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.

Informed by our specialisms in ethnomusicology, performance studies and intercultural education, our research into intercultural musicking and diasporic performance has generated new knowledge, understanding, musical communities, creative practices, methodologies and resources.

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.

Our research has had diverse impacts for the communities with which we engage beyond the university. These include inspiring creativity, supporting artist development, pioneering new pedagogical methods, enhancing curriculum delivery, uplifting the heritage of underrepresented communities, improving wellbeing and nurturing community.

Current points of focus include klezmer, jazz, gamelan 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 live laboratory for research into culturally-situated ensemble pedagogy and the ways in which a world music ensemble can engage with diverse local communities. Our practical projects include a Klezmer Tune Club at Manchester Jewish Museum, klezmer dance evenings in partnership with Hallé Connect, music-based reminiscence projects in Jewish care homes, and performance projects such as Amid the Mirk Over the Irk, which reimagines possible encounters between communities of Jewish and Irish migrants in Victorian Manchester.
• Jazz: Our 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 such as 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. Recent highlights include the project Latin Grooves, Global Moves, which featured a concert and series of workshops in schools as part of the Being Human Festival.
• Gamelan: Our work with Sundanese gamelan extends our exploration of the creative and ethical possibilities of intercultural music-making, while further developing our research into culturally-situated ensemble pedagogy with our student ensemble once again acting as a live laboratory. As part of our practice research we collaborate with musicians from very different musical backgrounds, e.g. Moroccan oud, West African kora and tango violin. Exploring how diverse aesthetics, musical practices, and instrumental conventions and possibilities might enter into dialogue, we use composition to foreground points of difference and juxtaposition, similarity and synergy.
• Georgian singing: This research has two interrelated focus points: first, the ever-expanding transnational network of ‘foreign’ Georgian choirs, and second, intercultural singing encounters that take place in Georgian villages. We examine the multiple routes and intermediaries 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 initiatives in Georgia itself. We work in partnership with tour operator Pitchblend to promote performances and workshops by visiting Georgian ensembles in Manchester.