Conference Recordings

The organizing committee is pleased to announce that the plenary conferences of the International Meetings on the Mediation of Music were recorded. You will find below the presentations of each of the conferences as well as their respective links.

Marie-Christine Bordeaux, Gresec & Université Grenoble-Alpes

Définir la médiation culturelle : enjeux de la pratique, enjeux de la conceptualisation

Lorsqu’on examine le sort des paradigmes qui structurent ou ont vocation à structurer les politiques publiques de la culture, la médiation culturelle occupe une place singulière. Elle se situe, historiquement, à mi-chemin entre les grands paradigmes historiques, de l’action culturelle au binôme notionnel démocratisation/démocratie et des paradigmes plus récents que l’on peut considérer comme émergents ou alternatifs, comme la participation ou les droits culturels. Son ambition se situe elle aussi à mi-chemin entre modèles institutionnels et modèles alternatifs de transmission culturelle. A-t-elle-même accédé au rang de paradigme ? La question peut être posée au regard de son impact relativement faible, aussi bien en termes intellectuels qu’en termes de régimes d’action. En revanche, sa dimension conceptuelle est riche, diversifiée et encore en partie à explorer et à construire, et les questions qu’elle permet de cerner sont aujourd’hui encore d’une grande actualité. En particulier, il faut s’interroger sur la pertinence d’une vision de la médiation comme modèle générique et transversal pour l’ensemble des domaines culturels, et y substituer une vision plus sectorielle et située.

Date : Tuesday October 11th 2022

Google Drive link

Will Robin

William Robin, University of Maryland

Timely Interventions and Public Scholarship in Music Studies

In recent years, the phrase “public musicology” has become an oft-invoked buzzword, symbolizing a range of activities from blogposts to newspaper articles, tweets to podcasts, preconcert lectures to forensic testimony. What these activities share is a desire for scholars trained in music studies––not just musicology, but also ethnomusicology and music theory––to reach audiences outside the academy. In this talk, I examine several recent attempts at public scholarship in music studies––from blogs and thinkpieces to community engagement initiatives and activist fundraisers–––and discuss my own work writing about music for the New York Times and New Yorker, as well as hosting the podcast Sound Expertise. Such “timely interventions” provide frameworks through which to scrutinize how public scholarship can be productively and ethically deployed.

Date : Wednesday October 12th 2022

Google Drive link

Sean Gregory, Guildhall School of Music & Drama

The Creative Imperative: Participatory Music-Making as a Platform for Social Change

 This intervention will explore how a collaborative approach to music-making in a variety of social settings can enable participants to become an integral part of creative processes and outcomes, through a collectively owned and inclusively led experience.  Critical to this is the role of the ‘portfolio practitioner’ musician (performer, composer, teacher and leader) as an Innovator (explorer, creator, risk taker), Collaborator (e.g., with other sectors/art forms), Partner/co-operator (within formal partnerships), Connector (in relation to different contexts) and Reflective Practitioner (research and evaluation).

During this presentation and participatory conversation, we will consider the following questions:

  • What action can be taken to ensure that the next generation of musicians have the artistic strength, vision and motivation to create a world in which engaging in the arts enhances the quality of people’s lives?
  • What action needs to be taken to bring socially engaged artists in from the margins to a more central strategic position in the cultural field?
  • In what way can cultural and higher education institutions be activated to produce a socially engaged workforce that responds creatively and responsibly to the diverse challenges of a world in constant flux?

Date : Thursday October 13th 2022

Google Drive link