International Journal of Community Music - Volume 8, Issue 3, 2015

This pilot research study explored ethnocultural backgrounds of choristers and their socio-musical experiences participating in Common Thread Community Chorus of Toronto, a community choir that actively pursues cultural inclusion through policies of musical and financial accessibility, as well as choosing repertoire of diverse cultures. A survey of choristers investigated how Common Thread members’ ethnocultural backgrounds informed their perceptions of their musical and social experiences and of the choir’s cultural diversity, working from the assumption that all people have ethnocultural backgrounds. Research findings reveal complex and diverse cultures when singers reflect on their own experiences, but choristers tended to reduce cultural diversity to race and language when thinking about the choir as a whole, suggesting that perceptions may be operating from a white normative centre. The results of this pilot research raise significant questions about multicultural education and cultural inclusion efforts within community choral practices in ethnically diverse urban environments.

As a group, musicians have traditionally been resistant to conceptualizing their educational practice in participatory settings. Rather than continuing to strive for an elusive consensus, this article suggests we would do better to see our work in a different way, using the concept of dialogue to enable all of the diverse perspectives on music educational practice to have validity, as well as giving us insights into the kinds of teaching and learning exchanges that go on in Participatory Music. In particular, the concept of dialogue invites us to re-appraise some of the traditional dichotomies associated with music and music education – e.g. access/excellence, process/product, ethical/technical – so that they too can be seen as positions that ‘widen dialogic space’.

This article investigates the cultural impacts of a community orchestra in a rural setting through the examination of ‘Borderland Community Orchestra’, a crossborder ensemble operating in northern Ontario, Canada and northern Minnesota, United States. In May 2013, two surveys were conducted to understand how members of the orchestra and other community residents perceived the ensemble’s role in the rural arts culture of the area. The themes that emerged include the enrichment of local arts, importance of word-of-mouth communication and sense of community. Throughout the article, survey findings are reinforced by modern literature to demonstrate the necessity of community ensembles in the development of rural arts and the challenges of achieving sustainability. Survey responses are collected into three recommendations, which will assist Borderland Community Orchestra and other ensembles to more effectively connect with their communities: (1) Better marketing and increased awareness; (2) Perform more concerts; (3) Youth outreach and involvement. The conclusions illustrate the power of community musicmaking and deepen the understanding of community orchestras operating in rural areas around the world.

In this article I discuss the professional understanding of an instrumental music teacher with multiple tasks in basic music education in Norway. This teacher is positioned in a small Community School of Music and Art that has been honoured as a ‘best practice’ model for such schools. Through thematic narrative analyses of my research data, I identify three pivots in this teacher’s practice: cultural life, school and artefacts. After the researcher’s narrative, A music teacher’s working day, I explore these pivots in a theoretical frame inspired by Hans-Georg Gadamer’s thoughts about sensus communis, and Christopher Small’s thoughts about musicking. Finally, I apply insights from this discussion to basic thinking in the blurred field of community music and music education, suggesting musicality as an approach to articulate and discuss expertise and as a mandate that music teachers in crossover positions might hold.

Community musical theatre actively engages individuals in music-making and dramatic performances across the United States. Through these productions, enthusiastic volunteers are afforded socially and musically meaningful opportunities to perform alongside other members of their community. While a large body of scholarly musicological and historical literature on American musical theatre exists, little work has been done to engage individuals involved in these community productions in an attempt to understand reasons for participation or to examine the meaning found in participation. In response to this gap in the literature, this article reports research from an intensive ethnographic study of a Florida community group as they present a production of Maury Yeston’s blockbuster musical Titanic. In addition to ethnographic observation and interviews, e-mail-based cast member journals (e-journals) were used as a way to explore participants’ experiences as the show progressed. E-journal entries are the focus of this article, discussed here in terms of the meaning they capture and the general utility of the methodology. Consideration is given both to the results of this data collection process in the present ethnography and to the usefulness of this approach for future research.

This article is a reflective report on the second seminar of the Asia Pacific Community Music Network (APCMN). Held over two days in July 2015, over 30 participants from seven countries assembled at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo to discuss Community Music and the various ways it manifests itself in this vast region. Spread over the two days were 23 paper presentations, a workshop and special welcome concert organized and performed by students from the college’s Music Education Department. Overall, response to the event was positive, an important outcome being that the network will endure, with plans underway to hold a third seminar.