Arts and Cultural Education in Iceland : Professor Anne Bamford

Figure 3.3.4 Frequency of public performances in a year in preschool
Figure 3.3.5 Frequency of exhibitions in a year in preschool
In the secondary and compulsory school, pupils may perform at festivals and other similar
special events. For example, “There is an Annual Festival this Saturday – we’re preparing today.
Parents will come and see their plays, etc.” In the music school, performance is more likely to be
a routine and important aspect of the music programme. For example:
Each year we have 13 concerts. We have concerts every third week.
We hold ensemble performances every Thursday evening at 6pm. There is a blackboard in the teacher’s room
that shows who will be performing. We sometimes go to the mall and play. We don’t take the children to
concerts. There is talk that in the future we might be obliged to do that. There are enough concerts in the local
area and people can go to those if they want.
The increased frequency of performances in music schools is evident in Figure 3.3.6, where
around 60% of children are performing more than four times per year.
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