Chinese Musicology Event in Xiamen

 

I look forward to an upcoming weekend trip in May to Xiamen, China, where I am an Invited Speaker for what promises to be a landmark event in the history of Chinese music scholarship. This conference celebrates the publication of a unique 18-volume encyclopedia in Chinese language on the history of ideas in Chinese music disciplines, edited by my long-time collaborator Professor Jiaxing Xie of China Conservatory. The encyclopedia comes with an array of digital resources and is likely to be quite impactful for many years. 

Xie and I have given several presentations together at international conferences on the theme of digital transformations in music education and we are co-authoring a book in English that is related to this project. A select group of notable music researchers from various countries are invited for the conference and I eagerly look forward to our discussions in Xiamen at Jimei University.

Online Cafe: History of Music Education

I look forward to hosting the next Online Cafe of the International Society for Music Education. As Chair of ISME's History Standing Committee, I was invited to develop this event, and asked one of the HSC's most active members Craig Resta to serve as co-host. 

We are hopeful this event will generate more interest in how we can better understand issues and practices in institutions through a historical perspective. Below are details:  

Next ISME Online Cafe: 

How History Matters in Music Education: Opportunities and Methods  

Hosts: David G. Hebert and Craig Resta 

Schedule: Tuesday, 30 April '24 at 14:00 Paris Time

Concept: 

History enables us to understand conditions, practices and issues in music education, how and why they have changed across time, and to see new possibilities for the future. History tells the stories of music education. What are the meaningful stories from your personal and professional life in music? In this interactive session, presenters and participants will explore how history can influence and impact (your) music teaching and learning.

The ISME Online Cafes are offered as free outreach, so anyone can join. They last for about two hours. Details can be obtained by scanning the QR code in the poster displayed above. 

Twentieth Anniversary Conference in Poznan

 

Recently I returned to Bergen, Norway after participating in the 20-year jubilee event of the Musica Practica Musica Theoretica series at the Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland. At this international symposium, it was exciting to see some recent developments in music scholarship coming from Poland and nearby countries. This series of annual events has been organized and hosted by Mikolaj Rykowski and colleagues at the academy across recent years and was founded by his mentor at the academy. 

Poznan is a lovely place (central square pictured here), and as Mikolaj and I noticed when we worked together on the book Music Glocalization, it was also the birthplace of sociologist and globalization theorist Zygmunt Bauman. It was a pleasure to give a presentation in Poznan on methods for research on revival of ancient music, as well as to chair a session on “Artistic Research and Other Methodologies” and participate as a panelist in the concluding plenary discussion on Artistic Research Methods in Music along with Stefan Ostersjo, Mikolaj Rykowski and others. Some of the ideas we discussed are described at length in the book Shared Listenings, although the panel was not specifically about intercultural projects. 

Earlier, I gave a guest lecture, “Research in International Music Education: Issues and Methods”, for the music Master program at Beijing Normal University-Zhuhai campus, and I look forward to returning to China later this year.

In Bergen we are now preparing a PhD course for Bergen Summer Research School and developing multiple new PhD courses through the Global Competence Partnership project.

 

Hong Kong, Spring 2024

 

This month I have been visiting Hong Kong as Honorary Professor with the Education University of Hong Kong. This visit was made possible through the Global Competence Partnership project, and my main objective is to plan further exchange between our institutions, especially at the doctoral and postgraduate levels. 

Here I have especially been collaborating with Koji Matsunobu, who now  leads the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at EdUHK, and I have participated in his postdoctoral research group meeting (with Lexuan Zhang, Luna Ning Luo and Robbie Ming Hon Ho) and the doctoral seminar (coordinated by Lexuan) as well as a doctoral qualifying examination for Kay Li Wing Ki. 

This has also been an excellent opportunity to meet with ISME President Bo-wah Leung and other colleagues here such as composer and music technologist Michael Chi Hin Leung and music education researchers Yang Yang and Matthew Thibeault. I also met with prolific music education historian Prof. Wai-Chung Ho (Hong Kong Baptist University), who has produced several interesting books across the past decade.   

During my time here, a delegation with students from Nara University of Education came to visit, with a joint symposium and concert, and through that event I had a chance to meet with the Japan-based Chinese ethnomusicologist Prof. Lin-Yu Liou.

It has also been a great pleasure to get to know two fine young classical pianists, Dr. Suzuki Keishi (Nara University of Education, Japan) and Dr. Philbert King Yue Li (Education University of Hong Kong). Philbert has generously met with me to sightread through some romantic art songs and I am looking into whether it may be possible to plan a lecture-recital series for the next time I visit Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is certainly an exciting place for music education and related fields, and I look forward to seeing what develops through our collaboration.

Deep Soundings, Volume IV

I am happy to report that Volume IV is now being printed, the latest monograph in the Lexington Series in Historical Ethnomusicology: Deep Soundings. 

It is a pleasure to edit this book series, which provides new insights into global music heritage. 

Below is our list of recent titles and forthcoming (contracted) books:

 

Vol. I (2021), by Ambigay Raidoo Yudkoff, PhD:

Activism through Music during the Apartheid Era and Beyond: When Voices Meet

 

Vol. II (2022), by David G. Hebert, PhD and Jonathan McCollum, PhD (editors):

Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy

 

Vol. III (2022), by Raja Iskandar Bin Raja Halid, PhD:

The Malay Nobat: A History of Power, Acculturation and Sovereignty

 

Vol. IV (2024), by Mikolaj Rykowski, PhD:

Music Glocalization and the Composer: The Case of Franz Xaver Scharwenka

 

Vol. V (forthcoming, 2025), by Amy Frishkey, PhD:

Navigating Neo-Traditionalism in Garifuna Popular Music

 

Vol. VI (forthcoming, 2025), by Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, PhD:

The Spanish-Moroccan Musical Brotherhood: Colonial Legacies, Interculturalism and Cultural Memory across the Strait of Gibraltor 

 

 

Music Talks II Project

The GAME research group will soon be completing its application for funding to extend the Music Talks project as Music Talks II, which will build further on our previous methods but emphasize the design and application of new digital tools. We are thankful for the EU's Erasmus Plus funding and hopeful the project will continue.

Music Talks produces evidence-based methods for using music to promote civic engagement among European youth, and is based on a collaboration between Nordic, Baltic, and Balkan organizations in multiple sectors: a university, community schools, and youth-oriented NGOs. 

In addition to the materials on the Music Talks website, we will soon have the following academic outcome:

Hebert, D. G. & Johnson, D. (in press, 2024). Global music communities and civic engagement in the digital age. In D. Blandy & F. Bastos (Eds.), Promoting Civic Engagement through Art Education: A Call to Action for Creative Educators. Routledge. 

Four Decades of Folk Music Research in Finland

         

It is inspiring to now have an opportunity to participate in the 40-Year Jubilee Symposium of the Folk Music Department at Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki.  

 

I used to work as a Professor there about 15 years ago and helped to establish its Master of Global Music program. It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to return and see the current situation, as well as to meet other singing researchers as part of the Singing Maps project managed by my colleague David Johnson.

 

The symposium will be live-streamed on the University of the Arts YouTube channel, and links for the streaming are provided at the end of the program. Click HERE to access the symposium program.

 

 

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki#/media/File:Helsinki_July_2013-27a.jpg