My dear friends!!

I am very pleased to meet and chat with you, as this communication will give us a great opportunity to share with our knowledge, discoveries and ideas.

All the people in the world have dreams. Others want to be pianists, others doctors, some other people want to live in real life, others in a magic world. All my life I always liked to read fairy tales with their unreal things. I dreamt to be a princess, to find the prince and I loved this unreal world very much. Maybe that was a reason why I wrote the new type of textbook Magic ABC for music, in which all my dreams will come true.

I love children very much and I wanted to do something for them. I started to read many books about the first steps in music education. Many times, I read that the new music school must be more accessible to children and it must be full of imagination. I realized that it is something that I wanted to do. I began thinking of how I could do it. At first, I saw that all children have got abilities. I thought of how children’s abilities could be developed and what I could do for this. I said my prayers and asked God to help me. And he listened to me. God gave me the idea and I started to write a fairy tale in which all the heroes are music symbols with their special characteristics. My friend, an artist and musician, Nino Bagratishvili, helped me, she perfectly felt and designed the fairy tale with magical drawings. At lessons students listen to music, make pictures of actors of fairy tales and special attention is paid on separate fragments of drawings (exact copies) that help to easily recognize this or that symbol. The children, reading this book, will study the serious world of music education with surprising easiness.

But most importantly, they begin to understand and love music! Many of my students have become great musicians and this is the biggest gift for me.

And now I am very happy because my dream was fulfilled and I am here, in my magic world and I am speaking about my book.

                                                                                         Irina Gegelashvili

                                                                        Music Education Specialist

                                               Author of the innovative textbook “The Magic ABC of Music”

                                                                 Founder of the BOGIRA Method 

CURRICULUM VITAE

A. PERSONAL DATA

1. Name                                    :  Irina Gegelashvili

2. Date & Place of birth       :  May 24th, 1959

3. Place of birth                    :  Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia

B. EDUCATION

1. Russian High School, Tbilisi, Georgian Republic, time period 1966- 1976.

2. Music School, Tbilisi, Georgian Republic, time period 1967-1974.

3. Academy of Music, Tbilisi, Georgian Republic, time period 1974-1978.

4. State Conservatory, Piano Department, time period 1978-1983.

C. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1. Piano Teacher in Academy of Music No 28, Tbilisi, Georgian Republic, time period 22.03.1983-21.09.1988.

2. Piano Teacher in experimental class of the Academy of Music, supervised by the State Conservatory, time period 01.09.1988-01.07.1993.

3. When a student of the Academy of Music, participated in classical music concerts in Georgia & abroad as a solist and as accompanist.

4. Tutor in teaching Methodics and practical course on piano in specialized seminars.

5. 2nd prize winner of the contest for the best spiritual poem, Moscow, Russia, 1984.

6. Piano Teacher at Music School “ASTRINIDI ODEIO”, Kalamaria, Thessaloniki, Greece, time period 01.01.1996-2003.

7. Piano Teacher at Music School “SAMARAS”, Thessaloniki, Greece, time period 1997-2004.

8. Solist in classical music concerts in the framework of the Festival “Thessaloniki - Cultural City of Europe”, Greece, 1997.

9. Accompanist in classical music concerts in the  “MONI LAZARISTON» theatre, Thessaloniki, Greece, 1977.

10. Piano recital in Ceremony Hall of Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2000.

11. Publication of my poems in Poetic Anthology “ANDILALOS”, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2000.

12. Accompanist in classical music concerts in Music Palace, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2000.

13. Accompanist in cultural event in the ‘VELLIDEIO” Convention Hall, Thessaloniki, Greece, 2001.

14. Assistant piano teacher at Public Music Gymnasium & joint Lycée, Serres, Greece, school year 30.09.2002-30.06.2003.

15. Piano Teacher in Public Academy of Music, Polihni, Thessaloniki, Greece, time period 2003-2004.

16. Participation in specialized project under the title “METHODOLOGY and PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE in TEACHING MUSIC in PRIMARY EDUCATION”, “MACEDONIA” University of Thessaloniki, Greece, academic year 2003-2004.

17. Appointed permanently as Music Teacher at Public Gymnasium, Vaptisti, Prefecture of Kilkis, Greece from 2005.

18. Compliments on organizing cultural event “Music through the World of Fairy-tale”, expressed by the Directorate of Secondary Education of Kilkis, Greece, 03.06.2005.

19. Organiser of cultural project (programme) “Theatrical & Musical workshop dedicated to the world of fairy-tale”. Winter fairy-tale performance “The QUEEN of SNOW”, Vaptisti, Kilkis, Greece, 21.12.2005.

20. “The role of a fairy tale in a child’s life” – an article published in the international magazine Sazrisi (Thought) – collection of scientific works 19 2005, Tbilisi, Iakob Gogebashvili National Institute of Pedagogical Sciences.

21. Member of Hellenic Society for Music Education.

22. Member of the International Society of Music Education (ISME), 2006.

23. Opted for presentation of the paper under the title “The First Steps into the World of Creation” at the ISME Conference in KL, Malaysia, 16.07.2006-21.07.2006.

24.  I have knowledge of the BRAILLE method (certificate from the Association for the Protection of the Blind B.E. “Sun” - School for the Blind).

25.  I have a certificate in skills and knowledge of technology in the field of computer science and communications.

26. The author of a book entitled “Magic Musical Alphabet” published in 2007 by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation (order 3570 of the Ministry of Culture of Moscow -2007), intended for music schools in the Moscow Region.

27.  In 2008, I was elected by the International Association of Music Teachers (ISME) as a delegate, representing Greece at the international conference in Bologna Italy with the report “The Fairy Tale of Music” ISME.org / Presentation / 23 / 07/2008 / Work session C3 /

28. In 2009, a I was awarded an honorary diploma from the Office of Secondary Education of the city of Kilkis for organizing and conducting a cultural event on the theme: “Music in the world of a fairy tale”.

29.  In 2011, I were  awarded an honorary diploma from the Office of Secondary Education of the city of Kilkis for organizing and conducting a cultural event on the theme: “Music and cinematography.”

30. I was  transferred to the Gymnasium of Art of the Ambelokipi district of the city of Thessaloniki, the academic year 2011-2012.

31. For attending the 10th seminar on theatrical education on the topic: “Meeting the theater with literature”, a certificate of attendance at the lectures was issued (14 hours).

32.  Reviews on the play “Music in the World of the Tale”, held on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 19.00. In the theater of the Ambelokipi district, placed on the electronic page of the Artistic Gymnasium of the Ambelokipi district, under the heading "Events".

33.  For the academic year 2011-2012, a letter of recommendation was issued by the Artistic Gymnasium of the Ambelokipi district of the city of Thessaloniki.

34. 2011–2012 – Transferred to the School of Arts Gymnasium–Lyceum, Thessaloniki.

35. Participant in the theatre education seminar “Theatre Meets Literature”.

36. Reviews of the performance “Music in the World of Fairy Tales” (June 16, 2012) published on the official website of the School of Arts Gymnasium–Lyceum, Thessaloniki.

37. 2011–2012 – Received a recommendation letter from the School of Arts Gymnasium–Lyceum, Ambelokipi, Thessaloniki.

38. 2015 – Presentation of the “BOGIRA” method (new-type textbook  "Magic ABC of Music").in Konya, Turkey, with an open lesson at “Ahmet Karasigan Secondary School”.

39. 2015 – Presentation of the “BOGIRA” method (new-type textbook "Magic ABC of Music") in London, with an open lesson at “Woodfield Teaching School Alliance”.

40. Since 2012 – Music teacher at the School of Arts Gymnasium–Lyceum, Thessaloni    

41. Since 2004 to the present – Successfully applying the “BOGIRA” method using the netype textbook "Magic ABC of Music".
    
    
    
    

Thessaloniki, 18.08.2025

At the present stage of society evolution, the study of different kinds of art becomes especially acute for aesthetic education. It’s known that the elementary common school lays a sound foundation for associative thinking, knowing feelings, perfection of taste, interest and memory to shape emotional and assessment like attitude of the juveniles towards art and reality. Having in mind all the said above we have worked out a special program aimed at bringing to light creative talent at early stage.

         The new type of a textbook – “The Magic ABC of Music” unites as a whole music, literature (a fairy tale, poetry), painting and theatre art. Its core task is study of music at ABC level. The textbook consists of two parts.

1 – a fairy tale

2 – music ABC

         The tale actors have immediate relation to the music world. While getting to know the acting characters and their features a student is on the way to smooth transition from magic fairy tale world to the complex music world and the acting characters of tales become music symbols and instruments. This way a student gets to know the sophisticated music theory with surprising easiness.

         The second part of the textbook presents music ABC, the study of music reading and writing takes the form of poetry. At the lessons the students listen to the music, the leading ideas of actors, draw fairy tale characters paying attention on correctness of separate fragments of the picture so that afterwards they could easily recognize this or that symbol.

         By the end of the school year a pictures exhibition takes place. Students make a playbill, prepare exhibition tickets and computer presentation. They prepare a school book – “A Music Fairy Tale” which consists of students drawings only. A school song and dance concert is arranged including solo numbers of the most gifted ones playing various instruments and a fairy tale is performed on stage.

The new type of a textbook "The Magic ABC of music" was published in 2007 in Moscow with the participation of the Ministry of Culture of the Moscow Region, and was presented at the World Conferences of Music Education in Kuala Lumpur (2006), Bologna (2008), in London (2015), at the Woodfield Teaching School Alliance and in Turkey.

The new music ABC study method BOGIRA aimed at development of creative abilities confirmed great interest of students towards music lessons and demonstrated positive result