Bjork tackles the challenge of music education in New York

Bjork is to become a music teacher for a short while this month in her latest experiment.
She will take up a three-week residency at the New York Hall of Science involving interactive science and music workshops for middle school children in the local area.
At the same time, she will bring her Biophilia show to the venue for ten nights and four performances at the Roseland Ballroom.
The idea has come about from her latest album, Biophilia. On its release last year, Bjork launched an iTunes app that allowed users to play with the components of the music, and she will take the project to school children as a new way of thinking about and accessing music.
According to the event organisers, the workshops will help students study the “scientific concepts at the core of Biophilia’s songs, including crystalline structures, lunar phases, viruses, and more”.
Children will also use the app as a tool for music composition and learn how musicology relates to nature.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Bjork said that the concept stems from her dream to open up a music school and revealed she is “a frustrated music teacher”.
“The whole idea is to take music education out of a bookish, academic thing and into a more physical, tactile experience,” she explained.
If it is successful, Bjork could take her project to other cities around the world. Indeed, after introducing it to schools in Reykjavik, Iceland, the city chose to implement the Biophilia educational project in the school curriculum for the next three years.
It first premiered in the UK during the Manchester International Festival last year and a version of the programme will tour major European festivals this year, including Roskilde, Oyez, and the iTunes Festival in London.
Bjork’s Biophilia show will be an audio-visual experience and use a series of unique musical instruments, including four ten-foot pendulum-harps, a MIDI-controlled pipe organ celeste with gamelan bars, and twin musical Tesla coils. A 24-piece Icelandic female choir will also take part.