The Gitameit Music Institute ( my, ဂီတမိတ် ဂီတသင်တန်းကျောင်း) is a non-profit
music school and community centre in Yankin Township,
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
, Myanmar. The school offers holistic music programs that incorporate the study of western music genres and traditional and folk Burmese music.
Gitameit also houses one of the country's largest musical archives, including digital copies of
phonograph record
A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...
s.
The school maintains a two-year "teaching artist" program with the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
.
History
In 2003, pianist
Kit Young
Christopher William Young (born 1994) is a British actor. He began his career in theatre, earning an Ian Charleson Award nomination. He stars as Jesper Fahey in the Netflix fantasy series ''Shadow and Bone'' (2021–). His films include ''The ...
,
Bruce Gaston, and Burmese colleagues Moe Naing and Tin Yi,
founded Gitameit Music Center in Yangon, to foster a supportive community of local musicians and audiences, and to foster collaboration with the global community.
The school's founding helped to fulfill demand for
music education
Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as elementary or secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a research area in which scholars do origina ...
in the country, where limited options, such as the
National University of Arts and Cultures in Yangon and
Mandalay
Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census).
Mandalay was fo ...
, are available.
On 25 February 2017, a new three-storey building was inaugurated to house the Yangon campus.
Gitameit launched Myanmar's first secular men's and women's choir, Gitameit Voices. A new campus in Mandalay opened .
See also
*
Music of Myanmar
The music of Myanmar (or Burma) ( my, မြန်မာ့ဂီတ) shares many similarities with other musical styles in the region. Traditional music is melodic, having its own unique form of harmony, often composed with a (''na-yi-se''), ...
*
Inwa School of Performing Arts
References
External links
* {{facebook, gitameit
Burmese music
Schools in Myanmar
Yangon
2003 establishments in Myanmar
Mandalay