PRESTO
PRESTO - Practices and Resources for Equipping Schools to Teach Music Online - is a collaborative transnational research project funded by the KA226 Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The consortium is led by the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy, Hungary, with project partners Caprice Oy from Finland, the owner of Minifiddlers who offer online Colourstrings courses; the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS); Dublin City University - School of Theology, Philosophy and Music (DCU, Ireland); and Sing Ireland, Ireland's national support organisation for choral and group singing.
The main goals of the PRESTO project are two-fold: to build resilience and flexibility into music-teaching in the school sector by means of digital readiness, as this area is yet poorly served by technological solutions for remote learning and performance. Second, to provide curated resources with sector-specific guidance through innovative resources across the main fields of music teaching: classroom music lessons, instrumental teaching, and choral activities. We wanted to provide clear, solid guidance, a careful selection tailored to the needs of music teachers and choral leaders in schools from our best practices. Instead of just making information and resources available, these are meant to be tied to practical guidance on how best to put that information into action in the specific context of music in schools. We provide authoritative and expert oversight in the selection and dissemination of these resources and practices, i.e. the digital resources (education videos), step-by-step guidance materials (videos, animations, lesson plans, methodology notes) and newly commissioned compositions with pedagogical aims. The outputs of Finnish, Hungarian, Irish and Scottish experts collate a universal and meaningful set of resources.