Our 2021 Focus on Music Education
PHOTO : PAUL JOSEPH
UBC ’ S PAT CARRABRE
The Formal University Route
University of British Columbia ( Vancouver , BC )
Dr . T . Patrick Carrabré : Director of the School of Music
CM : Can you tell me what the general approach to teaching looks like in UBC ’ s music program ?
Dr . T . Patrick Carrabré : UBC is a fairly typical Canadian university music-based training program . We have a number of streams , so you can take performance , or you can take a more academic route or you can take a music education route . Our undergraduate degree is four years . I think something that makes us unique in Canada are the world music courses that is part of our undergraduate curriculum . Everyone takes a course that surveys different music around the world and different approaches to music , or they register in one of our world music ensembles . We have a Korean drumming ensemble , an African drumming ensemble , a Chinese ensemble , and a number of other ensembles that represent different cultural traditions . We ’ ve had a long history at UBC of being involved in music other than western art music that goes back to the ‘ 60s to the beginning of our school .
Another thing we have that ’ s pretty important is that all of our students are required to take a music technology course ; we have a great music technology course that involves a whole array of skills that one builds — you can go as far as soldering your own circuit boards if you want . So , there ’ s a requirement that you learn how to record , how to edit , how to do some video . You create a portfolio of electronic resources for yourself . Other universities have similar things , but these are a couple of the special components of our program , in addition to the great ensemble work ,
50 CANADIAN MUSICIAN