On Tues 4 October, 60 individuals joined us for the first in a series of online events, presented in the culmination of the four-year Ethno Research project. These events brought together perspectives from Ethno global music gatherings, with leading experts in the fields of ethnomusicology, intercultural music-making, music education and music activism from across the globe.
The event was free to attend, open to all, and took place online on Tue, 4 October 2022, 13:30 – 15:00 UTC
An edited version of the full discussion is available at the bottom of this page, or get a taste of the discussion through this short trailer:
At the first of 3 events, Professor Huib Schippers alongside Ethno Organisers Durgesh Kanwal & Concepción Neuling, discuss music-making for intercultural understanding. They consider:
While it may be too idealistic to think that musicking with people from other cultures will bring world peace, certainly working closely together on learning and creating music across borders can open ears, minds and hearts in ways that few other activities can. And it is clear from the findings of Ethno Research that Ethno gatherings offer a successful, profound and joyful template for intercultural meetings between young musicians.
In this session, we will discuss what young musicians from different parts of the world bring to Ethno in terms of musical and social skills, but also – inevitably – what they bring in terms of cultural preconceptions. How do you truly open yourself up to the Ethno experience and what set of skills and attributes do you need to truly understand other cultures?
Speaker Bio:
Huib Schippers hails from a “symphonic family in the country of the windmills” (as the Times of India once put it), but chose to learn Indian sitar from his mid-teens. This was the beginning of an unquenchable curiosity for the world’s traditional musics and the underlying practices and philosophies. From 1990, he was involved in organising music teaching across cultures, most notably with the Amsterdam World Music School and the Codarts World Music & Dance Centre in Rotterdam (until 2003). Later, he ran the innovative Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre in Brisbane (2003-2015) and the iconic world music label Smithsonian Folkways in Washington DC (2016-2020). His book Facing the Music: Shaping Music Education from a Global Perspective (OUP, 2010) is widely used to challenge and inspire music teachers on five continents.
Photo Credit: Bhumanyu Nehra
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