HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam National Academy of Music (VNAM) will co-operate with Australia Music Examinations Board (AMEB) in fields of trainning, performance and music exchange.

Under the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed on December 3 at VNAM,  AMEB will provide curriculum and experts to exam the VNAM’s students. Lecturers of the VNAM’s will have more opportunity to attend training courses given by AMEB’s system.

"This is the most exciting international partnership in the history of the AMEB," said Miky Tyler, Chair of the AMEB Board of Directors at the MOU singing ceremony. "As an iconic Australian organisation, we are proud to begin this association with the VNAM which represents the highest levele of music education in Việt Nam".

AMEB is one of the most distinguished and recorgnised music examination boards in the world. This significant export move is in response to continuing discussions with the VNAM, following AMEB recorgnising the need for consistent and high-quality music education across Việt Nam.

As part of the partnership, AMEB has already committed to over 500 examinations for year 2019 and a number of Australian teachers and examiners will come to Việt Nam to train local teachers in the AMEB model and curriculum.

Đào Trọng Tuyên, Head of Piano Department and Associate Professor Dr Nguyễn Huy Phương, Deputy Head of Piano Department will take the lead in teaching the AMEB curriculum at the VNAM and oversee the significant move to allow their students to play some repertoire from AMEB publications in their formal exams.

VNAM expects to launch a Music Centre that will teach piano using AMEB curriculum and examinations in 2020.

Lecturers and students from VNAM and AMEB will attend festivals, performances and competitions which will be held by the two organsiation respectively. The Australian partner will organise summer music camp and exchange programmes to help VNAM’s lecturers and students to have chance to experience AMEB system more comprehensively.

"The co-operation between the VNAM and the AMEB is a wonderful opportunity for us to approach a standard model of exam with 100 years of experience," said Lê Anh Tuấn, VNAM’s director. "This is also an evidence to the development and integration of VNAM with the professional music education of the advanced country in the region and in the world.

AMEB is Australia’s leading provider of examination services for music, speech and drama. It emerged in 1918 as a national body with the purpose of providing graded assessments of the achievements of music students and examinations for students of speech and drama later.

Participants at the MOU signing ceremony are Australian ambassador Craig Chittick and representative from Việt Nam Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. — VNS