Over the past three decades, applied ethnomusicology has emerged as a major force in working with music, culture and communities worldwide, generating a wealth of new approaches and practices. Explicitly or implicitly, these often question the traditional role of the music researcher as merely an objective observer; they invite taking greater responsibility and deeper engagement with the people we work with.
Highlighting an exciting diversity of local practices with global implications, this volume illustrates how to work of contemporary ethnomusicologists intersects with major issues such as social justice, education, representation, and intangible cultural heritage. With contributions from six different continents, the fourteen chapters in this volume constitute an important step in the international dialogue in scope, methods and goals of ethnomusicology in the 21st century.
Huib Schippers has a long and diverse history of engagement with music performance, sustainability, education and training across various cultures. Hailing from a family of western classical music industry professionals but trained as an Indian sitar player, he proceeded with (partially overlapping) careers in performance, teaching, research, journalism, the record trade, arts policy, community, and project management. He founded the World Music School in Amsterdam (1990-1996), worked for and with music schools and conservatoires in The Netherlands, Scandinavia and the UK (1998-2003), and was a driving force behind the World Music & Dance Centre in Rotterdam (2001-2006). From 2003-2015, Schippers was the inaugural Director of Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, from where he led over a dozen innovative projects bringing together research, education, performance, and community engagement, including the large international research collaboration Sustainable futures for Music Cultures: Towards an ecology of musical diversity (2009-2014), funded by the Australian Research Council. From 2016-2020, Huib Schippers directed and curated the iconic record label Smithsonian Folkways Recordings in Washington DC. He continues to publish, mentor and consult, drawing on thirty years of leadership in cultural organizations and academia.
Wei-Ya Lin is an ethnomusicologist and a violist, who co-directs with Johannes Kretz the PEEK-project in artistic research creative (mis)understandings (2018-2022) at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw). She is also lecturer and senior artist at mdw and University Vienna. Since 2013 she has been involved in planning and developing projects based on scholarly research results, which are implemented through artistic inventions and socio-political approaches. In 2015, she received her PhD in Ethnomusicology from the same university, and she is the author of the book Lieder, Geister und Tabus: Zum soziokulturellen Wandel der Musiktradition bei den Tao in Taiwan [Songs, Spirits and Taboos: On the Socio-Cultural Change in the Musical Tradition of the Tao in Taiwan], published by transcript in 2021. Her research interests are Applied Ethnomusicology, Artistic Research, Music of Minorities, Music of Indigenous Peoples in Taiwan, Auditory Knowledge, and Music and Migration.
Boyu Zhang (PhD) is a professor of Ethnomusicology at the Department of Musicology, Central Conservatory of Music. He received an Asian Fellowship and conducted research in India in 2000-2001, and a Fulbright Research Fellowship at Wesleyan University in 2005-2006. He has published four monographs (one in English), co-authored seven books (one in English), edited five books (two in English) and translated five books, in addition to over 100 articles in Chinese and English. His books have won him honors including 'Outstanding Research Achievement' by the China's Musicians Association (2013), First Prize by the Association of Publishing Houses of Universities in China (2015), and Second Prize of the Scientific Research by the Education Ministry of China (2020). He has established the Music Instruments Museum, World Music Centre and Silk-Road Music Alliance, as well as the annual World Music Festival at the CCOM. Since 2011, he has been working as Director of the Central Conservatory of Music Press and Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Centre (until 2019).