A professional association of leaders in education has made a prestigious award to a Charles Darwin University academic.
The Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) has honoured CDU Music Theme Leader, Associate Professor Martin Jarvis OAM with the Services to Education Award for outstanding service to music and education.
Dr Jarvis, who founded the Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and wrote the original Bachelor of Music program for the then Northern Territory University and subsequent Charles Darwin University, was cited for his extensive contribution to the cultural landscape of the NT.
Dr Jarvis said he had no idea he was receiving the award and simply went along to the announcement at the request of the ACEL.
“It was a complete surprise, a very nice surprise but a complete surprise all the same,” he said.
British-born Dr Jarvis immigrated to Australia in 1977, originally settling in Tasmania where he worked with the ABC Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra . But in search of sunnier climes, he relocated to the Top End in 1988 to take up a lecturing post at the Northern Territory University.
Dr Jarvis said the award was made all the more special because, at the ACEL Conference, the DSO performed a new work composed by DSO cellist and composer Dr Cathy Applegate and directed by Vocal Studies Lecturer, Kathy Banks.
“The 35-minute-long piece was a stunning success and received three standing ovations. The piece perfectly showcased the outstanding talent both within the DSO and CDU School of Creative Arts & Humanities, and I felt incredibly proud to be so associated with it,” Dr Jarvis said.
Dr Jarvis is set to retire from the DSO at the end of 2009 to focus on his research work in the field of the forensic examination of musical manuscripts.
In 2011 Dr Jarvis will chair a session at the International Graphonomics Society Conference in Mexico on scientific methods to identify the scribes in handwritten manuscripts.