Sociomusicology: 250th Anniversary in Bergen

11/21/15

250th Anniversary in Bergen

The 250^th Anniversary Finale concert of the Bergen Philharmonic will soon be here! This is scheduled for December 10^th and 11^th, with a performance of Arnold Schönberg’s magnificent composition, Gurrelieder, conducted by Edward Gardner.

On a personal note, it was an incredible experience to perform Gurrelieder two years ago in Berlin as part of the Norwegian professional choir with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Simon Rattle. And now, it is a relief to find my voice has finally returned (after weeks of pneumonia), in time for the start of rehearsals for this Gurrelieder performance in Bergen.

The Grieg Research School course is also in just a few days here in Bergen, and features some great keynote speakers, including Pam Burnard, Gary Ansdell and Nanette Nielsen. I will be a Respondent to a presentation there by Oded Ben-Horin.

Beyond Norway, I am currently planning another visit to Beijing to continue work with Jiaxing Xie on development of the Open Global Music Academy project, which seeks to enhance international collaboration across higher education music programs. In the spring will be a presentation in Paris with Jon McCollum for the International Council for Traditional Music, and a visit to Copenhagen for teaching at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (with Lars Brinck), as well as research collaborations with Kristoffer Jensen (computational musicologist), Li Xin (Director of Confucius Music Institute, Royal Danish Academy of Music), and Margaret Mehl (East Asian studies specialist, University of Copenhagen).

Wikipedia currently has a rather detailed article on Gurre-Lieder. This masterpiece will be a great final performance for 2015. Edvard Grieg would surely have been proud to see that Bergen continues to be a musically significant city.

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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).