Sociomusicology: December 2011

12/31/11

12/28/11

Christmas Music in Bergen

This year – 2011 – was my first Christmas in Bergen, Norway, which I have found to be remarkably active with music performances surrounding the holiday period. I enjoyed the opportunity to perform with several music ensembles.

During this Christmastime, I performed jazz trumpet at Fana Kulturhus with jazz composer and vocalist Oded Ben-Horin as well as some of Oded’s fine jazz students along with a band organized by pianist Øystein Kvinge and saxophonist/flutist Pia-Camilla Tømmernes, electric bassist Peter Harald Sæverud, and others.

I also performed a few times as a vocalist (low bass) along with three inspiring women in a very nice a cappella quartet: Silje Valde Onsrud (soprano), Anne Kristine Wallace Turøy (alto), and Tine Grieg Viig (contralto). We sang several Christmas carols, including a published arrangement by Catharina Chistophersen. Anne Kristine and Tine and I also played carols in a small brass group.

Additionally, I sang and played trumpet with the Bergen Anglican choir, led by Roger Martin, which included a performance in the old Korskirken cathedral (a major Bergen landmark that had already been established by 1185!).

I enjoyed rehearsing with a fine jazz choir called Stemmebruket, but due to some unexpected problems with airplanes (during my return from serving on a doctoral tribunal in Spain), it was not possible to perform with them this time – I look forward to other concerts soon in 2012!

I also attended an enjoyable performance of Christmas music by the “Jambonans Musik Corps” brass band, an intergenerational community ensemble with a fine tradition.

Community music activities are certainly lively during the holidays in Bergen – a joy to observe and experience.

Welcome to Sociomusicology

For over 15 years (since 2007), this website has offered musings on contemporary society and its music by David G. Hebert, PhD. He is a sociomusicologist specializing in global music education who has held academic positions with universities on five continents. Dr. Hebert is now a tenured full Professor with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. There he leads the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group and manages the multinational government-funded Nordic Network for Music Education, which organizes annual intensive Master courses and exchange of teachers and students across eight countries. He is also an Affiliated Professor with University of the Faroe Islands and an Honorary Professor in China with the Education University of Hong Kong.

Professor Hebert's research applies an international-comparative perspective to issues of pluralism, identity, and cultural relevance in music education, as well as processes by which new music traditions emerge and change - both sonically and socially - as they are adopted into institutions. Born in the 1970s, he is among the most widely-published and globally-active music scholars of his generation (h-index:20; i10-index:30), with professional activities in an average of 8 countries per year across the past decade (2008-2020).