4th International Music Council World Forum on Music
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 10 Oct 2011
Olivier Urbain – TRANSCEND Media Service
Tallinn, Estonia, Sept. 26 to Oct. 1, 2011
I participated in this forum as director of the Toda Institute and founder and director of the TRANSCEND Art and Peace Network, thanks to the recommendation of Dietrich Fischer and Johan Galtung.
On Sept. 27, I gave a presentation on “Measuring Musical Social Change.” More than 100 people attended and the presentation was a great success. As a result of delivering my speech, many good things have happened, and in this short report I will only mention a few.
- I was invited to have a personal talk with the final keynote speaker, Mr. Youssou Ndour from Senegal, who is the greatest singer in his country, and one of the most famous in Africa and in the world. Mr. Ndour has worked with the United Nations and UNICEF, and besides performing as a musician he gives speeches about human rights, development and peace. This year, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree in Music from Yale University. During our talk I explained the goals and purposes of the Toda Institute, and Mr. Ndour agreed to be interviewed by email and phone in the future on the theme of “music and development.” Mr. Ndour has launched new concepts such as “New Africa,” (this would be an Africa giving the priority to music, arts and culture, and not only to money and business) and he has established a civil society movement that is now playing a crucial role in the political life of his country, Senegal. Mr. Ndour is very happy to be able to have his ideas spread widely in order to convince policy makers of the importance of music for peace.
- Eleven prominent researchers and activists on music and social change have asked me to create an informal research group to explore how we can evaluate and measure the impact of musical activities on positive social change. This group is called the “Senza: Music and Change Information Circle.” (Senza means Action! in Zulu). This group is now recognized as an informal and independent consultancy group for the IMC and EMC, and two prominent members of the IMC and EMC are its members.
- I have made an informal agreement with Mr. Henrik Melius, IMC Forum Program Coordinator, to write an ethnography about his work entitled “Music on Troubled Grounds.” He has established a musical band comprising of young Israeli, Palestinian and Scandinavian musicians. He has a lot of material, interviews, ethnographies, testimonies, from these young people, but does not have the time or the competence to use this material and make it publishable. By collaborating on this project, I will have access to unique testimonies, and Henrik will be able to publicize the results of his work more effectively.
- Other contacts have been established, notably with professors at a university in Brazil and one in Germany, who have shown interest in hosting a conference on Music and Peace in the future.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 10 Oct 2011.
Anticopyright: Editorials and articles originated on TMS may be freely reprinted, disseminated, translated and used as background material, provided an acknowledgement and link to the source, TMS: 4th International Music Council World Forum on Music, is included. Thank you.
If you enjoyed this article, please donate to TMS to join the growing list of TMS Supporters.
This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 License.