2/19/24

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 

 

 

2/16/24

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.), Imagining Democracy: Promoting Civic Engagement through Art and Education. Routledge. 

2/6/24

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

 

2/5/24

Horizon Europe Submission 2024

It is exciting to now be completing an application for the EU’s Horizon Europe large research grant program. These applications are massive, requiring hundreds of man-hours to develop. For this application, we lead a consortium of 10 partners from 8 countries, seeking 3 million euros, so every detail must be carefully considered. There is likely to be stiff competition, but we seem to have outstanding competence in our team, with a great concept, design, and methodology for a project that promises to have a significant positive impact.  


Our Project Board includes the following people: Sociologist Tia DeNora (University of Exeter), philosopher Kathleen Higgins (University of Texas), and composer/media artist Sandeep Bhagwati (Concordia University, Canada).


If funded, we would be able to pursue original research and development that makes important steps toward alleviating some concerning social problems.


We carefully developed a project to fit exactly what the EU is seeking, so let’s hope the evaluation committees support the proposal!


Deadline Extended for BSRS

The application deadline has been extended for Bergen Summer Research School, and PhD students from around the world are encouraged to apply. Generous scholarships are available especially to support qualified students from the Global South so they can participate in Bergen, Norway this summer.


An exciting set of interdisciplinary courses is available.

Click HERE for more information. Application deadline: 15 February 2024


1/7/24

China Symposium on Talent in Music Education



It was a pleasure to participate this week as the only non-Chinese invited guest in a major academic event at China’s leading faculty of education, Beijing Normal University, as featured on national CCTV.


This was the 2024 symposium on “Global Perspectives Toward Talent Development in Music Education,” and included the prominent Chinese researchers in the field of music education: Jiaxing Xie (China Conservatory), Bo-wah Leung (Education University of Hong Kong), Aiqing Yin (Northeast Normal University), Honglai Liang (Capital Normal University) and the host, Lu Zhang (Beijing Normal University).


We had a very interesting discussion of recent issues and developments in the field. My talk emphasized the themes of Resilience and Flexibility in music teacher education, with particular attention to how we may prepare teachers to effectively respond to major challenges, such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic and the increasing popularization of AI tools in music and education.  


I am happy to find that leaders at Beijing Normal University recognize the value of our Global Competence Partnership project, and also seek to develop new forms of international collaboration with Europe.



Empowering Voices


It was a great pleasure to host a weekend conference in Bergen recently (mid-December 2023) for development of our application seeking EU support for the Empowering Voices project.


The Empowering Voices project assembles a consortium of skilled researchers from diverse academic fields (musicology, sociology, political science, media studies) as well as prominent musicians from an array of minority traditions in Europe and abroad, including Sami, Ukrainian, Syrian, and other Indigenous and refugee minorities. The project consortium includes universities, NGOs, and both media and arts organizations in Norway, Sweden, Poland, Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, the Czech Republic, and New Zealand.


We are excited about this promising project and hopeful it may receive EU research funding.   


We are also seeking funding to extend the Music Talks project in a new direction, which aims through technology-enhanced music activities to empower youth voices toward civic engagement in three regions of Europe: Nordic (Norway), Baltic (Latvia) and Balkan (North Macedonia) youth, ages 15-25.


The image shown above is of one of the most celebrated singers of all time, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.