Intercultural musicking

Our research into contemporary manifestations of intercultural musicking and diasporic performance engages with dynamic processes of music-making beyond geographical, cultural and genre-specific borders.

Our overarching theoretical model brings the notion of ‘musicking’, as advanced by Christopher Small, into dialogue with ‘intercultural’, understood as (1) meaningful interaction between individuals, practices, and bodies of knowledge associated with different cultural groups, and (2) the inherent cultural complexity of both societies and individuals.

We investigate musicking as both a practical device that enables fully participatory encounters that transcend linguistic and other barriers, and as a conceptual device that informs our understanding of what happens when people come together in this way beyond the music itself.

We are interested in music’s potential not only as a form of creative expression but also as a tool for intercultural awareness, collective resilience and personal transformation.

Our work on the theory and practice of intercultural musicking ranges from close-up investigations of intercultural and diasporic music-making in Manchester to the study of transnational networks that bring together music-makers from different parts of the world around a musical tradition from beyond their ‘home’ heritage.

Current points of focus include klezmer, jazz and Georgian singing.

• Klezmer: Informed by work in intercultural education and applied ethnomusicology, we use the department’s student klezmer ensemble (the Michael Kahan Kapelye) as a living laboratory for research into culturally-situated ensemble pedagogy and the ways in which a world music ensemble can engage with diverse local communities. Practical projects have included performances at Manchester Jewish Museum, klezmer dance evenings in partnership with the Hallé Orchestra, and music-based reminiscence projects in Jewish care homes.
• Jazz: This work brings research into jazz diasporas into dialogue with practice-based research in Manchester. Through collaborative projects involving our student jazz ensembles, local primary schools and visiting international artists Carlos Maldonado and Yazz Ahmed, we explore how the history of jazz migrations meets with the soundscape of the 21st-century multicultural city, and how contemporary diasporic jazz is composed, performed and disseminated to local audiences.
• Georgian singing: This research has two interrelated focus points: the ever-expanding transnational network of ‘foreign’ Georgian choirs and the intercultural singing encounters that now take place in Georgian villages. We examine the multiple routes, intermediaries and circumstances through which Georgian songs have been introduced to different singing communities outside Georgia and we seek to understand the new meanings they have acquired in their new homelands. We also explore how this phenomenon intersects with revivalist and safeguarding initiatives in Georgia itself.

Staff and associates active in this core research area

• Caroline Bithell (Professor of Ethnomusicology)
  World music choirs; intercultural/transcultural music-making and musical tourism; the internationalisation of Georgian polyphony; Georgian singing in Europe and North America.
• Richard Fay (Reader in Education)
  World music ensembles; music and intercultural education in post-conflict contexts; klezmer, Balkan and Irish music in Manchester.
• Alexander Gagatsis (Lecturer in Jazz Studies)
  Jazz diasporas; jazz and cultural geography; improvisation; intercultural composition and performance; jazz in Manchester
• Chloe Alaghband-Zadeh (Lecturer in Ethnomusicology)
  Music in the South Asian diaspora; music and memory in British Asian communities; music and the postcolonial imagination.
• Daniel Mawson (Honorary Research Fellow and Klezmer Tutor)
  Manchester-based performer, composer, sound designer, klezmer educator and arts producer; ensemble pedagogy; klezmer in the community.
• Robert Szymanek (Gamelan Tutor)
  London-based performer, composer, producer, research and teacher; Gamelan in the UK; mindfulness in musical learning/performance; the world music ensemble in the academy.
• Yazz Ahmed (International Jazz Artist in Residence)
  British-Bahraini trumpet and flugelhorn player, blurring the lines between jazz and electronic sound design.
  Carlos Maldonado (International Jazz Artist in Residence)
  Grammy-winning multi-percussionist, educator, arranger and composer from Puerto Rico, now based in New York.