Music Activities in Early 2022

 

UPDATE: The proceedings from this conference, with my keynote speech, can be downloaded for free by clicking here and going to the bottom right of the next website: https://www.ifmpf.hmtm-hannover.de/de/publikationen/forschungsberichte/forschungsbericht-33/

In late January 2022, I look forward to giving a conference opening speech for the third German-Dutch Colloquium on Research in Arts Education in Hannover, Germany. The theme for this government-sponsored event is “Multiculturalism in Music and Drama Education,” and it is hosted by Prof. Andreas Lehmann-Wermser, a prolific researcher who heads the Institute for Music Education Research at the Hannover University of Music, Drama and Media. 

The host institution, which has been in operation for over 120 years, offers comprehensive studies (including in jazz and popular music), and has produced many influential musicians, some of whom originally came from East Asia. The city of Hannover itself has also long played an important role in Germany, from its roots as the home of Gottfried Leibniz to today as the headquarters of Volkswagen. Among the more notable scholars to have come from Hannover (Linden-Limmer borough) is Hannah Arendt, whose work has seen a profound impact across recent generations in philosophy and social theory.

Depending on the status of the pandemic, this event will either be held face-to-face or online only. Click HERE for more information on the colloquium. 

This colloquium is generously supported by the Rat für Kulturelle Bildung (Counsel for Cultural Education) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). It is hosted by the Hochschule für Musik Theater und Medien Hannover. 

In the late winter and spring, if the Covid pandemic allows for it, I am expected to make trips to Riga, Copenhagen, Prilep, and Kampala for various music research and writing projects. Due to the Omicron variant of Covid-19, it looks increasingly doubtful whether much travel will be possible, so probably in most cases we will have to continue with online cooperation until the pandemic is less of a concern. In March we will focus on further data collection for a book on Viking musical heritage for Bloomsbury press, and by around that time we expect to see two more volumes published in the Deep Soundings series, volume II on music and cultural diplomacy, and volume III on traditional Malaysian court music.

In April, I will give a plenary address in Lithuania as a scientific committee member of the conference Music and Science Labyrinths at Vilnius University-Siauliai Academy. This partly online event celebrates the achievement of musicologist Eduardas Balčytis, who played a central role in the establishment of formal music pedagogy in Lithuania.  

There are also some new developments in East Asia to report: It was exciting to see the work of Prof. Qi Kun of China Conservatory, published in a new edition of the journal Chinese Musicology. Qi is an accomplished researcher who serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Chinese Music, and her recent work concludes that many recommendations from our book Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology are particularly relevant to music scholarship in China. When travel becomes possible, I plan to continue developing several projects in various parts of China. 

The Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group has also nearly completed our co-authored chapter on music education in Norway for a book edited by Prof. Masafumi Ogawa to be published in Japan by Minerva Shobo press. In mid-January, I have meetings scheduled to continue developing the book Transcultural Musicianship and Research: Methods for Shared Listening and Performance (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press), which is being co-authored with a team of music researchers and performers from a project in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.