
Every application must be accompanied by the award form to be found here -------
Additional materials, such as recordings, drawings, posters, compositions etc can (and should!) all be included in the application. Digital materials should be mentioned in the application and emailed through separately - details will be included in the application form.
The form, 3 x letters and anything from Step 5 is to be sent to The Di Bresciani Award, 101 Cobden St, South Melbourne Vic 3205.
Applications close on Friday 8th September 2017.
All applicants will be congratulated for their hard work but only a few will receive the opportunity to go to the next round.
Unfortunately applications cannot be returned to the sender.

Round 2 Steps

From the Round 1 applications, a few students will be asked to attend a small (and not too scary!) meeting with their parent and/or teacher.
Along with a little chat, the applicant will be required to play something on their instrument, no longer than 8 mins.
They might be stopped part of the way through their playing but please prepare like you won't be!
The meeting will be 20 minutes long.
Successful applicants for Round 2 will be contacted by Friday 13th October for the meeting to be arranged.
Meetings will take place in South Melbourne between the 1st-14th November 2017.
If a time can't be worked out with an applicant between these dates then their place in Round 2 is forfeit.

Award Presentation

The initiative-filled applicant who is to receive the award will be contacted by Friday 17th November 2017.
The student is hopefully available to receive the award on Sunday December 3rd 4-5pm 2017 at Emma's Student Concert, held in Richmond Uniting Church, Church St Richmond.

Questions Not Answered Here?....

Please contact Emma on emma@emmacutting.com and ask away! I will hopefully reply to you within a 3-4 working days. If the applicant themselves would like to ask me a question they are very welcome to email me too!