2019 Songs and Stories: ICTM Colloquium

2019 ICTM Colloquium on Songs & Stories of Migration & Encounter

A colloquium for the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) hosted by The Centre for Sound Communities, Cape Breton University, October 6-12, 2019.

Following the theme ‘Songs and Stories of Migration and Encounter,’ 18 international scholars share their research on this theme and create dialogue among specialists from all over the world. This colloquium brings together artists, scholars, and community leaders from throughout Canada and the United States as well as the United Kingdom, Japan, Armenia, Austria, and Slovenia.

Scholars meet at the Centre for Sound Communities at Cape Breton University, Membertou First Nation at the Heritage Park, McConnell Public Library in Sydney’s Waterfront District, Menelik Hall in Whitney Pier, the Gaelic College in St. Anne’s, and in various community centres in Chéticamp.

The following events are open to the general public:

  • Sunday October 6, 7:00pm – Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church

Concert (freewill donation accepted): Julian Kytasty – Immigrants, Exiles, and Cultural Missionaries: Bandura Music Outside Ukraine

  • Monday October 7, 4:00pm – Centre for Sound Communities (Cape Breton University)

Public Lecture: Kaley Mason – Food, Music and Environmental Justice in South India

  • Tuesday October 8, 2:00pm, Centre for Sound Communities (Cape Breton University)

Film Screening: Julia Byl – Poets in the Living Room

  • Tuesday October 8, 4:00pm, McConnell Public Library

Film Screening: Terada Yoshitaka – Crossing over the Arirang Pass: Zainichi Korean Music

  • Tuesday October 8, 7:00pm, McConnell Public Library

Film Screening: Terada Yoshitaka – Drumming out a Message: Eisa and the Okinawan Diaspora in Japan

  • Wednesday October 9, 4:00pm, Membertou Heritage Park

Workshop/Lecture: Alex Chávez – Sonic Bridges: Home, Intimacy, and the Borderlands

  • Wednesday October 9, 7:30pm, Menelik Hall

Public Lecture: Afua Cooper – Fugitive Verses/Sonic Stories: Slavery, the Middle Passage, and the Soundscapes of Black People’s Freedom Quest

  • Thursday October 10, 11:45am, Centre for Sound Communities (Cape Breton University)

Dance Workshop: Ameera Nimjee – Kathak Dance in Hindustani Music Culture

  • Thursday October 10, 7:00pm, McConnell Public Library

Public Lecture: Gage Averill – Echoes of “Haïti Cherie” in the “Koloni”

  • Friday October 11, 7:30pm, Église Saint Pierre, Chéticamp

Concert (freewill donations accepted): Songs and Stories of Cape Breton, with various performers including Colin Grant, Chester Delaney, Robert Deveaux, Julian Kytasty, Marcia Ostashewski, and Le Choeur du Havre

Quick Facts:

  • 18 scholars from 6 countries are meeting in Cape Breton to share research about music and migration in communities around the world including virtual spaces
  • As part of the Colloquium, several community events will take place across the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, including concerts, workshops, film screenings and public talks
  • The International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is a scholarly, non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. ICTM aims to further the study, practice, documentation, preservation, and dissemination of traditional music and dance of all countries
  • Scholars, artists and community leaders are coming from: Cape Breton University, University of British Colombia, Dalhousie University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Alberta, Membertou First Nation, Nova Scotia Rug Hookers (Cheticamp), University of Notre Dame (USA), Indiana University (USA), St. Olaf College (USA), Lewis and Clark College (USA), University of Puget Sound (USA), Royal Holloway University of London (UK), National Museum of Ethnology: Centre for Cultural Resource Studies (Japan), American University of Armenia (Armenia), University for Music and the Performing Arts Vienna (Austria), and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Additional Resources:

International Council for Traditional Music: https://www.ictmusic.org/26th-ictm-colloquium-2019-cape-breton

Cape Breton University: https://www.cbu.ca

Songs and Stories: ICTM Colloquium

Songs and Stories: ICTM Colloquium

A colloquium for the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) will be hosted by Centre for Sound Communities, Cape Breton University, October 6-12, 2019.

This colloquium follows the theme “Songs and Stories of Migration and Encounter.” 18 international scholars are invited to share their research on this theme and to create dialogue among specialists from all over the world. This colloquium will bring together artists, scholars, and community leaders from throughout Canada and the United States as well as the United Kingdom, Japan, Armenia, Austria, and Slovenia.

Scholars will meet at the Centre for Sound Communities at Cape Breton University, Membertou First Nation at the Heritage Park, McConnell Public Library in Sydney’s Waterfront District, Menelik Hall in Whitney Pier, the Gaelic College in St. Anne’s, and in various community centres in Chéticamp.

Quick Facts:

  • 18 scholars from 6 countries are meeting in Cape Breton to share research about music and migration in communities around the world including virtual spaces
  • As part of the Colloquium, several community events will take place across the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, including concerts, workshops, film screenings and public talks
  • The International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is a scholarly, non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. ICTM aims to further the study, practice, documentation, preservation, and dissemination of traditional music and dance of all countries
  • Scholars, artists and community leaders are coming from: Cape Breton University, University of British Colombia, Dalhousie University, Memorial University of Newfoundland, University of Alberta, Membertou First Nation, Nova Scotia Rug Hookers (Cheticamp), University of Notre Dame (USA), Indiana University (USA), St. Olaf College (USA), Lewis and Clark College (USA), University of Puget Sound (USA), Royal Holloway University of London (UK), National Museum of Ethnology: Centre for Cultural Resource Studies (Japan), American University of Armenia (Armenia), University for Music and the Performing Arts Vienna (Austria), and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Additional Resources:

International Council for Traditional Music: https://www.ictmusic.org/26th-ictm-colloquium-2019-cape-breton

Cape Breton University: https://www.cbu.ca

Singing the Circle: World Singing Day

Singing the Circle: World Singing Day Date is Sunday, October 22, 2017.
The start time is 2p.m. and the ending time will be announced soon!

Singing the Circle | World Singing Day | Songs & Stories of Migration and Encounter

Singing the Circle workshops are designed to explore and celebrate the basic human act of singing and the artistic use of the human voice within the circle of life, from the time of birth through to the end of life. The 2017 World Singing Day Weekend is an opportune time for singers of all ages to gather together and explore the miracle of the singing voice alongside the esteemed Cape Breton Chorale, accompanied by the finest instrumentalists from the island and beyond. World Singing Day Weekend is a perfect occasion to join our voices together in harmony to reconcile and pay homage to Canadian confederation at 150. Come, Sing the Circle with us as we take the time to reflect, refresh, renew, and rejoice with our voice!

All My Relations – Community Arts Research Showcase

Sunday, October, 22, 2017, 2PM – Boardmore Theatre, Cape Breton University

Join us for an afternoon of music and entertainment, featuring performances by The Cape Breton Choral, youth participants of our Songs and Stories of Migration workshops, Singing the Circle: Choral Workshop participants and a special Indigenous Welcome by Clifford Paul. The afternoon will also include several interactive multimedia activities and light refreshments.

 

Singing the Circle Choral Workshop

Date: Saturday, October 21, 2017

Time: TBC

Location: Centre for Sound Communities

 

Join us on Saturday, October 21, 2017 at the Centre for Sound Communities for Singing the Circle: Choral Workshop, a Multi-generational choral workshop lead by Ardelle Ries, University of Alberta and Cathy Benedict, Western University.

The workshop will be followed by a performance for World Singing Day Concert the Boardmore Theatre, CBU on Sunday, October 22, 2017. Along with performances by youth who participated in “Songs and Stories of Migration and Encounter” a five-week in-community workshop for youth ages 12-18.

Registration and more information to come, check back soon!

Songs and Stories of Migration and Encounter

Date: September 11, 2017 – October 22, 2017

Venue: Locations across Cape Breton Island – Locations TBA

Project Information:

For youth ages 12 to 18 – Join us at one of our in-community locations for 5 weeks of creative arts, multimedia, songwriting and performance workshops where youth will be working with artists, elders and facilitators to converse, collaborate and create a piece about migration and encounter. Workshops will begin the week of September 11, 2017.

For more information please call Kathleen: (902)561-1121 or send us an email at sound_communites@cbu.ca

Songs and Stories of Migration and Encounter

Date: September 11, 2017 – October 22, 2017

Venue: Locations across Cape Breton Island – Locations TBA

Project Information:

For youth ages 12 to 18 – Join us at one of our in-community locations for 5 weeks of creative arts, multimedia, songwriting and performance workshops where youth will be working with artists, elders and facilitators to converse, collaborate and create a piece about migration and encounter. Workshops will begin the week of September 11, 2017.

For more information please call Kathleen: (902)561-1121 or send us an email at sound_communites@cbu.ca 

Singing the Circle: Educator PD Event

 

SINGING THE CIRCLE: MUSIC EDUCATION FROM BIRTH TO ADULT
(AN EDUCATOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EVENT)
 
Thanks to the generosity of our funding partners, we are pleased to off this PD day free of charge.
8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, October 20th, 2017
Cape Breton University
 
The symbol of a circle is deeply symbolic on many levels and sacred to healing practices of our Indigenous peoples. Singing the Circle workshops are designed to explore and celebrate the basic human act of singing and the artistic use of the human voice through the circle of life–from the time of birth through to death. Through inhalation and exhalation, tension and release, the physical act of singing combined alongside a positive relationship with our voices provides health and a sense of well-being. Music “circles” exist in the form of canons, singing games and dances, or in conducting gesture. The circle is a common metaphor for the reflective process of coming to understand our task as music educators. Singing the Circle workshops present an opportunity to reflect, refresh, renew, and rejoice. (Ardelle Ries, Singing the Circle, May 2017)
 
As part of Singing the CircleThe Centre for Sound Communities, in partnership with the Boardmore Playhouse at Cape Breton University, invites you to participate in:
 
“Singing the Circle: Music Education from Birth to Adult.” Details of the day’s schedule and descriptions of presentations can be found below. Please note, additional activities  in conjunction with World Singing Day (October 21st), are being planned and will soon be announced!
 
SINGING THE CIRCLE: MUSIC EDUCATION FROM BIRTH TO ADULT
(AN EDUCATOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EVENT)
 
8:30 a.m. to 3 pm, Friday, October 20th, 2017
Cape Breton University
 
The symbol of a circle is deeply symbolic on many levels and sacred to healing practices of our Indigenous peoples. Singing the Circle workshops are designed to explore and celebrate the basic human act of singing and the artistic use of the human voice through the circle of life–from the time of birth through to death. Through inhalation and exhalation, tension and release, the physical act of singing combined alongside a positive relationship with our voices provides health and a sense of well-being. Music “circles” exist in the form of canons, singing games and dances, or in conducting gesture. The circle is a common metaphor for the reflective process of coming to understand our task as music educators. Singing the Circle workshops present an opportunity to reflect, refresh, renew, and rejoice. (Ardelle Ries, Singing the Circle, May 2017)
 
As part of Singing the CircleThe Centre for Sound Communities, in partnership with the Boardmore Playhouse at Cape Breton University, invites you to participate in:
 
“Singing the Circle: Music Education from Birth to Adult.” Details of the day’s schedule and descriptions of presentations can be found below. Please note, additional activities  in conjunction with World Singing Day (October 21st), are being planned and will soon be announced!

 

Registration is now open:

 www.singingthecirclepdday.eventbrite.com

Thanks to the generosity of our funding partners, we are pleased to offer this PD day free of charge.

 
Registration includes morning nutrition break, lunch, and afternoon coffee and cookies.
 
SCHEDULE
 
Registration fee includes morning nutrition break, lunch, and afternoon coffee and cookies.
 
SCHEDULE

Singing the Circle: Music Education from Birth to Adult

(Boardmore Playhouse, Cape Breton University)

Registration: 8:30-9:15 am

Welcome and Introductions: 9:15-9:30 am

Session I: 9:30-10:30: It All Starts With Singing (Ardelle Ries, U Alberta)

Nutrition Break: 10:30-10:45am

Session II: 10:45-11:45 am : Doing Away With Classroom Management: Teaching for Musical Transitions

LUNCH (NOON to 1pm)

Session 3: 1-2 pm: The Wonder of the Child Voice

Final Plenary Discussion: 2-3 pm

SESSION ABSTRACTS

Session I: It All Starts With Singing (Ardelle Ries, U Alberta)

In late 16th century, British composer, William Byrd (1543-1623) published one of the first English songbooks. Within this book, Byrd wrote of the wonder of singing and reasons why “all ‘men’ would learn to sing.” Designed to address the needs of both classroom music and choral—through songs, games, and dances—this session will focus on the importance of singing for musical, intellectual, and personal development and how Byrd’s ideas, although centuries’ old, remain true today.

Session II: Doing Away With Classroom Management: Teaching for Musical Transitions (Cathy Benedict, U Western Ontario)

Classroom management problems arise when teachers fail to understand that focused musical transitions are essential for successful lessons.  What if, rather than managing children, we design lesson plans that flow so tightly music making is all we worry about?  Participants will experience a series of elementary lesson plans that demonstrate musical activities and transitions that serve to facilitate safe, creative musical environments.  Join us as we say ‘No’ to managing and ‘Yes’ to making music. 

Session III: The Wonder of the Child Voice (Ardelle Ries, U Alberta)

Our voices, and especially our singing voices, are miraculous forces of nature designed to help us survive, to communicate, and to create! Children’s voices—flexible, adaptable, and resilient—move through many developmental stages. As we prepare to celebrate World Singing Day, this session will examine the singing journey from early years through to adolescence with suggestions for a sequential vocal curriculum and suitable repertoire.

 

Singing The Circle: Music Education from Birth to Adult

 SINGING THE CIRCLE: MUSIC EDUCATION FROM BIRTH TO ADULT
(AN EDUCATOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT EVENT)
8:30 a.m. to 3 pm, Friday, October 20th, 2017
Cape Breton University
The symbol of a circle is deeply symbolic on many levels and sacred to healing practices of our Indigenous peoples. Singing the Circle workshops are designed to explore and celebrate the basic human act of singing and the artistic use of the human voice through the circle of life–from the time of birth through to death. Through inhalation and exhalation, tension and release, the physical act of singing combined alongside a positive relationship with our voices provides health and a sense of well-being. Music “circles” exist in the form of canons, singing games and dances, or in conducting gesture. The circle is a common metaphor for the reflective process of coming to understand our task as music educators. Singing the Circle workshops present an opportunity to reflect, refresh, renew, and rejoice. (Ardelle Ries, Singing the Circle, May 2017)
 
As part of Singing the CircleThe Centre for Sound Communities, in partnership with the Boardmore Playhouse at Cape Breton University, invites you to participate in:
“Singing the Circle: Music Education from Birth to Adult.” Details of the day’s schedule and descriptions of presentations can be found below. Please note, additional activities  in conjunction with World Singing Day (October 21st), are being planned and will soon be announced!

 

Registration is now open:

 www.singingthecircle.eventbrite.comUpdate: Early bird registration: 15 September 2017, $65 + applicable fees

Last day to register in advance: 5 October 2017, $80 + applicable fees

Registration fee includes morning nutrition break, lunch, and afternoon coffee and cookies.
SCHEDULE
Registration fee includes morning nutrition break, lunch, and afternoon coffee and cookies.
SCHEDULE

Singing the Circle: Music Education from Birth to Adult

(Boardmore Playhouse, Cape Breton University)

Registration: 8:30-9:15 am

Welcome and Introductions: 9:15-9:30 am

Session I: 9:30-10:30: It All Starts With Singing (Ardelle Ries, U Alberta)

Nutrition Break: 10:30-10:45am

Session II: 10:45-11:45 am : Doing Away With Classroom Management: Teaching for Musical Transitions

LUNCH (NOON to 1pm)

Session 3: 1-2 pm: The Wonder of the Child Voice

Final Plenary Discussion: 2-3 pm

SESSION ABSTRACTS

Session I: It All Starts With Singing (Ardelle Ries, U Alberta)

In late 16th century, British composer, William Byrd (1543-1623) published one of the first English songbooks. Within this book, Byrd wrote of the wonder of singing and reasons why “all ‘men’ would learn to sing.” Designed to address the needs of both classroom music and choral—through songs, games, and dances—this session will focus on the importance of singing for musical, intellectual, and personal development and how Byrd’s ideas, although centuries’ old, remain true today.

Session II: Doing Away With Classroom Management: Teaching for Musical Transitions (Cathy Benedict, U Western Ontario)

Classroom management problems arise when teachers fail to understand that focused musical transitions are essential for successful lessons.  What if, rather than managing children, we design lesson plans that flow so tightly music making is all we worry about?  Participants will experience a series of elementary lesson plans that demonstrate musical activities and transitions that serve to facilitate safe, creative musical environments.  Join us as we say ‘No’ to managing and ‘Yes’ to making music. 

Session III: The Wonder of the Child Voice (Ardelle Ries, U Alberta)

Our voices, and especially our singing voices, are miraculous forces of nature designed to help us survive, to communicate, and to create! Children’s voices—flexible, adaptable, and resilient—move through many developmental stages. As we prepare to celebrate World Singing Day, this session will examine the singing journey from early years through to adolescence with suggestions for a sequential vocal curriculum and suitable repertoire.

Call for Participation

Singing Storytellers: The Lives, Music and Verbal Artistry of Bards in our World

An International Interdisciplinary Symposium hosted by Cape Breton University, in partnership with Celtic Colours International Festival and CBC Cape Breton

October 9th – 12th, 2014

Singing storytellers – griotskobzarstroubadoursashiksgusle players, sean-nós and seann-nòs singers, bards and epic singers, performance poets, men and women from countless narrative traditions around the world – have played a variety of complex roles in their communities and cultures. The long-time focus of study for ethnomusicologists and other scholars of culture, history and memory, they are multifaceted social agents – genealogists, historians, spokespersons and activists, diplomats, musicians, praise singers, healers, and advisors. Wordsmiths and performers, their verbal and musical art have been the subject of studies across disciplines – religious studies, history, music, folklore, anthropology, gender studies, linguistics and literature, to name a few. But recent studies of these bards and their practices in our contemporary world are relatively few.

The study of today’s singing storytellers resonates with theoretical interest in ethnomusicology, humanities and social sciences. It offers opportunities to consider the importance of the individual in society, as well as the politics of representation. Whereas ethnomusicology has, more conventionally, invoked music as a symbol of national pride, cultural and national unity, or presented musical phenomena as typical products of a larger social organicism, this symposium also looks to the ways in which music is historically constructed, socially maintained, individually created and experienced. We will look to examples through which numerous interlocutors, processes, practices, statements and performances continually operate and fluidly reshape one another. We will consider the ways in which cultural performance and production are contingent on intersecting and mutually affecting aspects of experience entwined with identities. Contributing to a burgeoning literature on musicians’ life stories, this topic brings to light the ways in which individuals function within cultural webs along the many avenues they travel — revealing shared practices and ideologies within specific locations and beyond. Aspects of identity and experience are shaped in the context of wider, changing historical, social and cultural pressures – which many singing storytellers deftly negotiate. Singing storytellers provide an opportunity for scholarly investigation that profoundly makes evident the complexity with which experiences and identities are created and performed through the lives, music and verbal artistry of individuals.

Call for Participation

We invite contributions from a rich array of scholars/practitioners/artists alike – to encourage investigations of and engagement with performers and their practices in our world today, through a variety of ways of knowing, and creating and sharing knowledge.

We invite proposals for various forms of presentation, including papers (either individual 20- minute papers with additional 10 minutes for discussion, or panels), keynotes, workshops, performances, roundtables, films and exhibitions (including of photographs and other visual materials, and interactive and multimedia installations).

  • Workshops will run either 60 or 90 minutes
  • Roundtables will run concurrently throughout the conference
  • Theatre and studio space is available in addition to standard conference facilities

***Symposium works will be considered for publication in a peer-reviewed, edited collection.***

Submissions for papers or creative presentations MUST include:

  • Title(s) – for panel (if applicable) and each individual presentation
  • Presentation format/type
  • Technical requirements
  • 300 word abstract (of each individual presentation)
  • 100-150 word abstract (of each individual presentation)
  • Panel proposals also require a panel description of 100-200 words
  • Each presenter(s) one-page C.V.
  • Each presenter(s) institutional affiliation (or indication if you are an independent scholar/artist), including department or division
  • Each presenter(s) complete contact information, including postal and email address, and telephone number

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE ALL OF THIS DETAILED INFORMATION FOR EACH PRESENTER, or your abstract will NOT be eligible for consideration. The detailed information and materials requested are necessary in order for the conference organizers to apply for travel/event funding.

PLEASE SEND YOUR SUBMISSIONS to singingstorytellers@gmail.com by March 15, 2014. The subject line of the email is Singing Storytellers proposal – [name]. PLEASE ATTACH THE INFORMATION and MATERIALS IN .DOC FORMAT.

Please write to us at singingstorytellers@gmail.com if you have any questions! For information and updates, check the conference WEBSITE (www.singingstorytellers.ca).

We look forward to receiving your proposal – and to welcoming you to Cape Breton!