GAME Symposium III (2024)

We are excited to soon be hosting the GAME Symposium III of the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group, here in Bergen, Norway (13-15 December, 2024).

Click HERE to access the full 2024 symposium program.

Click HERE to learn more about the GAME research group.

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Participants in 2024 GAME symposium (click on names for details):  

Erisa Walubo, Kristian T. Iversen, Knut Eysturstein, Adam Switala, Marianne Løkke Jakobsen, Matthieu Stepec, Philbert King-yue Li, Le-xuan Zhang, Steinar Sætre, David G. Hebert, Kimmie Sin Yee Ma, Krister Stoor, Elizabeth Anne Oltedal, Solomon Gwerevende, Katarzyna Julia Leikvoll, Stefan Östersjö, Miwa Chiba, David T. Johnson, Odd Torleiv Furnes, Kay Wing-Ki Li,  Koji Matsunobu, Jostein Stalheim, Sergio Garcia-Cuesta, Karan Choudhary, Mikolaj Rykowski, and Knut Jonas Sellevold.

Click HERE to learn about the first GAME symposium.

Inclusion in Music Education

 

Inclusion is a topic of enduring concern in the field of music education since for a variety of reasons different kinds of people and different kinds of music have tended to be excluded from music programs in educational institutions. Recent research aims to produce new insights in this field.

An article co-authored with Miwa Chiba has just been published in the journal Music Education Research (Routledge) that examines policies shaping inclusion in music education through comparison between the nations of Japan and Luxembourg. Click HERE to access the article.

Also, a recent co-authored article in International Journal of Music Education (Sage) addresses the theme of inclusion in higher education music studies by applying decolonial theory for consideration of the longterm experiences of music doctoral students from different continents. Click HERE to access the article.

 

 

RIME conference

RIME 2025: The 14th International Conference for Research in Music Education will be held on 22-25 April, 2025.

The submission deadline is 10 November 2024. It is an entirely online conference and I serve on its Scientific Committee.

Click HERE for more information about RIME.

"The aim of the conference is to gather together researchers, teachers and practitioners to share and discuss research that is concerned with all aspects of teaching and learning in music: musical development, perception and understanding, creativity, learning theory, pedagogy, curriculum design, informal and non formal settings, equity, inclusion, technologies, instrumental teaching, teacher education, professional development, gender and culture. Music education is also viewed in the context of arts education, human geography, cultural sustainability, and knowledge within its sociocultural contexts."

 

Recital: Classic Songs of Boundless Love

I have developed a recital that will be performed in China in late November, then in Norway in early December, 2024. It is in collaboration with a highly skilled Hong Kong-based pianist Dr. Philbert King-yue Li.

Below are a few details about the concept and program for Classic Songs of Boundless Love:  

It has often been said that love knows no boundaries, but today parts of the world are torn by the violence of war. This presentation uses masterful art songs to illustrate shared human values that persist despite conflict. The recent Olympic Games in Paris, France, highlight how diplomacy can triumph, and this selection of classic songs by notable twentieth century composers—in France, the US, Russia, Japan and China—demonstrates a collective sentiment shared worldwide: Whether romantic love, love for an infant, or love of nature and one’s homeland, it is this profound feeling that guides all people toward mutual appreciation and treating each other with compassion and kindness. Dr. Hebert has worked as a music professor in each of the places discussed, and through the lecture connects each song to both cultural history and his personal writings and experiences in each location. 

 

 

PROGRAM of SONGS

• Francis Poulenc (France): “Invocation aux Parques” and “Serenade” 

• Samuel Barber (USA): “Sure on this Shining Night” and “Rain Has Fallen”

• Yoshimatsu Takashi (Japan): Pleiades Dances VI, op.71

• Sergei Rachmaninov (Russia): “Child, You are Beautiful Like a Flower” (Op.8 No.2) and “In the Mysterious Silence of the Night” (Op.4 No.3). 

• Robert Schumann (Germany): Selections from “Kinderszenen”, Op. 15 

• Huang Tzu (China): “Mei Gui San Yuan” (Three Wishes from a Rose) 

• Leung Chi-hin (China): “Thoughts of Separation”

Possible encores: 

• Song of the Yue Boatman (traditional, China)

• Lu Zayi (China): “Wang Xiang Ci” (Musing on My Native Land) 

• Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein: Ol’ Man River (USA)

Biographies:

David G. Hebert, PhD is a full Professor of Music with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and Honorary Professor with the Education University of Hong Kong. A widely published and cited researcher, he has also held positions with universities in the USA, Finland, Japan, Russia, Brazil, China, Uganda, Faroe Islands, and New Zealand, and has directed research projects on each inhabited continent. He serves on the Executive Council and Board of the International Society for Music Education.

Dr. Hebert’s writings appear in over 30 different professional journals, and he is author or editor of ten books, including such titles as Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe, Teaching World Music in Higher Education, Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy, Comparative and Decolonial Studies in Philosophy of Education, Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology, and Music Glocalization: Heritage and Innovation in a Digital Age.

 

Dr. Philbert King-yue Li is a Lecturer with the Education University of Hong Kong. A native of Hong Kong, he holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance from Arizona State University in the United States. He has performed at the American Liszt Society Festival and was a prize winner at the 2019 Monegrarte International Piano Competition and 2020 Putra International Piano Competition. Dr. LI has given performances in many countries, including the United States, Russia, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and China, and in early November 2024, he is touring Southeast Asia.

Below are posters from our recent 4-city tour in China: 

Empowering Voices in Aotearoa

It is a pleasure to be returning to Aotearoa New Zealand (where I worked as Head of Music for a Maori college many years ago) to give a presentation in cooperation with Sally Jane Norman, David Thorarinn Johnson, Gene Lai, and Christidis Ioannis at the 48^th ICTMD World Conference 2025. Our Empowering Voices panel presentation is related to a large project on democracy and minority music traditions for which we have sought funding from the EU.

The event where we will present our ideas is organized by the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, or ICTMD, which is “a scholarly organization which aims to further the study, practice, documentation, preservation, and dissemination of music and dance of all countries (…) As a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO and by means of its wide international representation and the activities of its Study Groups, the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance acts as a bond among peoples of different cultures and thus contributes to the peace of humankind.”

We look forward to sharing our research and learning what others are doing to support music and dance traditions worldwide. 

Historical Ethnomusicology Series on Bloomsbury

 

The Deep Soundings book series in Historical Ethnomusicology is now on Bloomsbury press, since Lexington Books has become part of the Bloomsbury catalogue.

The series already has four volumes published (displayed above) and three more are under contract:

-Vol. V (forthcoming), by Amy Frishkey, PhD: Navigating Neo-Traditionalism in Garifuna Popular Music 

-Vol. VI (forthcoming), by Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, PhD: The Spanish-Moroccan Musical Brotherhood: Colonial Legacies, Interculturalism and Cultural Memory across the Strait of Gibraltor  

-Vol. VII (forthcoming), by Jeffrey van den Scott, PhD: Sounding North: Inuit in the Canadian Musical Landscape   

Click HERE, HERE and HERE for further information about the series.

 

Historical Ethnomusicology Section

It is a pleasure to report that I have recently been elected Secretary and Incoming Chair for the Historical Ethnomusicology Section of the Society for Ethnomusicology. In close collaboration with the current Chair Otto Stuparitz (University of Amsterdam), there are several goals that I expect we can achieve for further development of the Section.   

SEM explains its sections as follows: “Sections support large areas of professional interest within the Society membership. Sections elect their own officers and in some cases collect nominal dues on a voluntary basis.”

Around 15 years ago I briefly served as Chair of the Historical Ethnomusicology SIG and later helped to develop the application along with Jon McCollum for it to become a Section. Our work in this milieu led to development of the Deep Soundings book series and other projects. 

Now I especially see potential in establishing collaborations between the Section and its equivalents in various sister organizations with shared interests in global music history (e.g. ICTMD Historical Sources SIG, ISME History Standing Committee, IMS Global History of Music Study Group, Analytical Approaches to World Music-AAWM, etc.).

It will be exciting to see what the Historical Ethnomusicology Section can accomplish over the next few years.

 

Master Graduation in Uganda

Today Rogers Mpoza completed his viva voce, a final requirement for his Master degree at Kyambogo University, in Kampala, Uganda, as part of the CABUTE project.

We are grateful to his supportive local supervisor Dr. James Isabirye, Dean Elizabeth Kyazike, and the entire CABUTE team for this important accomplishment.

It was a joy to host Rogers Mpoza in Norway, and we eagerly look forward to meeting again in Uganda in 2025.

Congratulations to Rogers Mpoza! 

Publications in Media

This week there were announcements about some of my publications in both European and Chinese social media, which was encouraging to see.

Click HERE to access a public announcement from Bergen Summer Research School that describes publications I developed with PhD students from a few different cohorts of courses across recent years. This includes two edited volumes and a journal article.

Click HERE, if you read Chinese, to see some interesting discussions surrounding a Chinese translation of the book Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology.

 

Displayed above is a photo from a few days ago of my backyard at dawn. It is definitely Autumn now in Norway, time to wear warmer clothes.

Laptop Computer as an Instrument

Is it reasonable to think of common laptop computers as musical instruments? It might seem like a strange question but actually, a large proportion of the most popular music in the world today is produced almost entirely on computers. Many kinds of music ensembles also feature "live electronics" in their performances. Still, for those of us who love traditional musical instruments it can be a bit sad to think of common computers as instruments.

An article co-authored with my new PhD student Kristian Tverli Iversen (Western Norway University of Applied Sciences) examines how music teachers in Norway approach teaching music with the laptop computer as their instrument. As creative teachers aim to negotiate this new challenge with curricular requirements, the resulting situation naturally creates novel pedagogical issues: what are the equivalents for technical drills and “repertoire” on such an instrument? There is also a broader philosophical concern: With openness to technological innovations, how are we to attain an optimal balance with the notions of heritage and tradition in music teaching? 

Kristian Iverson’s unique article, with my support as co-author, will appear soon in the British Journal of Music Education (Cambridge University Press).  

Click here to access: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051724000317

 

Below is the bibliographic reference and abstract:

 

Iversen, K. T. & Hebert, D. G. (2024). Laptop computer as instrument in music performance lessons: Issues and opportunities. British Journal of Music Education. 

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051724000317 

Abstract

In the twenty-first century we are increasingly exposed to music created entirely on computers. This article shows how pioneering music teachers approach the challenge of teaching music on the laptop computer in the context of one-to-one musical instrument lessons. Interviews and observations with five laptop teachers in Norwegian secondary schools enabled the authors to explore characteristic challenges in this field. This study explored two research questions: What are the instructional strategies, content and “repertoire” in music lessons on laptop computer? How have teachers experienced the laptop’s evolutionary process toward legitimation?

Keywords: Laptop computer, live electronics, music technology, individual lessons

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-music-education

  

Displayed above: Public Domain image. 

Rethinking Musical Excellence

A new article is now available as an “online first” publication through the International Journal of Music Education (Sage publications). This article was co-authored with four doctoral students from around the world who participated in one of my online seminars at Bergen Summer Research School during the COVID-19 pandemic—Lu Liu, Sergio Garcia-Cuesta, Laura Chambers and Sergej Tchirkov—and contains some interesting discussion of ways that music programs might be reoriented and even rejuvenated in universities and conservatoires.

  

Link to access article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02557614241281992

 

The authors found that writings on decolonization can stimulate useful reflections and insights regarding issues and strategies for improving higher music education, particularly in terms of its Eurocentric and often excessively competitive emphases. The former is notable when contrasted with departments of language and literature, for instance (in which it is inconceivable that one would only examine western traditions), while the latter becomes obvious when compared with visual arts studies (in which nearly everyone would count as a “composer” if compared with music studies). 

 

In our view, different approaches that are more open to diverse forms of musicianship—whether Indigenous and non-western traditions, folk and popular music and electronic music genres, or studies that place more emphasis on originality with less focus on competition in virtuosic and standardized performances—all promise to strengthen the overall position of music in higher education.  

 

Below is the bibliographic reference and abstract, as well as a link for this article, which is published in an open-access format: 

Liu, L., Garcia-Cuesta, S., Chambers, L., Tchirkov, S. & Hebert, D. G. (2024).  Rethinking ‘musical excellence’ from a decolonial perspective: Disruptive autobiographical experiences among doctoral scholars. International Journal of Music Education. 

  

Link to access article: 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/02557614241281992

  

Abstract

This collaborative autoethnography was developed by recent doctoral students in music from Southern Europe, Eurasia, East Asia, and North America, along with a professor based in Northern Europe. Our primary research question is “What can disruptive autobiographical experiences teach us about the implications of the decolonization movement for redefining “musical excellence” in higher music education?” The co-authors interviewed each other for their respective personal narratives on this theme, then collaboratively coded, analyzed and developed their results and interpretations. Four sub-questions served as prompts: (1) What was your gateway into music and how did the music learning-tradition that you were exposed to affect your development as a musician? (2) In what ways was the concept of “musical excellence” a part of your (early) development as a musician? (3) How does the concept of “musical excellence” impact how being an “artist” is defined by you and people around you? (4) How did this perception of “what is an artist” affect your musical path (and even how others perceive your career)? We share our findings and discuss implications in terms of possible innovations to higher music education, definitions of “musical excellence,” approaches to evaluation, and the role of competition in education.

 

Displayed above: Public Domain image of medals from competition

 

Master Graduation

Today in Kampala, Uganda, Lydia Basemera became the first person in Music from the CABUTE project to be fully approved to graduate with her Master degree at Kyambogo University. It was a great pleasure to join her viva voce examination online, which contained many rigorous and insightful questions as well as opportunities for Lydia to demonstrate her competence.

We have been impressed by the work ethic and professionalism of the staff at Kyambogo University, and I would especially like to thank Dean Elizabeth Kyazike, Peter Ekadu-Ereu (Lydia’s supportive local co-supervisor), James Isabirye (another important mentor and productive scholar), Nicholas Ssempiija (ethnomusicologist and local leader of the Music branch of CABUTE), and Steinar Satre, who leads the entire project from here in Bergen, Norway.

The Music team of CABUTE has consistently benefitted from timely and effective cooperation, which is beneficial to all involved in the project. Indeed, there is an impressive community of music education researchers in Uganda that is determined to nurture the next generation.   

Congratulations, Lydia Basemera! 

Music4Change in Groningen

Plans are now in place for a unique music conference to be held in Groningen, Netherlands in early November: “2024 International Research School on the theme of Sustainable Cities and Cultures of Music.”

This event is connected with the EU Music4Change project and Grieg Research School for Interdisciplinary Music Studies.

My main activity at this conference will be to serve as Respondent for the “Prøvedisputas” of PhD candidate Elizabeth Oltedal (of Volda University College, Norway), as she reaches the final stages for completion of her PhD.

Elizabeth has long been deeply interested in the challenges associated with developing fair, accurate, and meaningful assessments of music performances. This is a complex and important topic of relevance to all music teachers, and I look forward to seeing what we can learn from Elizabeth’s research.

 

Click HERE and HERE for more information about this event in Groningen, Netherlands.

Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Martini_Toren.JPG

Book Series Boards

It is a pleasure to have just been appointed to the International Advisory Board for a book series in the field of research methods, New Research – New Voices, on Brill Press. I currently also serve on the boards of two other book series, one in the field of music education and one in ethnomusicology.

The music education series is the ISME Routledge Book Series of the International Society for Music Education.

Since 2019, I have also been co-Editor of a book series that will soon be part of Bloomsbury Publishing (who recently purchased Lexington Books and the rest of the Rowman & Littlefield Academic catalogue). That is the Lexington Series in Historical Ethnomusicology: Deep Soundings, which currently has four volumes published and two more under contract.

It is interesting to engage in interdisciplinary scholarship, and although each academic field has distinctive characteristics there are significant intersections between educational research, musicology, and music education. Each of these book series is producing unique scholarly contributions and seems to have a promising future despite the increasing challenges faced by academic presses. 

I am eager to hear from prospective authors who may be interested in publishing in any of these series.

Third East Africa Teacher Education Symposium

The third annual East Africa Teacher Education Symposium (EATES) will be held at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda on 6-8 November, 2024.  

The symposium theme is Curriculum Development and Decolonization of Education in East Africa. 

This symposium seeks to enhance cooperation in the field of education across the East African region, including the nations of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, DR Congo, Somalia, and Tanzania. This pioneering series of symposia is sponsored by the CABUTE project, which is funded by the Norwegian government.

The paper submission deadline is 15 September 2024.

Click HERE for more information.

Click HERE to access a video of a performance from the last time I was in Uganda for EATES.

Bergen Summer Research School 2025

“...we can create the momentum needed for systemic shifts,” says Professor Birgit Kopainsky of University of Bergen. Dr. Kopainsky is the scientific director of Bergen Summer Research School 2025, which will take place in Bergen 10-20 June 2025.

The theme of BSRS-2025 is Systems thinking — towards sustainability and justice, to which Kopainsky “will invite some of Norway’s leading researchers to organise a series of parallel PhD courses on alternative directions towards a sustainable future.”

We look forward to offering the PhD course Creative Innovations in Higher Education as part of BSRS-2025, which had to be postponed from BSRS-2024.

Click HERE for more information on Bergen Summer Research School.

Here is a link to an announcement from BSRS that describes publications that came out of my previous courses: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/bergenresearch_you-never-know-what-two-weeks-in-bergen-can-activity-7246463023748419584-KG0P

 

Also, below are links to original music performances at the opening events for previous Bergen Summer Research Schools:

Music from opening of BSRS 2018:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGssAkE8NoE

Music from opening of BSRS 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDs4Df_pKIY

Image source: 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Lorenz_attractor_yb.svg 

Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education

A new book Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education has been published that promises to stimulate important discussions about how the methodology of artistic research can strengthen higher music education. Music performance pedagogy has long needed more systematic approaches, and I have been arguing in favor of artistic research for many years, and mentored some artistic research dissertations at Sibelius Academy more than a decade ago, including Ari Pouitianen’s study Stringprovisation.

Higher education is often resistant to change, but the book Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education shows promising innovations that will be relevant to music lecturers and professors in many different institutions. 

Some of the authors of Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education are affiliated with my institution in western Norway, including Stefan Ostersjo, who was our visiting professor across recent years, and cognitive musicologist Odd Turleiv Furnes. Click HERE to access another recent co-authored book that combines the fields of ethnomusicology and artistic research, and demonstrates how transcultural approaches can fit in higher education.

AND, click HERE to access Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education, which is published in open-access format, freely available to anyone curious to read it.

Dissertation on Sight Reading Pedagogy in China

It was a pleasure to serve as external examiner for the Doctoral Defense of Ms. LIN Qi at The Education University of Hong Kong. This dissertation was supervised by Koji Matsunobu (main supervisor) and Bo-Wah Leung (committee member), and the defense was held today in a hybrid session with participants in both Hong Kong and Europe.

Teaching of sight reading is often challenging for music teachers. Ms. Lin’s doctoral study is a multifaceted exploration of current approaches to sightreading pedagogy (how people are taught to read western classical music notation on keyboard instruments) at multiple higher education institutions in the mainland China context. It also tests the impact of an intervention (implementation of a specific sightreading pedagogy) in terms of both quantitative data (testing of sightreading skills as well as self-efficacy scores) and qualitative data, which include observations, journals, and over 50 interviews.

This unique doctoral study demonstrates relationships between self-efficacy and competence in the field of sight-reading pedagogy, and affirms the effectiveness of newer pedagogies in the mainland China context. Personally, this was my first dissertation committee in China, and with this dissertation completion I have now served on doctoral supervisory and examining committees with universities in 15 countries. That experience has served as a foundation for my teaching in interdisciplinary courses on Doctoral Supervision as well as my recent writings on the topic of doctoral studies and doctoral mentoring.    

Ms. LIN Qi’s doctoral dissertation makes a new contribution to knowledge in this important area, and she has demonstrated an array of skills that are likely to serve her well as a researcher in the future with a doctorate from The Education University of Hong Kong.

Image source (at top): Brian Ferneyhough Day, Barbican Centre | The Arts Desk

World Conference in Helsinki

It is a pleasure to return to Helsinki, Finland—where I worked as a Professor more than 10 years ago—to participate in the world conference of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) in July/August 2024.

I currently serve on the Board of ISME and I am Chair of its History Standing Committee, so there are many activities at this world conference. Also, two of my current PhD students from Scandinavia are giving presentations, but an additional one (PhD student from Uganda) recently had to withdrawal and postpone their participation until next time.

In the late morning on Monday, the History Standing Committee (HSC) hosts an open session called “Meet the Mentors” which is intended to offer helpful suggestions to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers who are beginning to develop research projects on any historical topics. We have already confirmed participants are coming from the Americas, Europe, and East Asia. 

On Monday afternoon, I chair an HSC symposium on intercultural issues in historical studies, with participants presenting papers on historical topics in music education in Japan (I collaborate here with Koji Matsunobu), Germany (Alexandra Kertz-Welzel), Australia (Malcolm Cole), and the Faroe Islands (my PhD student Knut Eysturstein).

On Tuesday I give a presentation as part of a symposium on AI and philosophy of music education with several well-known researchers, such as Jiaxing Xie, Pamela Burnard, Alex Ruthmann, and Victor Fung.

I have also been asked to participate in the ISME Publications Committee meeting on Wednesday afternoon with Gwen Moore.

On Thursday I will also be a Discussant for a symposium on preliminary outcomes from the Nordic Singing Maps project, led by David Thorarinn Johnson.

The HSC also has our meet & greet session and business meeting later that day.

Finally, on Friday a presentation with my PhD student Marianne Jakobsen on Nordic approaches to advanced orchestral instrument pedagogy comes at the very end of the conference.

It will be exciting to reconnect with colleagues from around the world and to learn about the very latest developments in our field.

 

Link for Chinese description of ISME activities:

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/gymAzjq5UNUJPcPzqVcNVA

 

Image source: Helsinki Skyline | Helsinki is the capital of Finland and ho… | Flickr

Music PhD students in Bergen

I am pleased to report that we will soon have two PhD students in residence with the GAME research group in Bergen and a third at University of Bergen who collaborates closely with us. 

These are Erisa Walubo, who is part of the CABUTE project in Uganda, Kristian Tverli Iversen, a Norwegian music teacher who has just been accepted into our education PhD program, and Bruno Tagliasacchi Masia, a percussionist doing an artistic research PhD at University of Bergen. 

Erisa is now completing the data collection for his PhD, which is on Indigenous music and dance traditions of the Basoga region of Uganda, and how they may be successfully introduced into school music programs.

Kristian will be researching the effectiveness of various ways of integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into music education, and will participate in the Global Competence Partnership project in collaboration with partners in Hong Kong. 

Bruno is embarking on a exploratory study of how various approaches to the notion of silence can guide creative experimentation in music. 

More information will be posted here as their projects proceed further. 

GAME is already frequently visited by two excellent doctoral students based elsewhere in Scandinavia: Marianne Jakobsen (Copenhagen) and Knut Eysturstein (Faroe Islands), and we are developing a great synergy across the group.

GAME will also host the visits of several accomplished professors in Autumn 2024, including Jiaxing Xie, Koji Matsunobu, and Helga Rut Gudmundsdottir.