SIMM-posium #9 - International Conference on Musicians as Makers in Society

Registration, coffee and tea in the Concert Hall.

Greetings and introduction to the conference and to RMC.

Keynote 1 by Emily Achieng Akuno

Professor Emily Achieng’ Akuno is board member and past president of the International Music Council (IMC) and past president of the International Society for Music Education (ISME). Emily Achieng’ Akuno is currently Vice Chancellor of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology in Siaya County, Kenya.

Abstract: Does Music Making Have an Impact on Social Work?

In this presentation, I shall interrogate the social of music, the socialising of music making and the social significance of music associations with a view to articulating the role of music making in enhancing the social work of child development.

Through music (in some cultural spaces, song and dance), members of a community engage in a deeply social and socialising activity of co-creation and/or co-managing an artistic event and aesthetic space. Community music is a communal event that brings together people of diverse tastes and abilities. Using two childhood music-making events and practices, I will, in this presentation, highlight a community’s recourse to music making towards the creation of social cohesion and management of internal relationships with emphasis on childhood experiences.

Break and refreshments in the Concert Hall. 

 Session 1: Artistic Citizenship as Practice (panel)

chair: Andrea CREECH (Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Canada)

Charles CARSON (USA, Texas University)

Flavia MOTOYAMA-NARITA (Brazil, Universidade de Brasília)

Oscar PRIPP (Sweden, Uppsala University / CReARC)

Nan QI (Brazil, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte - UFRN)

Maria WESTVALL (Denmark, Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen)

Panel abstract: Artistic Citizenship and perspectives on meaning, access, engagement and participation

This panel features members of the CReArC network presenting research from their recent anthology Music as Agency: Diversities of Perspectives on Artistic Citizenship. The first paper interrogates the concept of "artistic citizenship", while examining the definitions of "arts/artists/artistry" and "citizen/citizenship" and their combined implications. By raising questions about who defines art and citizenship and emphasizing the diversity of cultural experiences that influence artistic expression, a broader, more inclusive concept; “Artizenship” is suggested that blurs the lines between artist and citizen and promote participation and engagement in societal structures. To grasp one’s responsibility as an artizen in society, the second presenter uses autoethnography to reflect on their experiences as a musician, teacher, and conductor of an intercultural children's choir, exploring the concept of artistic citizenship, especially as it relates to immigrants and their undervalued cultural capital. The third presentation highlights the meaning of music and dance participation within ethnic and national cultural associations, focusing on musicking practices and exploring how these practices reflect social committment, ethical stances and everyday resistance to societal issues. Drawing on Paulo Freire’s ideas, the fourth presentation explores different levels of social engagement in music teaching practices and emphasizes the need to consider interactions with the broader world, highlighting efforts to promote critical consciousness and liberating music education practices. The panel will conclude with a short Discussant response, where key intersecting themes will be summarized and critical questions will be identified.

Lunch is provided for all fully registered participants in the canteen adjacent to the Concert Hall. Students with free registration have the option to purchase lunch if needed.

Session 2: Musicians as Makers in Society

Chair: Maria MAJNO (Fondazione Mariani, Milan/Sistema Europe, Vienna)

Dillon BEEDE (USA)-Columbia University

Pablo MENDOZA (Colombia) - Sinfonietta de Bogotá research group (online)

Daniela FAZIO-VARGAS (UK) – University of Manchester

Yonatan VOLFIN (Israel) - Ghent University, Chair Jonet

Session 3: Musical Co-Creation as Social Intervention

Chair: Geoff BAKER (Agrigento/Guildhall School)

Borja JUAN-MORERA (Spain) – University of Zaragoza

Joel MARTINEZ-LORENZANA (Canada) – University of Western Ontario

Natalia PUERTA (Colombia) - Universidad del Valle, Cali-Colombia/Guildhall School London

Tina REYNAERT & An DE BISSCHOP (Belgium) – Ghent University,Chair Jonet

Break and refreshments in the Concert Hall. 

Session 4: Social Aspects of Listening

Chair: Søren KJÆRGAARD (Rhythmic Music Conservatory)

Leonardo BARBIERATO (Italy) - Conservatorio Santa Cecilia/University of RomaTre

Alan WILLIAMS (UK) - The School of Arts and Media, University of Salford

Ana CORIC (Croatia) – University of Zagreb

Line DALILE (Belgium) – Vrije Universiteit Brussel

SOUND Social Event and Drinks

As a more casual and social ending of the day, we will gather for a drink at RMC’s newly founded incubator, SOUND.This takes place in "Akvariet" at RMC (Eik Skaløes Plads 1, 1437 KBH K).

Session 5: Musicians as Makers in Society

Chair: An DE BISSCHOP (Chair Jonet, University Ghent)

Natalie CAIRNS-RATTER (UK) – University of Roehampton

Þorbjörg DAPHNE HALL (Iceland, Iceland University of the Arts), Lee HIGGINS (UK, York St John's International Centre for Community Music), and Jo GIBSON (UK, Guildhall School),

Julian WEST (UK) - Royal Academy of Music London

Break and refreshments in the Concert Hall.

Session 6: Artistic Citizenship as Practice

Chair: John SLOBODA (Guildhall School)

Andrea CREECH, Taianara GOEDERT, Fredericka PETIT-HOMME (Canada) – McGill University

Sergio GARCIA-CUESTA (Denmark) - Rhythmic Music Conservatory Copenhagen & Aalborg University

Axel PETRI-PREIS (Austria) - mdw-University of Music and Performing Arts

Tanya MAGGI–New England Conservatory (USA) & Raquel JIMENEZ (online)  -Harvard Graduate School of Education (USA)

Session 7: Artistic Citizenship as Practice

Chair: Maria MAJNO (Fondazione Mariani, Milan / Sistema Europe, Vienna)

Veronika HOFER (Germany) - Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

John SLOBODA (UK) & Jo GIBSON – Guildhall School

Lelouda STAMOU (Greece) – University of Macedonia

Lunch is provided for all fully registered participants in the canteen adjacent to the Concert Hall. Students with free registration have the option to purchase lunch if desired.

Keynote 2 by Jacob Anderskov

Professor of Artistic Research at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Abstract: ‘Echoes from the torn down fourth wall’

Drawing on findings and experience from the Artistic Research project "Echoes from the torn down fourth wall", this keynote will explore key perspectives on building bridges between “art music” (whatever that means) and community singing. The research project began with an inquiry into audience participation within improvised concerts and has reinterpreted familiar Danish song material in an art music setting where the audience sings along in songs they know.

Topics will include proposals for understanding the social dynamics of participation and listening through the framework of 4e cognition; in this case, thinking of listening as embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended. The role of the spectator across different performance art domains will be examined, focusing on how the project has challenged notions and ideals of the spectator’s separation (or lack thereof) from the musical event.

Additionally, genre theory will be employed to rethink the distinctions and overlaps between “cultural” and “art” perspectives in the interpretation of inherited musical traditions. Approaches to possible renegotiations of musical traditions – whether through confirmation or destabilization – will also be discussed, partly in the Danish context of the project, but also extended more generally beyond this specific starting point.

Break and refreshments in the Concert Hall.

Session 8: Negotiations between/of Artistic Agency and Social Values

Chair: Lukas PAIRON (SIMM / Chair Jonet, Ghent University)

Kim BOESKOV (Denmark) - Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen

Dave CAMLIN (UK) - Royal College of Music

Luca GAMBIRASIO (UK) – University College Cork (online)

Lorraine ROUBERTIE (France) - Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès

SOUND Social Event and Drinks

As a more casual and social ending of the day, we will gather for a drink at RMC’s newly founded incubator, SOUND.This takes place in "Akvariet" at RMC (Eik Skaløes Plads 1, 1437 KBH K).

Session 9: Musicians as Makers in Society

Chair: Maria Westvall (Rhythmic Music Conservatory)

Bernardo MEIRELES (Brazil) - Federal University of Minas Gerais

Jonathan VAUGHAN (UK) – Guildhall School

Dierk ZAISER (Germany) - Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen

Break and refreshments will be served in the Concert Hall.

Session 10: Music in Detention or Other Freedom Deprived Contexts

Chair: Lukas PAIRON (SIMM / Chair Jonet, Ghent University)

Aine MANGAOANG (Norway) – University of Oslo

Silke MARYNISSEN (Belgium) – Vrije Universiteit Brussels

(CANCELLED) Sandra SINSCH-GOUFFI (Germany) - Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt

Session 11: Participatory Music Practices for Community Building

Chair: John SLOBODA (Guildhall School)

Georgia NICOLAOU (Cyprus-Belgium) - Royal Conservatoire Antwerp | University of Antwerp

Ioannis LITOS (Greece) – University of Macedonia

Rafaela TROULOU (Greece) – University of Macedonia

Lunch is provided for all fully registered participants in the canteen adjacent to the Concert Hall. Students with free registration have the option to purchase lunch if needed.

Session 12: Participatory Music Practices for Community Building

Chair: Maria Westvall (Rhythmic Music Conservatory)

Geoff BAKER (UK) – Agrigento / Guildhall School

Maria VARVARIGOU (Ireland) – Limerick University

Deanna YERICHUK (Canada) - Wilfrid Laurier University

Session 13: Music in Detention or Other Freedom Deprived Contexts

Chair: Lukas PAIRON (SIMM / Chair Jonet, Ghent University)

Lucy CATHCART-FRÖDEN (Norway) – University of Oslo

Ailbhe KENNY (Ireland) – Limerick University

Noah WINTHER KROGSHOLM (Norway) - University of Oslo

Break and refreshments will be served in the Concert Hall.

Geoff Baker (UK)

Institutional affiliation: Agrigento / Guildhall School
Professional role: Director of Research, Agrigento; Emeritus Professor, Royal Holloway University of London; Visiting Research Fellow, Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Abstract: “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will” - From SIMM research to funding

It is quite common at SIMM-posia to hear reflections on broadening out SIMM practice to include research. I propose something a little more unusual: reflections on broadening out SIMM research to include funding and on the interface between these two areas. I work for Agrigento, a small charity that has spun off from my research on social action through music (e.g. Baker, El Sistema, 2014). Our work starts from critical reflection on the SIMM field and seeks to promote positive change by funding promising, innovative projects. Three conclusions from my research are:

1. In Latin America, which is our primary focus, the SIMM field is significantly structured by coloniality.
2. Hence, key issues in the field are structural and systemic.
3. Ambiguity is prevalent in SIMM work and ambivalence is an appropriate response.

Three questions emerge for Agrigento: How can (1) be addressed by an organization based in the global North? How is a small organization to proceed in the face of (2)? - How might (3) translate from research to funding? Our responses have been:

a) Funding local “communities of knowledge” of researchers and practitioners to develop their own critical work
b) Supporting Indigenous and Afro-descendant projects
c) Prioritizing education and training of practitioners
d) Enabling grantees to develop and disseminate free tools and resources
e) Taking a “laboratory” approach (funding pilots and experiments)

Balancing critique and action, our approach reflects Gramsci’s famous dictum “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.”

Leonardo Barbierato (Italy)

Institutional Affiliation: Conservatorio Santa Cecilia / University of Roma Tre
Professional role: PhD candidate

Abstract: Listening as improvisation/listening as artivism: site-specific inter-actions during [in situ] performance

In this presentation I will explore the activist potential of a specific mode of listening to improvisational and participatory performances. Many studies have emphasized how listening is multifaceted and influenced by various attitudes and approaches that allow us to experience the sensory in different ways.

Since March 2023, I have started conducting a series of site-specific improvisation performances in pristine or degraded ecosystems. The project, called [in situ], stems from the need to explore the space between social ecology, post-human environmentalism, and improvisation. The ecosystem in which the improvisation takes place, with its human, more-than-human, living, and non-living elements, is a fundamental aspect of the improvisation in [in situ], making each performance a unique and unrepeatable event, a complex system linked to the place, the audience, myself, and the time. In September 2023, [in situ] was held in the Maremma National Park, as part of a week-long artistic residency called Dune-Utopie, focused on site/situation-specific art and the art-environment connection. Throughout this performance, acoustic interactions have developed between me and the human/non-human elements of the ecosystem in which I operated, which are worth reflecting upon. These non-linear interactions have led to the decentralization of the artist in favour of abolishing hierarchy between passive and active elements within the performance. Listening is an active communicative component, even when silent, and lays the groundwork for recognizing a shared space-time in which interactions can occur, encouraging creativity and re-framing ecological perception with the environment. This type of listening in improvised music performances, such as [in situ], emerges from the interaction between the perceiver and their environment and can change the perspective on what is traditionally considered an active element and an inert element. My hypothesis is that the experiential knowledge of performative agency in the context of the alternative scenario of the performance can be a potentially activating element. But, besides having performative relevance, I believe that the potential of this experiential knowledge can also translate at an environmental and social level, recognizing an agency in components that are traditionally considered socially and environmentally inert. The concrete experience that the audience/actor lives during the [in situ] performance becomes the starting point of an experiential knowledge that has the potential to propagate into society. It is precisely in this possibility that the subversive and socially impactful artivistic, ecological potential of a certain type of artistic performance lies, and it is precisely this way in which this point event can reverberate and propagate over time, space, and society. Through interviews with the elements that took part in the shows, integrating them with my notes and memories regarding the performances, I will, within this intervention, seek to understand the dynamics of this listening, its potential, and the ways in which it emerged during the performance. Expanding the perspective, the aim is to understand whether, with this awareness, sound artists can reclaim their political and ecological impact and whether listening can become an artivist means.

Dillon Beede (US)

Institutional affiliation: Columbia University, Wilson College
Proffesional role: Director of Choral Activities and Chair of Music, Wilson College; Doctoral Student, Teachers College, Columbia University

Abstract: Transformational Choral Spaces and Trans-formational Experiences

In a 2022 report from UCLA-School of Law’s Williams Institute the number of individuals ages 13-24 who identify as transgendered in the US has doubled from 150,000 in 2017 to 300,000 in 2020 (Ghorayshi, 2022). While the number of individuals identifying as transgendered has grown considerably within the ages of traditional secondary and collegiate-age students, pedagogies and policies have not kept pace to make musical spaces inclusive and affirming for trans persons.

When considering choral environs, it is important to note that directors serve not only as conductors, but more often than not as the first or only voice teacher for singers in their ensembles. While scholarship in trans vocal pedagogy and choral policies has meaningfully increased in recent years (Aguirre, 2018), there remains a gap in understanding trans exclusive ensembles and how practice and policy in these spaces may inform our current pedagogy and policies in choral education at large and therefore increase visibility and accessibility for future trans choral scholars.

In my proposed presentation, I will share the preliminary findings from a recent pilot study which explored the social, political, and pedagogical frameworks within a trans and gender expansive choral ensemble. Using Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory as a framing device, I explore the ways in which the social space of these choruses affect individual trans identity development. Given the interdependency of the systems in Bronfenbrenner’s theory and the need for more policy oriented support for trans musicians, there are implications for changes beyond the choral field.

Kim Boeskov (Denmark)

Institutional affiliation:  The Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Copenhagen, Denmark
Profesional role: Assistant Professor in Music Education

Abstract: Hybrid artists or makers in society? Exploring conceptualizations of the 21st century musician

In recent years, a range of conceptualizations of the 21st century musician has emerged, constituting a new paradigm of expanded professionalism in music. Whether musicians and music educators are imagined to be artistic citizens, civic professionals, hybrid artists, makers in society, embedded artists, health musicians, or public pedagogues, these conceptualizations position musicians and music educators as artistic as well as social and political agents with capacity – and, in some notions, a moral obligation – to respond to societal issues and needs, such as inequality, migration, climate change, social justice, mental health, and well-being. This shift has profound consequences for our understanding of musicians’ roles and functions in society. An expansion of professionalism in music seems to entail a blurring of boundaries. Rather than operating in a distinct artistic field, musicians cross disciplinary and sectoral boundaries and engage in collaborative practices with educational, social, health-related, environmental, as well as artistic dimensions. In this presentation, I explore the emerging conceptions of the 21st century musician with the purpose of establishing an initial understanding of the following questions: What dynamics, opportunities, and challenges emerge in musicians’ professional practice when it is connected to societal issues? How can collaborative efforts involving musicians and partners from other sectors and domains respond to social and societal needs? What knowledge, skills, and competences do 21st century musicians need to operate as professionals?

Dave Camlin (UK)

Institutional affiliation: Royal College of Music, London.
Professional role: Lecturer in Music Education

Abstract: Beyond Social Impact: Music Making and Terrapolitanism

My research is increasingly concerned with how music making might be viewed as a resource for human sustainable futures, thinking beyond social impact within the constraints of a capitalist system into a consideration of how music making as an activity might represent a socially ecological alternative to such ideological conditioning. As the ‘performance’ of (post)humanistic values – love, reciprocity, democratic equality – music making is perhaps uniquely placed as a practice site where such values can be realised, albeit temporarily, as a resource of civic imagination that can help citizens imagine the kinds of value-infused world they might prefer to live in. In this presentation, I share findings from a recent research project undertaken with singers from an eco-choir who were invited to respond to the question ‘what does it mean to sing with the earth?’ (Camlin, 2024). The study found an important distinction between singing for the earth as an act of solidarity with the natural world and singing with the earth as a non-religious act of spiritual communion with nature. De-centring human experience by amplifying the co-constitutive role of other agencies like the natural world highlights the ontological and epistemological complexity of such experience. Group singing in nature – and by extension music making more generally – is proposed as a route toward developing a mindset of Terrapolitanism i.e. one where action at a local level leads people to experience a sense of agency in relation to global issues, following the ecological maxim, ‘think global; act local’.

Natalie Cairns-Ratter (UK)

Institutional affiliation: University of Roehampton
Professional role: Ph.D student- Applied musicology - Music Instructor

Abstract: ‘Flow, Bubbles and Waves’: An In-depth Case Study Examining Engagement for a Neurodivergent Child in a Music Class

Language is a dominant indicator of engagement and knowledge within music education research. Language-centredness can be a barrier for some children, especially for a neurodivergent child who may use language differently. Therefore, there is a need to interrogate and reframe what engaging in a music setting looks like for a neurodivergent child. This in-depth case study explores and examines how a neurodivergent child engages with an individualised music curriculum beyond language. Post-humanist positioning and a new materialist approach were adopted, expanding understanding and knowledge generation of materials, non-materials, and objects, as well as humans and why they are significant to a diffractive pedagogy. A diffractive pedagogy was applied, meaning a greater analytical gaze is adopted and all materials and matter affect knowledge generation within the education setting. Data was collected by questionnaire, video observations, semi-structured interview, and diffractive research journal. Slow motion was used as a unit of analysis. Themes to emerge from the study were engagement; materialism; attunement; musical play; autistic identity; and flow experience. Findings show that engagement for a neurodivergent child involves reframing how materials, music, musical play and setting all impact and expand knowledge and how this could apply to wider practice, especially within the social music making community. Implications from this study affect wider practice, policy and research. This research highlights the challenges faced in Western UK formal and informal education settings for some autistic children, but more importantly informs what using a diffractive pedagogy involves, and how this positions autistic children as capable and competent music makers.

Charles D. Carson (USA) 

Institutional affiliation: University of Texas at Austin
Professional role: Associate Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology

Maria Westvall (Denmark) 

Institutional affiliation: Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen
Professional role: Professor; Director of CReArC (Copenhagen Centre for Research in Artistic Citizenship)

Abstract: Artistic Citizenship, Artizenship and Music-Making Practices

The context of music-making often shapes its content, that in turn defines its processes. Therefore, it is important to note that relationships between performer and audience, professional and amateur or even the autonomous work and its social contexts are rarely unidirectional. Instead, they are often a synthesis between individual aesthetic experiences that become meaningful collective socio-cultural experiences. In this presentation we aim to provide a framework for the concept of “artistic citizenship” that might challenge the traditional binaries of “art for art’s sake” and “art as social practice”. In doing so, we investigate various definitions of “arts/artists/artistry” and “citizen/citizenship,” and the implications of this compound term. A critical reading of these concepts enables us to avoid assumptions that inform commonly held ideas about cultural and artistic practices, and so highlight the diversity of broader intercultural experiences that shape our modes of artistic expression in a variety of contexts. Through artistic citizenship, the arts can provide such opportunities to redefine and rehearse this richer understanding of citizenship, whether through performance or broader forms of participation, similar to what Small defines as musicking. As with citizenship, these processes make room for “negotiated practices” between individuals, institutions and structures. Hence, we will introduce the concept of Artizenship that encompasses a fuller range of modes of artistic expression and engagement - a term that implies a broader approach to, and overlap between, the traditional definitions of “artist” and “citizen” than the separate terms traditionally entail.

Lucy Cathcart-Fröden (Norway)

Institutional affiliation: University of Oslo.
Professional role: Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Abstract: Plural slices - Multiplicity in voice, language and narrative

This presentation will share examples of songwriting emerging from situations of detention, and consider the role of multiplicity in crafting alternative narratives and futures. Socially-engaged music initiatives in situations of marginalisation can be considered ‘a power, not a good’ (Matarasso, 2019) in the sense that their effects are complex, not always or universally ameliorative, and require ongoing critical reflection. This is particularly the case in the context of systems of detention, where the existing unequal power dynamics are stark, and where arts-based activities can inadvertently reinforce dominant narratives of trauma and harm, or indeed legitimise harmful carceral regimes. This presentation will explore how embracing multiplicity –including plural voices and multilingual approaches – can offer a path towards richer individual identities and collective future imaginaries. Two sonic fragments will share voices of people affected by the criminal justice system in Norway and the asylum and immigration system in the UK. We’ll hear from a band made up of formerly incarcerated women in Oslo, and from a songwriting project with people recently released from immigration detention in Scotland. The title of the presentation, ‘plural slices’, takes inspiration from the work of Salomé Voegelin in her book The Political Possibility of Sound (2018), where she writes: ‘Sonic knowledge, the knowledge of the invisible and what remains unheard, opens politics, political actions, decisions and institutions to the plural slices of this world.’ Drawing on Voegelin’s work, this presentation will consider the radical political potential of sonic co-creation.

Andrea Creech (Canada)

Institutional affiliation: Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Canada
Professional role: Professor of Music Pedagogy, Associate Dean, James McGill Professorship

Taianara Goedert (Canada)

Institutional affiliation: Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Canada
Professional role: PhD Candidate; Music Instructor; Research Assistant; Professional percussionist, animateur.

Frédéricka Petit-Homme (Canada)

Institutional affiliation: Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Canada
Professional role: PhD Candidate; Music Instructor; Research Assistant; Professional singer, choir director, media host

Abstract: Artistic Citizenship as relational pedagogy in community engagement

A primary intention of artistic citizens is to make a difference in people’s lives by leveraging artistic skills in the service of personal and community wellbeing and social justice. Understood thus, artistic citizenship practices must be community-engaged, honouring and learning from community participants. Some broad principles for ethically responsible community engagement (CE) have emerged that align with these characteristics of artistic citizenship, privileging trust, reciprocity, and relationships, and adopting a critically reflective approach to power, positionality, and engagement with unfamiliar forms of knowledge. In this presentation we use a relational pedagogy framework to explore artistic citizenship that emphasizes meaningful connection, mutual respect, and trust among facilitators and participants in CE contexts. We report on a systematic review looking at the intersection of artistic citizenship, community engagement, and music pedagogy, arguing that artistic citizenship may be understood as a relational pedagogy that puts communicative relationships and an ethics of care at the heart of the facilitation of music CE. We will then analyze the pedagogical practices and values that are characteristic of two case studies of artistic citizenship as relational pedagogy, practised in CE music contexts — the first a Gospel Choir, bringing together members of the Montreal Haitian community, and the second a music program for children, focusing on “musical awakening” and serving the Montreal Brazilian community, many of whom are newcomers to Canada. We will conclude with highlighting some implications of relational pedagogy in artistic citizenship, for the potential social impact of music-making.

Ana Coric (Croatia)

Institutional affiliation: University of Zagreb, Croatia
Professional role: PhD student

Abstract: Tuning in the valley of sounds: Exploring collaborative professionalism in radiophonic art

This presentation delves into collaborative professionalism within the international project B-air Infinity Radio: Creating Sound Art for Babies, Toddlers, and Vulnerable Groups, which unites nine European countries under the leadership of Radiotelevision Slovenia (Creative Europe, 10/2020 - 12/2023). The Whisper of Memories (Šepet spomina) is a part of the B-air project crafted by Radiotelevision Slovenia during the last quarter of 2023, and it’s rooted in Raymond Murray Schafer’s soundscape theories and research on the relationship between sound, people and the environment. It began as an experimental participatory project facilitated by a team of professionals in sound and music, including a radio director, sound artists and engineers, music pedagogues, a writer, and researchers in ethnology, anthropology, community music and sound pedagogy. The project's aim was to map the sounds of Loška Valley through intergenerational dialogue, culminating in a participatory documentary radiodrama for children and adults as a soundmap. Pedagogically, the project aimed to engage school children (aged 9 to 14) in various aspects of the process: navigating the story and collecting local legends, learning how to record sounds and conduct interviews, making interviews with elderly people, writing a script, and sound design. The research followed the encounter with the children and had two parts: (1) live encounters in the school library and the community (September 2023), and (2) online workshops (October - December 2023).

This presentation shows results of the ethnographic observations and focus groups conducted with members of the community of professional practice to gain insight into the ways the visiting artists and children exercised their creative agencies in participatory radiophonic art. Four research questions guided the exploration: (1) What are the specificities of collaborative participatory soundwork in Loška Valley?; (2) In which ways does this project connect identities and communities gathered around the topic of sound and space?; (3) How do the professionals understand the collaborative working process in the project, and what kind of impact does it have on them?; and (4) How is the children’s engagement and relationship with sound and the listening process changing during the process?

Research results show that involving children and elderly people, as experts in their lived experiences and co-creators in participatory radiophonic projects, opens up a new level of intergenerational connection within the community. This connection is rooted in fundamental childhood experiences related to school, home, nature, as well as technology, showing the growing potential of radio in the contemporary world. Findings reveal that listening, sound-making, and music-making all exist on a continuum of participatory radiophonic art. Multimodality of listening demonstrates that the deeper we engage children in participation and interaction with peers, elderly co-citizens, and radio professionals, the more concentrated and nuanced their listening becomes. Exploring innovative processes and collaborative professionalism within the professional community in this case study raises critical insights about the existing education system and questions of collective authorship.

Line Dalile (Belgium)

Institutional affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Professional role: PhD candidate

Abstract: Sound-making and learning in Urban Spaces: Case studies from Brussels

Urban spaces are untapped sites of learning, where various societal, cultural, and political tensions intersect. To delve into these material and immaterial urban knowledges, social scientists and educators have turned to sound-as-a-tool in unravelling elements of slow urban violence, and in forging social relations and a sense of belonging. In this paper, we look at how sound and the creation of sound art can be a tool for urban ethnographic research and learning facilitated by social art organizations. Specifically, we look at urban projects that reimagine social cohesion in cities by foregrounding sound and listening within their participatory pedagogy. These projects interrupt the predominant focus on text and visual knowledge by cultivating broader practices of listening that uncover alternative ways of understanding and interacting with the urban environment. Referring to case studies from Brussels, we explore how practices of sound-making such as 1) recording and mapping, 2) collective storytelling, and 3) archiving are used to analyse social relations in urban spaces. These practices privilege sound as a sensory tool that highlights alternative urban knowledges that are reparative to the neighbourhoods. Methodologically, 1) we conducted qualitative interviews with sound art practitioner that led to a thematic analysis, 2) analysed a study case using secondary material from these organizations, such as texts or archives, to get a better understanding of participatory processes of sound-making.

1. How can sound-making be used as a tool in urban ethnographic research and learning?
2. What forms of alternative urban knowledges arise from sound-based participatory research?

Authors:
Line Dalile (PhD), Brussels research center for Innovation in Learning and Diversity (BILD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Prof. Dr. Geert Vandermeersche, Brussels research center for Innovation in Learning and Diversity (BILD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

Daniela Fazio Vargas (UK)

Institutional affiliation: University of Manchester
Professional role: PhD student

Abstract: Transforming through Aesthetic Experiences: The Political Role of Music in the 2019 Chilean Uprising

Traditionally, aesthetic experiences have been associated with idyllic landscapes, arts or locus of pleasure. They are considered 'experiences of great value' or a 'thing of beauty'. Therefore, a protest would seem an adverse location for having such an experience, where there is no order but chaos, where silence is replaced by a 'war of noises'. As events that pause the ordinary, protests are moments where passive contemplation is disrupted by active and experiential involvement. Thus, my research seeks to comprehend how music sustained political transformation, despite the institutional setbacks of the 2019 Chilean Uprising, by altering the aesthetics of possibility.

Although I am focusing on music, the notion of aesthetics used in my research is not limited to the theorisations of beauty or pleasure; it refers to the form in which subjects 'sense' their reality and the ‘sense’ they make of it. Hence, I argue that music altered the aesthetics by visibilising marginal actors and making their demands audible, but so too by calling into question dominant models of hearing, showing the need for altering the regimes of thought so that the noise listens to as speech. Yet, understanding the role of music requires us to go beyond the analysis that focuses on the lyrics or the artwork's internal properties and look at the experience. The experiences of musicking are transformative, not only because they are a being together in a world that separates, blurring the distinction between artists and audience, but also because they disrupt the "continuum of history".

Sergio Garcia-Cuesta (Denmark)

Institutional affiliation: Rhythmic Music Conservatory Copenhagen & Aalborg University
Professional role: PhD student

Abstract: Developing artistic citizenships - What fluidly understanding artistic citizenship could do

Artistic Citizenship, and its connected values to bring forward the social and ethical aspects of musical practices, are becoming ideological pillars of music educational practices both in a nordic context and internationally. However, is it even clear what this concept means? Should it even be clearly defined? is it being explored and applied to its full potential? Resulting from a recently published article on these themes, these are some of the questions that this presentation will explore.

I will start by defining what fluidly understanding artistic citizenships could mean. I will continue by introducing the most common definitions of artistic citizenship, and present some of their major critiques. I will go on to present the possibility of challenging these critiques and expanding the value of artistic citizenship by developing alternative understandings of this concept. By drawing parallels between scholarship in citizenship and in the arts, and extrapolating shared issues, potentials and critiques from discourse about the former into the later, I will conceptualize artistic citizenship as 1) a critical tool for reflective and caring practices, 2) a more inclusive musical identity and 3) a tool for social change. I will finish the presentation by exploring the practical repercussions of a fluid approach to artistic citizenship, arguing for how flexibility and malleability in our understanding of this term could open up paths for critical and hopeful practices in music education.

Luca Gambirasio (Ireland)

Institutional affiliation: University College Cork, Ireland.
Professional role: PhD candidate.

Abstract: Il Cantodel Lago - applied scholarship, artistic practice, and socialengagement in eco-ethnomusicology'

After the pandemic, Italy has seen a surge in the number of local events and festivals aimed at the promotion of natural areas and ideas about ecology and sustainability. Here music is being used for a variety of purposes: from attracting and entertaining people to creating spaces of reflection and connection with the environment and the non-human world. In researching these issues, I employed a blended methodology that included myself as a researcher, activist, and performer in a few of these settings. This paper reflects on this experience, focusing on three connected case studies in which my live performances and/or recorded compositions have played an active role in the success of the events. In the first case study, I reflect on my participation in a local eco-festival with some sound compositions, analysing the joy and struggle of the organisers in setting up such an event, despite adverse local politics. In the second and third case studies, I elaborate on two circumstances involving the Italian League for Birds Protection (LIPU): an event aimed at the appreciation of a natural area using sound and music, and a three-days music and art festival aimed to attract people and let them enjoy the natural area responsibly via a sensorial approach to the place. While the three settings appear very different, my artistic contribution enabled me to engage with research participants differently, thus providing a more in-depth understanding of the impact, meaning, social implications and roles played by music and sound within environmentalist festivals.

John Sloboda (UK)

Institutional Affiliation: Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Professional Role: Emeritus Professor Statement

Jo Gibson (UK)

Institutional affiliation: York St John University / Guildhall School of Music and Drama / Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance
Professional role(s): Research Fellow; Institute for Social Justice, York St John University, Postdoctoral Supervisor; Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Guest lecturer; Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Associate; International Centre for Community Music, York St John University

Abstract: Exploring generational differences in how UK-based socially engaged practitioners describe their work and their motivations for it.

This paper derives from a 3-year multi-country comparative project which focuses on participatory music practitioners’ work, contexts and beliefs. Previous project outputs have explored commonalities between practitioners working in different countries and contexts. This presentation focuses on differences between practitioners in the UK, through an analysis of 51 practitioners who completed an online survey (of whom 24 also gave extensive interviews), and about whom sufficient information was available to construct a broad career timeline. Some practitioners that participated in the study began their socially engaged work many decades ago (when the social, political, and economic climate was very different to now - and where doing so would often be lonely pioneering work), others started their work in the last few years (when the work has attained a greater professional definition, with clearer organisational frameworks to align with and gain support from). We were curious to know how starting participatory practice at different periods in time might inform practitioner work and beliefs.  To explore this, we consider career age differences in relation to (a) nature and amount of formal training/preparation undertaken, (b) types of constituency worked with, (c) the level of specificity in intended outcomes for participants, and (d) alignment of the work with personal political priorities.  These data show that even within one country, socially engaged practice is a complex and differentiated field, responsive to and influenced by the historical specificities of the contexts in which individual practitioners operate.

Veronika Hofer (Germany)

Institutional affiliation: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Professional role: Research Assistant & Study Programme Coordination

Abstract: Artistic Citizenship and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – Interconnections between Two Future-Relevant Fields

Nearly simultaneously as the “birth” of the SDGs, the principle of Artistic Citizenship (AC) has become more eminent in the field of music education. According to the latest SDG report in 2023, several objectives of the SDGs are in hazard of not being reached until the end evaluation in 2030 (UN, 2023). This presentation wants to address which SDGs can be interconnected with AC and why it is crucial to explore their synergies.

An overview on AC, the SDGs and the categorisation of related terms such as Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is the basis of this presentation. Followed by a short investigation which SDGs have common ground with AC. This contribution wants to show how the SDGs embody the principles and aspirations of AC in amplifying marginalized voices, promoting inclusivity and envisioning alternative futures. AC, characterized by the active engagement of artists and music educators in societal issues, serves as a catalyst for social change and sustainable development. By leveraging their creative expression, music educators can contribute to raising awareness, fostering dialogue and acting on diverse SDG-related issues, ranging from educational to social justice and cultural diversity. Ultimately, this presentation seeks to emphasise the importance of ESD in advancing collective efforts towards a more just, equitable and resilient world.

Music education as a discipline ought to play a role in addressing pressing global challenges and in reaching certain SDGs. In addition, the amalgamation of AC and the SDGs as future-relevant fields offers promising avenues for the further development of AC.

Abstract:  Building Bridges Through Collaboration
This paper will introduce the research project Building Bridges Through Collaboration: MetamorPhonics as an approach to socially engaged music making, which is in its initial stages. It investigates MetamorPhonics’ (MP) community music practice and its impacts on participants. MP creates bands, each with their own identity, located in the UK and Iceland, set up in collaboration with music higher education institutions (MHE), occupation rehabilitation centres and homeless charities. The bands are led by experienced professional musicians and focus on collective and collaborative composition processes, resulting in high quality music, created, and owned by all band members. All the music and lyrics are co-created together by the band members. including adults in recovery and/or with experience of homelessness, MHE students and professional musicians. The research project encompasses multiple aspects, including understanding the profiles and motivations of MP band members, exploring the principles and beliefs that guide MP, and comparing them to other community music practices. The project also delves into the core pedagogic approaches utilized by MP, investigating the strategies, methodologies, and instructional techniques that shape its practice. It examines how the social context and characteristics of participants inform the musical approach and leadership within MP. Additionally, the project explores the significance of the MP experience for band members, including the personal, social, and musical impact of participation and potential spillover effects on participants' lives and engagement with broader communities. The paper will focus on the framework for the project and the methodologies used.

Research Team:
Þorbjörg Daphne Hall, a Professor at the Iceland University of the Arts and the PI for the project presented.
Lee Higgins, a professor at York St John University and the Director of the International Centre for Community Music.
Sigrún Sævarsdóttir-Griffiths, a musician, educator and leader of creative and collaborative music making. She holds a position at the Guildhall School in the UK and is a visiting lecturer at the Iceland University of the Arts.
Jo Gibson, a Research Fellow at York St John University and external supervisor for Guildhall School.

Borja Juan-Morera (Spain)

Institutional affiliation: University of Zaragoza

Abstract: Celebrating Diversity: The Inclusive Cantatutti Choir as a Model of Social Inclusion and Musical Accessibility

Through this initiative, the aim is not only to address diversity but also to promote cohesion, social inclusion, musical and cultural accessibility, and the development of emotional, academic, and social competencies. It strengthens bonds through an innovative, creative, and educational model based on the principle of equity.

Since its inception, the Inclusive Cantatutti Choir has been a melting pot of diversity and talent, involving over 400 individuals from more than 35 countries and 5 continents, reflecting a microcosm of our global society. Currently, 175 participants take part in the project's weekly rehearsals. Of these, 21% have a recognized (dis)ability, and almost half have a vulnerable profile. Members range from 18 to 76 years old, with an average age of 26 years. Notably, over 30% of participants have no previous or current ties to the University of Zaragoza, underscoring the project's genuine dedication to inclusion in its broadest sense.

I am particularly excited about the opportunity to contribute to discussions on participatory music-making and its social impact. The themes of the conference resonate deeply with my research interests, including musicians as makers in society, participatory music practices, and musical co-creation as social intervention. I will present my research on the Cantatutti Inclusive Choir in Zaragoza, Spain. It presents an ethnographic study of this choir, supported by the theoretical framework of musical projects with prosocial aims and the educational, social, and musical dimensions of inclusion. Conducted over six years, the research analyzes and evaluates the impact of this project by focusing on the voices of its participants and their environment.

With a deep interest in diversity, accessibility, and equity in music education, especially in the choral field, this study examines a project situated within a context of educational activism through musicking. As the director and co-founder of the choir, I adopt a critical approach based on action research to address inherent challenges and potential benefits of such projects. The study employs various research instruments, including participant observation, field notes, focus groups, questionnaires, and an adapted inclusion evaluation scale, to comprehensively capture the discourses, meanings, and perceptions of those involved. The research aims not only to define the particularities of the Cantatutti Inclusive Choir but also to evaluate its potential benefits, influence on social transformation, perception of inclusion, evolution, valuation, and challenges. This research aims to offer a solid and critical academic perspective on the role of music in promoting social inclusion.

Ailbhe Kenny (Ireland)

Institutional affiliation: Limerick University.
Professional role: Associate Professor of Music Education, Mary Immaculate College, Universityof Limerick, Ireland.

Abstract: Seeking an Alternative - Making music in asylum seeking accommodation centres

This presentation will explore how forced migration, mobility and emplacement become entangled through musical interactions. The focus is on how people seeking asylum create musical spaces to open up to alternative forms of identity that resist narrow categorisations, nationalisms, monocultures and fixed geographies. Thus, the exploration moves away from refugee and asylum seeking tropes that rely on narratives of victimhood. Rather, the presentation foregrounds agency and a claiming of space within asylumseeking accommodation settings in which individuals (both adults and children alike) work to shape, and are shaped by, socio-musical interactions. The research I draw from spans seven years of music making projects with people seeking asylum in both Ireland and Germany. The presentation positions itself at the beginning of the post-migration phase, where people have left their homes, reached a destination country but are still living in the ‘limbo space’ of seeking refugee status. Narratives are thus nestled within this asylum system where people and families are waiting for adecision on their request for sanctuary. By turning our attention to the socio-musical spaces within asylum accommodation centre walls, we gain insights into how such spaces are created and negotiated as well as how identities are formed, informed, and potentially transformed while living within and through asylum seeking systems. Essentially, I argue that asylum seeking centres are unique contexts, or new musical worlds, where music is made and shared.

Ioannis Litos (Greece) 

Institutional affiliation: University of Macedonia.
Professional role: PhD Student

Abstract: Exploring collaborative engagement among children living in care - Preliminary insights from a community music program

The proposed presentation is part of my PhD project, aiming to explore the collaborative music engagement among 20 children, 6 to 13 years old, livingin care facility. A community music program held consistently on a weekly basis for 60 minutes over a 7-month period from December 2023 to today, giving participants the opportunity to share and enjoy music with others in their own terms, socialize through music and get involved in active music-making through songwriting, singing, drum circle, and musical improvisation. The primary objective is to implement an open and democratic music-making program, rather than a structured one. Through cooperation and communication, participants collectively determine their goals, explore their limits, take action and lead, and discover their musical aspirations. Data was collected from participatory observation, focus groups with children and staff members (psychologists, social workers, educators), critical friend’s field diary and children’s reflective notes from each session. Preliminary results illustrate the dynamics of collaboration among participants and elucidate the significance of collaboration in/for music-making. Both children and facility members specifically emphasize collaboration not only as a skill cultivated through music-making, but also as an outcome of the program positively affecting children’s daily life. Children demonstrate increased willingness to cooperate with each other and exhibit a heightened desire to spend more time together. Furthermore, during the program, children share ownership and combine personal ideas to create music collaboratively.

Tanya Maggi (USA) 

Institutional affiliation: New England Conservatory
Professional role: Dean and Chair of Community Engagement and Professional StudiesFaculty, New England Conservatory

Raquel Jimenez (USA) 

Institutional affiliation: Harvard Graduate School of Education
Professional role: Faculty Co-Chair & Lecturer, Arts & Learning Concentration

Abstract: Next Generation Musicians As Artist Citizens: A Longitudinal Look at Socially Impactful Music Making Within Conservatory Training

In 2003, New England Conservatory (NEC) introduced an artistic citizenshipprogram offering students a chance to connect the skills they weredeveloping as musicians to a broad array of civic aims in Boston andbeyond. Twenty years later, a generation of program alumni have followed adiversity of professional career trajectories that highlight the ways inwhich musicians are able to center artistic citizenship not as a subsidiarypractice but as an integrated cornerstone of their lives in music.Publishedin 2023, this longitudinal study examines the salient impacts ofprogram involvement on NEC alumni and considers how these musicians areleveraging their musical skills to serve as artistic citizens whostrengthen the social and cultural lives of their communities. To explorethis issue, we will share findings from our mixed methods study of 120 NECalumni who were involved in the conservatory's community engagement program. Our presentation will unfold in three parts. In Part 1, we willdiscuss our approach to investigating sociocultural impact in socially-engaged music making, our research questions, and the conceptual frameworksthat guided our study. In Part 2, wewill share our findings anddiscuss the key factors that enable and constrain alumni as they seek to besocially impactful artistic citizens within their communities. In Part 3,we will broaden our lens to consider the implications of these findings forprofessional development of musicians and how we might rethink thecurriculum in schools of music across the higher education landscape.

Silke Marynissen (Belgium)

Institutional affiliation: Vrije Universiteit Brussels
Professional role: PhD fellowship fundamental research, Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO) Research group PArticipation and Learning in Detention (PALD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8819-4230

Abstract: Unlocking transformation: Capturing change stories of participants of participatory music programs in prison

Previous studies have highlighted that participatory music programs in prison can trigger change for incarcerated participants. Music programs offer participants a way to manage and express their emotions, they facilitate self-development, they provide respite, and they facilitate connections. However, it remains unclear how, why, for whom and under which circumstances these changes occur. Through applying a realist lens, this research aims to gain insight into the changes for incarcerated individuals, and the underlying aspects that trigger these changes. To uncover this, (1) participant observations were conducted of two music programs in prisons in Belgium. These observations are followed by (2) applying the Most Significant Change (MSC) Technique for both music programs. MSC is a participatory evaluation method that consists out of two phases. In a first phase, stories about change are collected by interviewing incarcerated participants that took part in the music programs. In a second phase, these change stories are discussed in a focus group of professionals that organize music programs in prison. Our preliminary findings describe the changes as experienced by participants (e.g., gaining confidence, becoming more open) and the underlying aspects that contributed to these changes (e.g., the approach of the music facilitator, providing an (end) goal). The insights from this research equip policy makers and organizations with a better understanding about how, why, for whom and under which circumstances participatory music programs are (and can be) successfully implemented in prison.

Authors:

Dra. Silke Marynissen (speaker), PhD Fellowship fundamental research of the Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO) & Research Group PArticipation and Learning in Detention (PALD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Dorien Brosens, Research Foundation of Flanders (FWO) & Research Group PArticipation and Learning in Detention (PALD), Vrije UniversiteitBrussel, Belgium
Prof. Dr. Geert Vandermeersche, Brussels research centre for Innovation inLearning & Diversity (BILD), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Bernado Meireles (Brazil)

Institutional affiliation: Federal University of Minas Gerais
Professional role: Music educator, musician, researcher and artistic supervisor of QuerubinsAssociation (30 year-old NGO from Belo Horizonte, Brasil)

Abstract: Drawing new ways of creative music teaching and learning in social initiatives with Conectar Project

Music teaching and learning, as well as training new music professionals, educators and leaders are powerful actions towards social change. In order for this to happen, it is essential that music education systems (institutions, professionals, students, public actors, sponsors, among other agents) find a structure of knowledge and practices to serve as an access point for training courses, skill development, artistic production and research. This research is a work in progress, that aims to evaluate the actions of Conectar Project, a music education initiative with a mission of contributing to the renewal of music teaching and learning processes that are centred on the human being and their creativity, in a horizontal, diverse, dialogical, and sustainable manner, aiming for social change. The project issituated in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and conducts its actions specially with NGO educators mainly based on Gregory and Renshaw’s (2013) Creative Learning approach and Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy. As a network, Conectar identifies a paradox looking at the creative, charismatic and rich Brazilian music, while NGOs that develop art projects still tend to focus on traditional, eurocentric strategies and paradigms of music teaching. This observation is unsettling, since these organisations deal with groups which are socially, ethnically, culturally and economically oppressed, and would benefit from learning processes that stimulate their sense of identity, community, critical thinking and autonomy, values that areat the core of Conectar’s work. Measuring the project’s results is an important exercise to understand the impact of its initial movements towards a more inclusive, diverse and authentic form of music making.

RESEARCH QUESTION

What are the results of Conectar Project initiatives in the dissemination of a creative and humanistic culture in music learning and teaching in the city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) that aims for social change?

METHODOLOGY

• Literature review on creative and collaborative learning, humanistic education, network-based initiatives and social inclusion.
• Semi-structured interviews with participants and data analysis.

MAIN AIM

• Evaluate the actions of Conectar Project in disseminating a creativeand humanistic culture in music learning and teaching in the search of positive social impact.

Pablo Mendoza (Colombia)

Professional role: Head of the Sinfonietta de Bogotá research group

Abstract: Sinfonietta de Bogotá - A Socially Oriented Symphonic Orchestra

Symphonic orchestras have been experiencing great difficulties due to sustainability problems (McPhee, 2002; Cottrell, 2003). A possible explanation for this lies in the weak links between the orchestras and the community to which they belong. With this in mind, the Sinfonietta's research group has been working on the question: How does community symphonic music help strengthen historically damaged ties and what strategies can be adopted in creating an orchestra that fulfils this purpose? Underlying our approach is perceiving culture as an inherently relational concept (Crossley, 2015); music is not perceived here as either an object or an abstraction: it is musicking (Small, 1998), which makes it necessary to consider not only what happens "onstage" but also "backstage", the social organisation that integrates and supports its creation and dissemination (Becker, 2008).

Hence, we have been carrying out a theoretical and a practical project to find potential solutions to the problem that jeopardises the sustainability of orchestras. Indeed, taking inspiration from experiences of community orchestras around the world and bearing in mind a definition of community music as non-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian, we are testing these strategies in the recently created Sinfonietta de Bogotá –a community symphonic orchestra that, from its foundations, recognises the close and necessary link of the orchestra with the community and as a community.

Accordingly, following a qualitative approach, we are relying on the data from the autoethnographies of the conductor (and artistic director) and the orchestra's concertmaster (and principal), as well as surveys and interviews with musicians and the audience. With this information, we expect to offer some insights to create more endurable and sustainable ties. Particularly, in each rehearsal, the director applies the strategies developed by the research team to assess one of the links. Thus, in the first, we proposed studying the relationship between musician and instrument; in the second, the relationship amongst the musicians; in the third, the relationship with the music sheets and the conductor; then with the audience; and finally, with the wider community. Underlying this approach relies on conceiving the orchestra as a space of experimentation where alternative pedagogical initiatives can be developed.

Aine Mangaoang (Normay)

Institutional affiliation: University of Oslo
Professional role: Associate Professor in Popular Music, Principal Investigator: Prisons of note project, Department of Musicology, University of Oslo. Staff profile: people.uio.no/ainem

Abstract:  “Pros and Cons” - The paradoxes of researching music in prison

The three-year project Prisons of Note: Mapping music and nuances in penal exceptionalism from the periphery (2022-’25), uses qualitative methods to investigate how music works – or is put to work – in prisons in three countries: Norway, Iceland, and the Republic of Ireland. One of the primary aims of this research is to contribute new, interdisciplinary knowledge on how music is used and is useful in prisons from a peripheral perspective, and to change how we study music and imprisonment, from isolated, single-nation case studies to connected, transcultural experiences that transcendnational borders. This presentation provides a critical reflection on this research project in progress, where I share some of the unexpected opportunities and the unforeseen challenges faced in conducting research on music and sound in prison across these three smaller, peripheral jurisdictions. Drawing on the project’s on-going work in an Irish prison, The In-house Harmony choir – an inside-outside choir of men serving sentences in Mountjoy Prison and women from a Dublin work place choir – I emphasize some of the complexities involved in the collaboration between choir members in prison and those in the wider community. Borrowing the title from a performance event created by the choir called “Pros and Cons,” I riff on this title to contemplate the key paradoxes faced when doing this kind of research, where all kinds of pros and cons emerge through music’s deployment in prison as a form of artistic citizenship in practice as well as a site of contestation and negotiation of artistic agency and social values.

Joel Martinez-Lorenzana (Canada) 

Instituational affiliation: University of Western Ontario
Professional role: PhD. Student

Abstract: Music-based peacebuilding in Chalatenango

In this paper, I show how Salvadoran youth from northern Chalatenango learned to make music using a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) while engaging in music-based peacebuilding in a post-conflict region. In the late 1980s, communities that were devastated during the Salvadoran civil war (1980-1992) in northern Chalatenango were repopulated after survivors spent nearly a decade living in refugee camps. Today, the descendants of survivors face scant opportunities to heal intergenerational trauma, and to engage in music making. As a member of a large interdisciplinary research team, I attended several meetings and assemblies in the fall of 2022, where community leaders and youth expressed the need for music education.

As a result, I began working with a team of local youth leaders to design a series of music workshops that focused on peacebuilding through critical dialogue and historical memory work. The research design followed Participatory Action Research (PAR) principles. After much discussion and careful consideration, we identified pop and reggaeton as the main influences of participants. This music is made almost exclusively using the DAW, so we chose a DAW environment to make music. This paper presents preliminary findings after six weeks of in-person workshops that aimed to engage in music-based peacebuilding while making music in a DAW. Data was collected using group dialogue, participant observation, and song analysis. I paid special attention to the process of making music. Participants showed engagement in several informal learning strategies: tacit learning, trial-and-error, and peer collaboration.

Flávia Motoyama Narita (Brazil)

Institutional affiliation: Universidade de Brasília, Brazil
Professional role: Associate Professor of Music Education

Abstract: Artistic Citizenship in Music Teaching: an Approach to Develop Critical Consciousness

The works of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire have long been part of my teaching, but it was during my PhD (re)search journey that Freire’s dialogical pedagogy became embedded in my being. I developed a theoretical model to understand music teaching consisting of three domains: teachers’ practical musicianship, their use of authority, and their relationship with learners’ musical worlds. Within these domains, I found nine pedagogic modes. In this presentation, I revisit this model in connection with Freire’s stages of consciousness to discuss engagement with the world through music education. The first stage of semi-intransitive consciousness is characterised by the inability to understand reality in a critical way. Engagement with the world is fragmented and individualistic, mirroring a dehumanising type of education found in the practices that mobilise only one of the domains. The second stage of consciousness shows attempts to build a dialogical approach and to be in charge of one’s own actions. However, it is still a naïve type of transitive consciousness and distortions of reality in sectarian and fanatic attitudes are likely to occur. Engagement with the world still seeks adjustments as portrayed in the practices that combine two of the domains of music teaching and in the modes that mix other pedagogic modes. The final stage of critical consciousness is achieved through praxis in a dialogical and problem-posing education. Through the mobilisation of the three domains of music teaching, engagement with the world reflects what is being called artistic citizenship.

Georgia Nicolaou (Cyprus-Belgium)

Institutional affiliation: Royal Conservatoire Antwerp | Universityof Antwerp.
Professional role: Composer • Educator • Researcher - www.georgianicolaou.com, PhD Researcher at University of Antwerp / Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp–AP University of Applied Science and Arts.

Abstract: Joint creation through Music and Movement with Unaccompanied Refugee Minors

Community Music workshops invite participants to engage into a creative process of shared music-making (Kenny, 2016). Making music and finding meaning through music, can be an empowering experience (Leman, 2016). Due to the intrinsic link between music and movement, engaging with music through movement intensifies the empowering nature of musical interactions. (Nijs & Nicolaou, 2021). The presentation will unfold around a case study that involved a series of workshops for a group of unaccompanied refugee minors at SMAN (Society for the Care of Minors and Youth) in Athens, Greece. The workshops were organised within the ERC CoG Grant "MUTE-Soundscapes of Trauma: Music, Sound and the Ethics of Witnessing". N.101002720 (Principal Investigator: Anna Papaeti). The objective was to investigate, through practice-based research, how to foster creative participation through activities that combine Music and Movement, Improvisation and Composition. The experiential workshops aimed to engage children in an artistic process in which their ideas and creative aspirations were given a voice. There was a focus on promoting creative participation through non-hierarchical roles in facilitation. Indeed, it was important to create a safe and joyful space for children to express their interests in music, welcome their musical memories, by offering them the opportunity to connect to their own (cultural) background and inspire them to approach the multiplicity of sound and movement with an open mind. The workshops included activities such as collective improvisation, body percussion, singing, collective composing, graphic scores and movement activities inspired by the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System. Data collection involved two collections of data sets. The first collection concerned data on the facilitator’s work, encompassing video footage and a reflective diary (including immediate reflections). The second collection concerned data on the participating children, encompassing mindmaps, group discussions and a pedagogical activity measuring participation with Hula-hoops.

Axel Petri-Preis (Australia)

Institutional affiliation: University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Professional role: Professor for Music Mediation and Community Music; Vice-director of the Department of Music Education Research and Practice; Coordinator of the study profile Music Mediation / Community Music within the MA Contemporary Arts Practice

Abstract: Doing Universality through Music Working on Shared Values and Practices in Multi-Diverse, Singularized Societies

Contemporary European societies are increasingly multi-diverse (Vertovec 2007) and singularized (Reckwitz 2020, 2021). Life plans and life courses are comparable to an ever lesser extent, leading to a multitude of cultural forms of appropriation and expression.

Against this backdrop the question increasingly arises as to what holds society together when its members have hardly anything in common. Extremist movements and right wing parties take advantage of the resulting uncertainty in parts of the population to put forward an agenda that puts communality in its core. Just recently the Austrian conservative party OEVP has launched a campaign promoting the concept of Leitkultur, defining a guiding culture within society. This aligns with a logic that sociologist Andreas Reckwitz calls cultural essentialism, prioritizing collective identity over the individualism inherent in the logic of hyperculture embodied by the new cosmopolitan middle class.

In my paper I will argue that socially engaged musicians can play an important role in contributing to commonly shared values and norms, as well as cultural practices. Drawing on ideas of Andreas Reckwitz, Omri Boehm (2023), and François Jullien (2019) I will introduce the notion of doing universality in and through music. In contrast to Leitkultur, it emphasizes a process of negotiation as to what is to be shared, where cultural differences are understood as fruitful in-between, and where an effort of enculturation is required from everyone involved. I will conclude by suggesting that this idea might be a valuable addition to the concept of artistic citizenship as a specific manifestation of putting arts to work “toward the positive transformation of people’s lives”. (Elliott et al. 2016: 1).

Oscar Pripp (Sweden)

Institutional affiliation: Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University
Professional role: Associate Professor in Ethnology

Abstract: Artistic Citizenship as an Analytical Tool of Everyday Resistance in the Musical Field
Swedish society underwent major changes around the mid-2010s, the time when I conducted fieldwork within a Kurdish and a Swedish cultural association in Stockholm, both focusing on music and dance activities. It was a time characterized by a hardening political climate; increasingly, right-wing nationalists blamed immigrants for the disintegration of society, and raised demands for a cultural policy with narrower definitions of “pure Swedish” cultural expressions. The members of both associations strongly disapproved of these political ideas, and they continued their work as usual, refraining from open protest. Yet, one association, representing Kurdish culture, was the target of political recriminations relating to society’s cultural fragmentation, while the Swedish association argued for an open-minded approach and everchanging folk music and dance traditions. The two associations were differently positioned in the Swedish society, one marginalized and the other at the center. Yet, each resisted an undesirable social development in similar ways. This presentation focuses on how music and dancing can be experienced and seen as agency and resistance, with a view to achieving a better society. I analyze practices as Artistic Citizenship in the sense of everyday resistance to counteract injustices and promote people's coexistence. I will conclude the presentation with an exploration of the analytical potential of Artistic citizenship, understood from the perspective of everyday resistance and ethical standpoints, within musical empirical fields beyond the associations that I have investigated so far.

Natalia Puerta (Colombia)

Institutional affiliation: Universidad del Valle, Cali-Colombia / Guildhall School London
Professional role: Doctoral student

Abstract: Un Canto por la Vida - Embracing alterity in social action through music-making

This project explores the case of the music school of Canto por la Vida, an educative and cultural foundation situated in Ginebra, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. This community project is nationally recognized for its musical training programme based on Colombian “Andean” music, which has benefited hundreds of children and young people for more than 25 years. Using an ethnographic approach, this doctoral research explores the nature of the school’s community, organizational, musical, and artistic practices and relationships. The research seeks to understand to how and to what extent informal music school in Colombia can serve as a catalyst for human and social development at the local level.

This experience from the global South shows how within the framework of a single educational and cultural project, different philosophies, experiences, practices, and expectations regarding music-making shape the elusive concept of social impact. The study highlights the complexities, tensions, conflicts, and questions that arise from the intersection and coexistence of divergent yet mutually complementary pursuits: 1) the deepening of a musical tradition; 2) the search for aesthetic and pedagogical alternativeness; 3) the role of subjectivity; and 4) the project’s sustainability. The study suggests that a “kaleidoscopic” and situated understanding of these phenomena enables a better grasp of the factors influencing processes of consensus and political action, the complexity of human relationships and the potential to build shared projects based on difference, alterity and diversity as assets and pivotal points in the midst of conflict and in polarized and changing societies.

Tina Reynaert (Belgium)

Professional role(s): FWO-fellow researcher at Ghent University, affiliated to Academic Chair Jonet; Professional musician-pianist (Master in performing Arts) with 2 official albums: Mimes (Etcetera Records) and The Hour of The Wolf (Antarctica Records); Artistic facilitator (The Scratch Band, Raise your Voice in collaboration with Concertgebouw Brugge)

An De bisschop (Belgium)

Professional role(s): Professor at Ghent University (Musicology) & Chairholder of the Academic Chair Jonet; Lecturer at KASK/Conservatory Ghent, teaching art educational courses and participatory arts in the educational master’s programs in the arts (Music, Drama, Visual and Audiovisual arts)

Institutional affiliation:
Faculty of Arts & Philosophy at Ghent University in Belgium
Department of Art History, Musicology & Theatre Studies
+Academic Chair Jonet/Centre for Social Action and Music Making

Abstract: Bridging the (Musical) Gap: Artistic Strategies for (Musical) Inclusion in Intercultural Community Practices with People on the Move

In community music practices with people on the move, diverse musical grammars and cultural backgrounds come together. These ‘intercultural’ community music practices implement a variety of artistic strategies that aim to reach social inclusion and well-being goals (Tapson et al.,2018; Vougioukalou et al.,2019). A lot of research exists that documents singular community music practices with newcomers, most often this research describes the impact of practices on social inclusion, well-being and sense of belonging of its participants (Cain et al.,2020; Nunn, 2022). Research that focusses on analyzing artistic strategies in relation to the aim of (musical) inclusion is scarce.

Therefore, this research paper examines which artistic strategies are chosen in community music practices with newcomers; and how this choice relates to the aim of musical inclusion (in the process of music making itself) and broader societal inclusion (as an aim of these projects). Starting from the research question ‘how do artistic strategies in community music are perceived to contribute to 'inclusion' from the perspective of facilitators?’, we report the results of a critical interpretative literature review about the topic.

A first phase of this research consisted of collecting and mapping research (N=60 case studies) that reports the chosen artistic strategies to work with people on the move in a musical way. This resulted in a database of descriptions that, in a second phase, was systematized and analyzed in terms of (a) the chosen artistic strategies and (b) how inclusion is understood and conceptualized in relation to the chosen strategies. The research results provide useful insights for community music facilitators that are challenged by the quest towards (musical) inclusion of their participants.

Lorraine Roubertie (France)

Institutional affiliation: Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
Professional role: Research Assistant MusiPim-Musique et Partenariat Inter-MétiersLabEx Structurations des Mondes Sociaux / Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès Associate researcher : 1/ LLA-CRÉATIS (Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès) ; 2/ ACTé (Université Clermont Auvergne).

Abstract: Interprofessionnal partnership within two socially-oriented collectivemusical education projects, Orchestre à l’école and Démos (France)

The presentation will focus on the results of the MusiPim study (Musique etPartenariat inter-métiers) conducted in 2023-2024 on the basis of two sets of data collected within two socially-oriented collective music education projects: Orchestre à l'école in Toulouse (2017-2021), and Démos (Dispositif d'Education Musicale et Orchestrale à vocation Sociale) inClermont-Ferrand (2019-2021). These two projects bring together individuals from different professions (instrument teachers, National Education teachers, social workers, etc.) who work together to advance the commonproject. A new survey has been carried out in Toulouse since April 2024, in addition to the initial data, in order to start a comparison between two of the most widespread social music education projects in France, Orchestre àl'école and Démos, in terms of inter-professional partnership. The survey is based on what professionals say about two typical moments of collaboration: 1. During the organisation of work: focus on missions and objectives (prescribed vs. experienced), and on the distribution of tasks - and conception of teamwork. 2. When teaching music. It aims to identify and categorise the asymmetries inherent in the partnership situation (Dhume 2010; Libois and Loser 2010; Thomazet and Mérini, 2014, 2018; Allenbach 2017, 2021, 2022), as well as the resulting tensions (Clot and Faïta, 2000), dilemmas (Mattei-Mieusset, Brau-Antony,2016) and potential conflicts (Thomazet and Mérini, 2018). The Clermont-Ferrand Démos survey, for example, revealed a lack of clarity in the division of certain tasks between the professionals involved, and a mutual ignorance of each other's jobs. These grey areas can fuel inter- and intra-personal tensions and/or dilemmas (e.g.: How far should I go in regulating the group's attention? Should I take the students home after a concert? Should I help put the equipment away after a rehearsal or concert? Can I take part in the organisation of music lessons without playing an instrument myself, and if so, how?) which will be analysed as effects of these situations.

Sandra Sinsch-Gouffi (Germany) 

Institutional affiliation: Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt.
Professional role: PhD candidate (supervisor: Prof.Dr. Daniel Mark Eberhard).

Abstract: “Don't write yourself off, write your own music instead" - insights into a three-year, action research-based project in a German penitentiary psychiatric hospital

Statistically, a stay in a German penitentiary psychiatric hospital lasts longer than ten years. Forensic patients suffer from schizophrenia, behavioural disorders, intellectual disability or sexual preference disorders. In addition to medical treatment and psychotherapy, various socio-therapeutic measures are designed to resocialise offenders. These programmes also involve musical activities at the interface between education and therapy. However, there is a large gap in research and a lack of practice examples. Based on the assumption that musical activities could play a key role inimproving health and social situation of forensic patients, the research project in the Forensic State Hospital Saxony-Anhalt was investigating three years how music programmes for offenders with mental health disorders should be designed in order to promote personal and social resources and fulfil the human right to cultural education and participation. The data was generated from individual and group settings through action research. This presentation focuses on the specific challenges in the third cycle of data collection, when community music projects were integrated. The coercive community of patients with various mental disorders, combined with insufficient bed capacity, lack of privacy, high-security setting and shortages in the care sector, holds a high potential for conflicts and makes group settings a challenge. A project in which forensic patients entered into a musical process together with the radio choir of the state broadcaster MDR shows how community music can be successfully introduced despite the demanding conditions.

Lelouda (Lida) Stamou (Greece)

Institutional affiliation: Dept. of Music Science and Art, University of Macedonia, Greece
Professional role: professor

Abstract: "Relating as crucial"

Personal stories are often where the authentic voices of people are expressed. I aimed to collect accounts of people’s lived experiences, in my quest to discover what we are as musicians, music teachers or facilitators. More than 180 stories have been gathered during an on-going research work. Respondents (university music students studying and practicing music, music education, or community music, community musicians, and in-service music teachers) were invited to step back and recall people, places, incidents in their musical paths that had an impact on them in one way or another. I became recipient of intense, evocative and provocative stories, revealing deep thoughts, feelings and untold truths. Relating emerged as the most crucial theme in most of those stories. Respondents came up with memories of relationships with significant or insignificant others, authority figures, teachers, facilitators, and also peers. Stories showed that relationships imposed implicit or explicit powers deeply affecting people, their views of self and life, and their musical paths. Findings lead –among others- to conclusions about the need to emphasize relational pedagogy in the education and guidance of music facilitators as well as music teachers. The proposed presentation stresses both the important issue of relating and the power of storied documentation and artful inquiry as research tools to depict the nuances, depth and intensity of the social and personal impact of music making along with others.

Rafaela Troulou (Greece) 

Institutional affiliation: University of Macedonia.
Professional role: PhD Student.

Abstract: Community music-making as a social intervention for people with dementia - the case study of a community music intervention in residential carefacilities in Greece

Althougha compelling body of literature supports the use of music as an effective non-pharmacological strategy in dementia care, few studies have focused on community music-making in care settings. The present study investigated the effect of a community music intervention on the well-being of older people with dementia in residential care. The community music intervention involved 40 music sessions, over a ten-month period, and was conducted in two nursing homes. 35 older people participated, including 12 with dementia, 14 with cognitive impairment, and 9 with intact abilities. Music sessions followed the principles of community music-making and tried to resemble the atmosphere of a Greek feast; a common example of informal social gathering and interaction. Sessions followed a similar structure and included music activities such as singing and rhythmic playing on percussion instruments. The collection of songs used remained mainly stable. The 1st author was the facilitator of the sessions. All sessions were video recorded. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two care staffmembers and two assistants of the music facilitator of the sessions, after the intervention period. Thematic analysis of qualitative data obtained from systematic observation of video recordings and semi-structured interviews revealed 3 emergent themes: (1) the intervention facilitated non-verbal interaction and socializing among participants with varying cognitive states,(2) the consistent session structure and stable repertoire fostered emotional, social, and musical responses from people with dementia, and (3) the intervention helped to alleviate some negative symptoms associated with dementia, such as agitation and wandering.

Maria Varvarigou (Ireland)

Institutional affiliation: Limerick University
Professional role: Lecturer in Music Education, Area Coordinator for Music Education

Abstract: Inclusive pedagogy in school and community participatory music making: pre-service student teachers’ and community musicians’ perspectives

The work ‘inclusion’ is a buzz word in education and community research. Within music scholarship, the term often describes offering opportunities for acces sin participatory music making experiences, with a particular focus on marginalised learners and social groups. Adopting the concept of inclusive pedagogy as articulated by Florian and Black-Hawkins (2011) as alens, this paper will share findings on pre-service teachers’ and community musicians’ understandings of the concept of inclusive pedagogy in music education in formal (school) and non-formal (community) settings. The pre-service teachers explored the concept of inclusive pedagogy as they engaged in a multisensory music education intervention, devising ‘SensoryMusicking’ (see Varvarigou, forthcoming) performances for and with disabledand non-disabled children at a local primary school. The community musicians facilitated music sessions on song writing, and music production for and with young people aged 14 to 18 years old in various community centres. Both research projects will be completed in July 2024. The data will be analysed thematically (inductively and deductively). The data collection methods include one to one and focus group interviews, observations of music sessions, and an analysis of sensory musicking video performances. The four principles of inclusive pedagogy (access, collaboration, achievement, and diversity) (Florian and Black-Hawkins,2011) will provide an initial structure for the deductive analysis. Under the theme of artistic citizenship, this paper will make recommendations on the effective training of musicians and educators as artists and citizens facilitating inclusive participatory music making experiences for all.

Jonathan Vaughan (UK)

Institutional affiliation: Guildhall School.
Professional role: principal.

Abstract: Artistic Citizenship Training in the 21st Century International Conservatoire - A Case Study of Guildhall School of Music & Drama Statement of relevant professional experience and background

In the realm of artistic, pedagogical, and intellectual discourse, there exists a pervasive belief in the transformative power of music, not solely as an end in itself, but as a catalyst for ethical change within communities and the empowerment of individuals therein. Central to this ethos is the concept of Artistic Citizenship, frequently evoked in academic spheres, yet its formal integration within conservatoire education remains a subject of inquiry. To what extent is Artistic Citizenship explicitly taught within conservatoire curricula, and how does it manifest in practical training?To address the research question: How do conservatoires effectively train Artistic Citizens in order to create current and future generations of artists who are equipped and willing to intelligently engage with the current dialogue around ethics, social justice and well-being in order to define their own lives as 21st Century Artists in Society? This research project began with a comprehensive exploration, including a survey of public-domain information produced by 24 global institutions spanning Japan, the US, Finland, and Austria. Building upon this foundation, the research has now moved to a focused investigation of three selected institutions, commencing with Oberlin College and Conservatory, Ohio, USA, in January 2024. Through immersive fieldwork, including on-site observation and individual interviews the study aims to unveil successful curriculum initiatives fostering Artistic Citizenship, while also identifying potential challenges encountered in implementation. This presentation will share preliminary findings, offering insights into effective curriculum strategies and navigating obstacles to realizing a comprehensive Artistic Citizenship framework, as evidenced by Oberlin's experiences.

Yonatan Volfin (Israel)

Institutional affiliation: Ghent University, Chair Jonet
Professional role: PhD student

Abstract: What Makes Queer Choirs So Gay? Exploring the Unique Characteristics of LGBTQ+ Choirs and Their Role in Fostering Belonging

This presentation will introduce the preliminary insights that were carried out this year as part of a future comprehensive research project aiming to explore the distinctive characteristics of LGBTQ+ choirs and their contribution to fostering a sense of belonging among their members, planned to be carried out starting from the next academic year (Oct’ 2024). Community LGBTQ+ choirs emerged in the mid-1970s, growing alongside civil rights movements. Despite their increasing prevalence, with over 500 active choirs worldwide, little is known about their distinctive characteristics compared to heteronormative choirs, and their role in fostering a sense of belonging. This presentation will outline a critical theoretical framework for effective participatory music interventions with this constituency. It will draw on the wider literature concerning community music and socially engaged artistic practice, focusing on sense of belonging under conditions of marginalization and discrimination, specifically within the LGBTQ community. Additionally, initial impressions will be presented after visiting several music practices and conducting preliminary observations and interviews with the leadership teams (musical directors and board members) of five LGBTQ+ choirs in the lowlands (Belgium and The Netherlands). Lastly, the future research steps will be briefly reviewed.

Julian West (UK)

Institutional affiliation: Royal Academy of Music, London
Professional role: Head of Open Academy (Community and Participation)

Abstract: ‘Making a Living Moment More Resonant’ - An exploration of the role of theartist in co-creative work with people living with dementia

Background: Despite a growth in interest in recent years in the benefits of working co-creatively with the Arts for people living with dementia, little attention has been given to understanding the role of the professional artists within this context. This paper has been informed by the insights gained from a series of conversations, observations and journals that were kept by four UK based artists (two musicians and two dancers) who reflexively interrogated what they were doing during the course of an 8-week co-creative arts project with people living with dementia.
Methods: The research used an empirical case study methodology, with the authors adopting a thematic approach to the analysis of the data.
Results: Thematic analysis resulted in three main themes: Authenticity, Enabling Risk and Togetherness. These themes characterise the skills, techniques and specialised knowledge used by the artists during the co-creative sessions.
Conclusions: Following this analysis, this presentation will argue that the beneficial effects for people living with dementia of co-creative art-based work come about through the conscious application by the artists of their shared skills and knowledge, acquired through training and ongoing artistic practice. Rather than an assumption that ‘The Arts’ are in themselves beneficial for people living with dementia, we must consider the active role played by the artists who are so integral to the process.

Alan Williams (UK)

Institutional affiliation: University of Salford, UK
Professional role: Professor of Collaborative Composition, Music Research Group Leader

Abstract: ‘The Listening Composer’ – Embedding Participatory Design Methods in Collaborative Composition

Professional ensembles have been undertaking community-based activities to generate engagement of audiences for their work for many decades, but in the past this work has often been accorded a different place – both physically and figuratively - to the ‘professional’ work of the ensembles (see for example Habron et al. 2013). More recently, socially-engaged composers such as Toby Young (2021) have shown the value of a professional presentation of a finished, participatorily composed work, where this participatory work is shown as being more integrated to the traditional work of the ensemble. This paper describes the design, implementation, and social impact of a collaborative composition project with healthcare workers at Royal Bolton hospital, UK, and at the same time seeks to define a broader methodological basis for this and similar projects using Participatory Design (PD) methods developed in product design (Spinuzzi 2005).
The ‘Listening Composer’ project described used PD methods to collaboratively compose a piece telling the stories of healthcare workers’ lived experiences during the onset and first year of the Covid pandemic. The process followed a typical three-stage Participatory Design framework of:

• Initial exploration
• Discovery process
• Prototyping

This was followed by a performance presentation of the final piece and evaluation of output and process. The resultant piece reflected repeated group sessions where accuracy of the story (re-)telling were checked with participants. The piece - Healing Tales - was performed to an audience largely recruited from wider (non-medical) society in July 2023 by professional performers.

Evaluative surveys suggested that participatory design methods in the collaboration process had a positive effect on participants’ sense of being valued and attended to, and that the creation of a professional piece of performative music/dance theatre amplified the re-telling of these stories for audience members who had not heard them previously. Participatory methods created a sense of ownership amongst participants of the final product and led the audience to be more receptive to the content.

Habron, J., Butterly, F., Gordon, I., & Roebuck, A. (2013). Being Well, Being Musical: Music Composition as a Resource and Occupation for Older People. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76, 308-316.
Spinuzzi, C. (2005). The Methodology of Participatory Design. Technical Communication 52/2, 163-174.
Young, T. Many Worlds in One Place (2021) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SolonfoiqvU)

Noah Winther Krogsholm (Norway)

Institutional affiliation: University of Oslo, Norway.
Professional role: Research assistant.

Abstract: Venja’s Harem - recording authenticity within systems of incarceration

Through Prisons of Note I was presented the opportunity to work with the music group Venja’s Harem, led by music therapist Venja Ruud Nilsen, which consists of both formerly and currently incarcerated women. This collaboration led to the recording of a single with the band in our in-house music studio at the University of Oslo where I enacted the role of producer and engineer, leading the recording project. While working on this recording project, where the goals of the project were as much relational as musical, we were conscious of complex tensions around themes of authenticity and ownership of the creative process. The impact of our work and decisions as producers also came to the fore. As such, we explore these unique social dynamics inherent within the recording process when working with this unique group of people who have experience of incarceration. This presentation will be guided by a series of questions: 

• How can a producer/engineer facilitate a transparent recording and production process while balancing the optimal aesthetic, creative, and technical necessities of the overall piece? 
• How can we create a space of authenticity within the recording studio for people with experience of incarceration to create freely? 
• How can we then as facilitators impart the creative ownership of both the process and the result to the musicians involved with the project? 

Dierk Zaiser (Germany)

Institutional affiliation: Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen
Professional roel: Leiter desInstituts für Musik und Bewegung / Rhythmik IMBR

Abstract: The virulence of everyday themes in a rhythm and performance project for delinquent and socially disadvantaged young people

At the centre of BEATSTOMPER's rhythmic-musical practice is drumming on sound objects made from scrap and everyday materials. In the three-hour rehearsals that take place twice a week and at performances, everyday topics of all kinds are discussed and worked on. The pedagogical staff can initiate such discussions and activities, merely observe or intervene if necessary; however, they can also be actively involved in the communication by the participants themselves, including in one-to-one conversations inproblematic situations. Using timelines, quantitative proportions of rhythmic-musical and non-musical practice within the rehearsals were recorded, everyday topics were logged using a qualitative approach in participant observation and then bundled into the following thematic complexes:

1. Family / living
2. Relationship / love / being in love / sex
3. Justice / police
4. Health and nutrition
5. Beauty / styling
6. School / job
7. Finances
8. Religion and politics
9. Other leisureactivities
10. Social contacts / friendships / socializing in a group

The participants completed questionnaires about the support they received from pedagogical staff in everyday problems. The result is an overall picture that illustrates the opportunities of rhythmic-musical performance activities at the intersection of musical education, prevention, resocialization and everyday support, invites discussion and opens up perspectives for further empirical research. Over the course of five months, twenty protocols of participant observation were created. In them, an assistant recorded in key words and verbatim quotes which participant addressed which everyday topics, what was discussed with whom and who worked on which problem with whom. The recordings were coded, categorised and interpreted. In this way, the spectrum of possibilities for discussion, debate and dialogue on issues relating to everyday life became visible. These observed and recorded events only represent a selection of the everyday topics actually discussed among themselves, in the presence of or in direct communication with the project manager. Further information is provided by case studies, one with a narrative interview, another with self-reports.

Deanna Yerichuk (Canada)

Institutional affiliation: Wilfrid Laurier University
Professional role: Associate Professor, Director of Laurier Centre for Music in the Community, Coordinator of Bachelor of Music in Community Music

Abstract: Two Women Walking Down Two Roads: Thinking Through Complicities and Connections in Artistic Citizenship

Through story and images, this talk takes up music as a civilizing tool by intertwining two stories of women walking to their music schools. One woman walked through a poor neighborhood in 1917, considering the possibility of creating a new music school that would serve the children of the neighborhood. The other woman, the author, walked down an urban street in 2004 towards her job at a community music school that also served a low-income neighborhood. Both schools were part of the settlement music school movement in North America, which gave free or low-cost lessons to children in Western Art Music with the rationale that music could be a tool to fill social needs of neighborhoods experiencing poverty and cultural pluralism. The presentation calls into question the civilizing mission, asking what is lost and gained in using music as a tool to cultivate people socially. Drawing from a research project that is a critical history of the emergence of community music in North America, this presentation focuses less on methods and more on stories, creating an arts-based presentation that intertwines one history of the emergence of community music with contemporary questions of discipline and agency within community music in ways that implicate the author in the analysis. The presentation juxtaposes history with contemporary questions of music in cultivating citizenship to create what Gordon Cox (2006) termed a ‘useable past,’ positioning historical research as a form of accountability and shifting perspective, implicating music education broadly in the move towards artistic citizenship (Elliott, 2012; Elliott, Silverman, & Bowman, 2016).

Nan Qi (Brazil)

Institutional affiliation: at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Brazil
Professional role: Associate Professor and International Relations Deputy Secretary

Abstract: Practicing Citizenship Artistically: An Autoethnographic Account of a Chinese-Canadian-Brazilian Music Educator

Amidst a backdrop of global uncertainty, with challenges to democracy, cultural heritage, education funding, and environmental issues, this presentation explores the theoretical concept of Artistic Citizenship from the author's position as a trinational musician, professor, and researcher, bringing a unique perspective for examining personal experiences and their resonance within broader societal themes. An autoethnographic methodology was used in this research, with the aim of investigating how the concept of artistic citizenship can be used to understand the role of musicians and immigrants in fostering social engagement, diversity, civic responsibility, and empathetic actions. During Brazil’s presidential election, a pivotal online incident, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, served as a catalyst for discussions within the author's community. The author connects the conceptual underpinnings of artistic citizenship to her experiences as an educator, conductor, and as a pianist; in this latter role, she discusses her work performing an environmentally-inspired concerto for piano 4 hands and orchestra, written for her duo by Canadian composer Alice Ho. By discussing multiple scenarios, the results and implications of this research expand musicians' awareness about their practices and the creative potential of autoethnography, offering reflections that catalyze broader discussions, rooted in the realms of music, education, and citizenship.