PhD defense on Singing in Malaysia

I look forward to serving as an external examiner in April 2026 for a PhD defense at the Institute of Music, UCSI University, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

This will be for Huang Yichen’s PhD in Music Performance, with a dissertation titled Schubert’s Two Wanderings: An Interpretive Approach from a Singer’s Perspective.

Huang’s dissertation systematically examines two of Franz Schubert’s famous art song cycles, Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795) and Winterreise (D. 911), using a practice-led and performer-centred approach.

It is exciting to see what is being achieved in music in Malaysia, particularly in the area of performance-based artistic research. This will be my second PhD defense at USCI University across recent months, and my third defense (as external examiner) for a Malaysian doctoral candidate across the past year, so I feel I am getting a direct sense of Malaysia’s growing importance in the music field.

While western classical art music has its roots in European heritage, there can be no doubt that across recent years many Asian countries have fully embraced this tradition with a deep appreciation that will surely be sustained long into the future.  

 

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kl-skyline-at-night-2022.jpg

 

Amsterdam: Global Philosophy of Education

I eagerly look forward to visiting Amsterdam soon as an Invited Speaker for what promises to be a unique and exciting event:

The Global Philosophy of Education Field Launching Conference (at VU Amsterdam).

This explanation is from its Call for Papers:

“This conference aims to establish the field of Global Philosophy of Education, understood as a research space and practice where central issues in philosophy of education are defined, discussed and researched jointly by philosophers working from different cultural and philosophical traditions and perspectives. This entails not the establishment of a global philosophy in the sense of a universal or hegemonic philosophical theory, but the development of a global practice of philosophy of education.”

 

Here is the abstract for the speech I have developed for this event:

 

Learning Beyond Borders: Seeking Synthesis in Global Philosophy of Education

 

Prof. David G. Hebert

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

 

Abstract

It is common in Northern Europe for educational foundations to mostly rely on the ideas of German and Nordic thinkers from more than a century ago (e.g. Humboldt, Grundtvig, etc). Recently, countries that boldly deviate to some extent from this tradition, such as Finland, tend to attract attention for their educational innovations. Still, it seems reasonable to ask whether teacher education remains the most ethnocentric field in all of academia. In two recent books, I collaborated with colleagues from diverse cultural backgrounds to rethink philosophy of education from a comparative and decolonial perspective. One book is an anthology that aims to demonstrate the usefulness of efforts to challenge Eurocentrism and cultivate a global philosophy of education (Hebert, 2023). The other is a monograph co-authored with a Chinese scholar that aims for a synthesis between Asian philosophies, contemporary western philosophies, and systems science, to develop a novel philosophy of music education that is responsive to the new challenges from AI (Xie & Hebert, 2026). Here I will share some reflections on the processes and main ideas from these projects as well as prospects for future work. Along the way, I will demonstrate how the field of global philosophy of education has been quietly developing for some time, as seen in the work of luminary African scholars like Yusef Waghid, Indigenous (Maori) scholars like Linda Tuhiwai Smith and Carl Mika, and laudable internationalists such as Martha Nussbaum, Michael Peters and Liz Jackson. I will also outline the benefits to be gained if European universities would do more to promote cosmopolitan scholarship that stimulates pedagogical reflections beyond outdated visions of Bildung, particularly in this uniquely challenging age of AI. 

 

Horizon Europe Application 2026

It is exciting to now be developing a new Horizon Europe (EU) grant application. Our most recent application from about a year ago received very high scores, placing in the top 10% of applications, but did not quite get funded for 3 million euros (see image). That application was placed on the “Reserve List” for more than a year, formally approved if more EU funding were to become available. Unfortunately, there was no additional funding in 2025. 

We now know how to write very strong applications, and I am convinced that our 2026 application will be better than ever, with consortium partners in several countries who are ideally positioned, having the expertise to develop new methodological and technological solutions, as requested by the EU. That especially matters during this period in which conflicts seem to be escalating worldwide. Music matters more now than ever before, and we need more robust research projects to determine how best to make use of its special power. 

Below are some recent books related to our proposed project for the 2026 call.

Keynote for 70th Anniversary Conference in Korea

It is exciting to be invited as a keynote speaker for the 70^th anniversary conference of the Korean Music Education Society (Seoul, August, 2026).

The theme for the 2026 conference is “70 Years of Music Education: Expansion and Future Perspectives in the Age of AI”.

South Korea has a population of more than 50 million and enjoys an unusually vibrant and active music education research community. 

This 70th anniversary will be a very special event, well worth attending.

English Coursebook on Chinese Music

It is a pleasure to announce a new textbook for learning Chinese music, developed by Dr. Zijin Yao at Beijing Language and Culture University, English Coursebook on Chinese Music. This book offers a detailed description of Chinese music genres in cultural context, with explanations for essential terminology in both Chinese and English languages.

• Yao, Zijin, Ren Jie, Wang Xiaoran, Sun Run, and Hebert, David. English Coursebook on Chinese Music (Chongqing University Press, 2026).

This book will be uniquely helpful for any foreigners interested in understanding Chinese music traditions as well as for any Chinese musicians who would like to know how best to explain this music to others (by improving their specialized English language skills relevant to the music profession). It thereby serves as a cultural bridge, in both directions, for the benefit of musicians and music lovers. 

It was a pleasure to support Dr. Yao and her team in their development of this unique book. The authors are affiliated with the innovative Music-Culture-Communication program at Beijing Language and Culture University. 

Links for purchasing will be provided here in the near future.

Reception of Shared Listenings

Recently some very positive reviews have been published for our co-authored book Shared Listenings: Methods for Transcultural Musicianship and Research (Cambridge University Press): 

  

"Shared Listenings is more than a research text; it is a guide for the "reflective practice" that every improviser should ideally undergo. The authors demonstrate that by facing the difficulty of unfamiliar contexts and sharing critical views, one reward is a deeper understanding of one's own musical behavior. This book recommends us to look at our own practices with the same scrutiny that they have employed. It asks us to consider if our learning is extractive or if it is a genuine attempt to correct unjust imbalances of power. It invites us to develop a keener sense of how to make space for others." 

- Journal of Sonic Studies.

https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/558982/4175093

“The many years of experience in tedious intercultural work that the book's authors possess (...) made it possible to present an unusually concrete text on how future musician education and artistic research in music could be developed with the help of shared listening (…) what could be called a handbook on the art of musical encounters across cultural boundaries” (translated from Swedish) 

- Swedish Journal of Music Research 

https://publicera.kb.se/stm-sjm/article/view/51283/44805

Professional Activities in East Asia

 

It was a tremendous pleasure to participate as an Invited Speaker for a recent conference in Seoul, Korea hosted by the Association for Future Music Education.

 

Also, click HERE for a link to an update from the Global Competence Partnership project in Hong Kong.

 

Lately I have also been visiting Japan’s music industry capital, Hamamatsu, for development of an application to the Horizon Europe grants program. We intend to develop new research-based solutions, technological (AI) standards, and policy recommendations for specialized uses of music, as requested by a call from the EU. 

Also, here is a brief video from a jazz club in Hong Kong ... a brilliant local trumpeter named Ruel Cabrilla generously let me borrow one of his instruments to sit in on a tune in mid-February 2026 ...