... a brief history [about us]

The MayDay Group was founded by Thomas A Regelski and J Terry Gates in the winter of 1993. They invited twenty music education theorists and methods experts in the northeastern USA, southeastern Canada and England to meet in Buffalo, New York on May 1-2, 1993 with the intention of critically reexamining the status of practice in music education. Since then, The MayDay Group has met yearly: June 1994, Toronto; May 1995, Buffalo; April 1996, Boston; April 1997, College Park, Maryland; June 1998, Dallas; October 1998, Toronto; April 1999, Seattle; October 1999, Boston; June 2000, Helsinki; October 2001, Edwardsville. Since then, the MDG has meet yearly in the US, Canada, Finland, and Norway.

The MayDay Group continues to function as an international think tank, connected through email, the Internet and by regular mail. They are concerned to identify, critique, and change taken-for-granted patterns of professional activity, polemical approaches to method, and social, musical and educational philosophies, educational politics and public pressures that have threatened effective practice and stifled critical and open communication among music educators. The ongoing debate about these matters resulted in a more formal two-fold purpose:

[a] to apply critical theory and critical thinking to the purposes and practices of music education, and

[b] to affirm the central importance of musical participation in human life and, thus, the value of music in the general education of all people.

As of April 2006, MayDay Group members include musicians, music educators, social and cultural theorists from over twenty countries.

The name of the MayDay Group reveals something of the group's motivation:

First: The first meeting was on May 1, 1993.

Second: MayDay is the international distress signal, and we think that the profession is in distress, especially in the areas noted in the pamphlet, Action for Change in Music Education. The MayDay Group intended from the beginning to be international, partially as a way to lift the discussion above national politics, partially as a way to broaden the base of experience upon which each of its members can draw.

Third: MayDay is a springtime celebration of renewal and fertility in some cultures, but it is also a date that was used to commemorate revolutionary action in some countries. Renewal without action is a personal benefit. But renewal for the profession without action is unlikely. The MayDay Group intends to move its agenda forward.

MayDay Group colloquia start with an invitation to members to come to an intense, 36-hour philosophical discussion of music education issues. There's an agenda of sorts, usually a set of topics. Sometimes members discuss background papers, their recently issued books or presentations; but there is seldom the prediction that something definite will be accomplished or decided. They are colloquia in the true sense.

The MayDay Group's ideals for music education are presented in Action for Change in Music Education.