Sociomusicology: November 2026

11/1/26

AI+ Music Education II

It was a great pleasure to participate in the Second International Symposium on AI+Music Education, held in beautiful Xiamen, China, at Jimei University. I gave one of the invited keynote speeches along with notable invitees such as Alex Ruthmann and Bo-wah Leung.

In addition to our keynotes, there were over 150 presentations at this event: 85 in just one of the three major conference themes.

China is certainly leading the world when it comes to research and development on Music AI (particularly in relation to education), and it was exciting to see so many presentations expressing a sensible balance of both excitement about the possibilities and concern regarding the artistic and educational risks of AI.

The discussion was very thought provoking and reached some important points of consensus on how arts educators can properly respond to revolutionary technologies.

Next year this event will be held at Beijing Language and Culture University.

Welcome to Sociomusicology

For nearly 20 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 both University of the Faroe Islands and Kyambogo University (Uganda), Visiting Professor with UCSI University (Malaysia), and Honorary Professor 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:23), with professional activities in an average of 8 countries per year across the past decade (2008-2020).