Elizabeth Oehrle

Elizabeth Oehrle, Hon. Prof. of music education at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa traveled from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY to South Africa where she taught music at all levels. She inaugurated and ran Creative Music Classes for Children from 3-6; she founded UKUSA, South Africa's longest running and most successful music outreach bridging programme, she started SAMES, the first tertiary music educators organization open to all tertiary educators in South Africa, black and white; and she launched and edited The Talking Drum, a regular publication admired internationally for the assistance it provides to educators who teach intercultural music.

Recently, Elizabeth wrote the book Creative Musicking, which promotes openness and cultural diversity in a creative way.

CREATIVE MUSICKING
Everyone can make music. Some just work harder than others, say the Venda people living in South Africa, according to John Blacking. Material in this text makes it possible for anyone to begin to create music and to learn about different musics. Ideas are presented in detail, and move in graded steps enabling readers to make use of their own music making potential. The starting point for each series of lessons is the musical experience based on the musics of Africa, India and the West, and sound is the medium of instruction. Each lesson is devised so that readers are active in discovering their own creative potential along with characteristics of the different musics. By experiencing different musics (African, Indian and Western) and understanding a little about their construction readers will begin to appreciate musics about which they may know very little. Understanding, appreciating, and enjoying differences in musics is one way of opening doors between peoples. It is one way of realizing that cultural diversity is a cause for celebration. Readers who want to use the process of creative music making to utilize their own creative potential and to broaden their own concept of music, will find this book extremely helpful and of great interest.

Location: Durban, South Africa