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 7th 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: 


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:

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. 


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