Book Release Event in Poland

I look forward to visiting Poznan, Poland, in early April for a launch of our new book Music Glocalization: Heritage and Innovation in a Digital Age.

Here are links for further information about this book, including free samples:

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/music-glocalization

https://www.amazon.com/Music-Glocalization-Heritage-Innovation-Digital/dp/1527503933/

A link to further information on the book launch will be posted here soon. To make this book launch especially interesting, we plan to perform songs that thematically link with each excerpt to be read from the book.

Shown above is a nice photo of the Old Town district of Poznan, offered to the public domain by Dennis Jarvis on Wikipedia.

Study Trip to Vienna

In late May 2018, much of our music faculty from Bergen will be visiting Vienna on a study trip. This is the final activity planned by the old music department as we officially complete our restructuring to become part of a new Institute for Arts Education within a multi-campus university structure. 

Vienna is a unique city of great cultural significance, with many sites acknowledged by UNESCO as invaluable cultural heritage. We look forward to seeing several live performances as well as historical sites related to the development of European art music. 

   

Shown here is a public domain image of old Vienna from a 1493 edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle. 

Keynote Speech in Estonia: The Power of Music to Unite and Divide

I look forward to giving a keynote speech for the national music education conference in Estonia in April, 2018. It is exciting to have this opportunity to visit such a beautiful country with incredibly rich musical traditions. 

Below is a link to the conference website as well as the abstract for my speech. I am also posting here some photos I took during a visit to Estonia about one year ago. 

Website: http://imuo.weebly.com/keynote-speakers.html

The Power of Music to Unite and Divide: 
Rethinking its Potential Role in 21st Century Education

Music educators tend to believe that by teaching music they contribute to making the world a better place. Nevertheless, some policy-makers evidently assume that music, while a pleasant diversion, is of little consequence compared to technical and scientific pursuits. They note that many amateurs perform well without specialized musical knowledge, while some of the world’s highest paid musicians never formally studied music. Some even see music competitions as the ultimate arena for achievement, where participants are divided into winners and losers. The question of why music education matters is inseparable from why music itself matters, for which competition and economic arguments can seem a distraction. How this latter question is satisfactorily answered, I suggest, requires careful consideration of how music both unites and divides. It follows that I will discuss ways that particular forms of music are connected to such potent social categories as age, gender, socioeconomic status, nationality and ethnicity, as well as how various musical practices are addressed in the context of schools. In order for the importance of music to be more broadly appreciated, it seems music educators must strive to more convincingly demonstrate our evocative art’s unique power. From either a historical or global perspective, it becomes clear that music participation profoundly contributes to the cultivation of empathetic insights into diverse identities, while also strengthening community cohesion through appreciation of heritage and creative innovation. Having established this premise, I seek in this presentation to stimulate reflection on a critical question: How, as music teachers, might we best use music’s power to unite or divide?