Two Days, No Spectators: Why Music Teachers Keep Coming Back to The Big Gig
The Big Gig is heading to Kuala Lumpur on 27 and 28 March 2027. Here's why teachers tell us it's the PD event they wait for all year.
Most PD puts you in a chair with a lanyard and a slide deck. By Sunday afternoon you've got forty pages of notes and no idea where to start on Monday morning.
The Big Gig works the other way round. Two things make it different.
You play from the first session
Following the Explore, Recreate, Create framework, instruments and tech are in your hands from the start. You learn the Musical Futures approach the same way your students will: by doing it, getting it a bit wrong, sorting it out with the people next to you and playing it again.
That's why teachers leave with ideas they can use the following week.
“The Big Gig is a fantastic resource for music educators, offering brilliant hands-on experiences teachers can take straight back to the classroom.”
Jeremy Van Sluytman, Shekou International School
For teachers who trained classically, it can shift something bigger.
“A complete game-changer for me. I come from a classical music background… now I know I can just have fun and learn alongside my students.”
Shannon McLachlan, Utahloy International School Guangzhou
It keeps you thinking long after the Sunday flight home
Every booking includes a full year of the Musical Futures International Starter Pack, worth $145 AUD. That's more than 800 lessons, DAW courses and songwriting units, ready for your first lesson back.
Across the two days you can also work towards Musical Futures Certification at one of three levels you choose yourself. Everyone gets a certificate of attendance at the end.
Then there are the people. Music teachers often work in small teams. The Big Gig puts you in a room with teachers who get it, and you keep them long after the weekend.
“A wonderful opportunity that brought neighbouring music teachers together. It is rare that we get to build this kind of community in an international school setting.”
Casey Conforzi, Osaka International School of Kwansei Gakuin
“A shot in the arm. How gloriously cool is gathering with colleagues and learning ways to inspire our students to learn music through songs they like.”
Brian Garland, Rocklin International School
Make it three days: Malaysian drumming with Hands Percussion
Friday 26 March · 25 places
Arrive a day early. For a small extra charge, three facilitators from Hands Percussion, led by Jimmy Ch’ng, run a full-day immersion in Chinese drums and Malay kompang. All instruments are supplied and you don't need any percussion experience.
Last year's gamelan day in Bali was one of the most talked-about parts of the whole weekend. This is its Kuala Lumpur equivalent. Book the Friday drumming day.
The details
Making the case to your school? Once you count the Starter Pack, the ticket works out at $535 AUD for two days of PD and a year of classroom resources.
“The most meaningful PD available in our entire region.”
Cassie Maxwell, Nexus International School Singapore
The Big Gig KL 2027. 27 and 28 March, Kuala Lumpur.
Register now →