Sociomusicology: April 2013

4/20/13

Music Conference in Tanzania 2013

In a few months I will be going to Tanzania - for the first time - as Keynote Speaker for the 7^th annual Ethnomusicology Symposium, held at the University of Dar es Salaam in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The other keynote speaker this year is a prominent ethnomusicologist, Professor Regine Allgayer-Kaufmann, from University of Vienna.

This annual symposium has reportedly become “the most popular professional event in African ethnomusicology” and many well-known scholars have been invited to give keynote presentations in the past, including Prof. J.H. Kwabena Nketia, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kubik and Prof. Patricia Shehan Campbell.

Here is a link for more information:

http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/sport/19794-bi-kidude-to-be-honoured-at-ethnomusicology-symposium

I am very thankful that both University of Dar es Salaam (especially Professor Mitchel Strumpf) and my institution, Bergen University College, agreed to sponsor this visit. My former doctoral student Arnold Chiwalala may also be joining the symposium as a guest performer and lecturer.

Link to Dr. Chiwalala’s latest album:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/arnoldchiwalalaband

I have been terribly impressed by all my previous contacts with Tanzanian musicians, and Tanzanian people in general, and I look forward to learning more and exploring how we might strengthen ties between the Nordic region and East Africa in the field of music.

UPDATE: Below are photos from a duo performance at the symposium in Dar es Salaam with my former doctoral student, Tanzanian singer-songwriter Arnold Chiwalala. Normally Chiwalala performs with a Finnish trumpeter/guitarist, but I was happy to have a chance to play with him this time.

4/16/13

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).