ethnomusicology

From July 14–23, two ethnomusicology PhD candidates — Christine Yong and Ander Terwilliger — along with five alumni —Tan Sooi Beng ’80, Donna Kwon ’95, Jonathan Kramer ’71, Sylvie Bruinders ’99, and Becky Miller ’94 — joined University Professor of Music Sumarsam at the 2015 conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) in Astana, Kazakhstan. Tan Sooi Beng was elected to the ICTO executive board. The International Council for Traditional Music is a non-governmental organization in formal consultative relations with UNESCO. It aims to further the study, practice, documentation, preservation and dissemination of traditional music and dance of all countries. At the conference, Sumarsam presented a talk titled "Expressing…

Stanley Scott, private lessons teacher in music, authored a chapter titled “Modernism in South Asian Art Music,” published in the The Modernist World, part of the Routledge Worlds series, in 2015. Scott traces modernism in South Asian art music from its 18th century roots to the 21st century. The examples, drawn from Pakistan, North India and Bangladesh, represent parallel developments throughout South Asia. The seeds of South Asian modernism were sown in 18th century Calcutta, with the emergence of British orientalist scholarship and the development of the urban South Asian intelligentsia. The orientalist discovery of India’s “golden age” allowed Hindu nationalists to find inspiration in an…

During the 2014 Society for Ethnomusicology's 59th Annual Meeting, held Nov. 13-16 in Pittsburgh, Pa., Wesleyan graduate students collaborated to present the first panel dedicated to Taiwanese identity and music. The panel, titled "How Taiwanese Should I Be? Contesting Taiwanese Identities in Local, Regional and Global Contexts," comprised of Ph.D. candidates Joy Lu and Po-wei Weng, and graduate student Ender Terwilliger. Su Zheng, associate professor of music, chaired the panel. Covering Taiwanese opera, Pili Budaixi, and fusion performances, the panel explored the process of identity formation when promoting Taiwanese identity in politically delicate situations domestically and overseas. In addition, Ph.D. candidates…

Maho Ishiguro, an ethnomusicology doctoral student, received a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship to study the female Saman dance in Indonesia. The award came with a $29,508 stipend. Ishiguro's proposed research title is “Saman Dance in Diaspora Presence of Female Saman Dance as Expressions of Piety Cultural Identity and Popular Culture.” Her DDRA project will examine the contemporary life of female Saman dance in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Banda Aceh. Saman dance, or the dance of a “thousand hands” is typically performed in Gayo Lues, a mountainous region of Aceh, by eight to 20 male performers who kneel in…

Hankus Netsky, who received a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from Wesleyan in 2004, has been chosen by the editorial staff of The Forward — a well-respected weekly newspaper covering the Jewish world — as one of the 50 American Jews who have had the greatest impact on the world in 2013, alongside the likes of Harvey Fierstein, Mandy Patinkin and Janet Yellen. Netsky is the chair of the contemporary improvisation department at the New England Conservatory of Music. He has mentored countless young Jewish musicians, many of whom attended NEC primarily to study with him, and has guided jazz and classical…

Ethnomusicologist Sumarsam, University Professor of Music, is the author of two new articles published in 2013. “Past and Present Issues of Javanese-European Musical Hybridity," was published in Recollecting Resonances: Indonesian-Dutch Musical Encounters by Leiden: Brill, pages 87-108. Soon after the introduction of European music in Java in the 18th century, Java-European musical hybrids emerged. In his article Sumarsam asks the following questions: how do we explain the incorporation of European sounds into the indigenous gamelan ensemble? Is this incorporation a kind of Javanese-European intercultural sonic dialogue, a subversive act of European authority, or the domestication of an exotic sound? Sumarsam addresses these…

Ethnomusicologist Sumarsam, University Professor of Music, participated in a festival and conference on Indonesian performing arts at the Smithsonian Institution Oct. 31-Nov. 3. Sumarsam and Andy McGraw Ph.D. ’06 helped organize the conference, "Performing Indonesia: Conference, Music, Dance, and Drama" with support from the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C. Sumarsam delivered the conference's keynote address on “Traditional Performing Arts of Indonesia in a Globalizing World” on Nov. 2. He discussed Javanese musical and cultural interactions with the rest of the world, focusing on current trends in and the changing role of classical and contemporary gamelan music and other genres in…

The Center for the Arts presented the 37th annual Navaratri Festival, celebrating the traditional culture of India with performances by some of the country's leading artists on Oct. 10-13. One of India's major festival celebrations, Navaratri is a time to see family and friends, enjoy music and dance, and seek blessings for new endeavors. "For us Indian musicians traveling all over the world and especially in the U.S., this campus has been a place of great respect and wonder because of its ability to sustain this program for over 30 years," said tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, who also performed during…

Sumarsam, the University Professor of Music, is the author of Javanese Gamelan and the West, published by the University of Rochester Press on July 1. In Javanese Gamelan, Sumarsam examines the meaning, forms and traditions of the Javanese performing arts as they developed and changed through their contact with Western culture. The book traces the adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in 19th century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated by Javanese performers creating hybrid Javanese-Western art forms, such as with the introduction of brass bands in gendhing mares court music and West Javanese…

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An audio-archive project managed by Jorge Arévalo Mateus PhD '12 will be available to the general public in the United States and the Dominican Republic in 2013. The project, "The Sacred and Festive Music of the Liboristas Communities of the Dominican Southwest," contains 32 hours of field recordings gathered between 2001 and 2004. With support from the GRAMMY Foundation® in the category "Preservation and Archive," Arévalo Mateus digitally preserved music audio recordings captured in rural areas of the Dominican Republic preserving more than 20 genres. The result is the first archive documenting the different genres of music played at Liboristas communities…

As part of his summer study trip, University Professor of Music Sumarsam attended and presented a paper at the “Congress and World Puppetry Festival” in Chengdu, China. Music Librarian Alec McLane also attended the Festival. Sponsored by Union Internationale de la Marionnete (UNIMA), the festival staged puppet shows from all over the world, and hold seminar and organizational meeting. Sumarsam presented a paper on “Electric Light Bulb in Contemporary Javanese Shadow Puppet Play,” in a panel on puppetry and technology. The panel included paper presentation by Jim Henson’ daughter, Cheryl Henson—the President of The Jim Henson Foundation. She talked about…

Sumarsam, Students, Alumni Attend Traditional Music Conference in Kazakhstan

Scott Published in Routledge’s The Modernist Reader

Graduate Students Speak on Taiwanese Music at Ethnomusicology Meeting

Ishiguro to Study Female Saman Dance as Fulbright DDRA Fellow

Netsky Ph.D. ’04 Selected Among The Forward’s 50 Most Influential American Jews

Sumarsam Publishes Papers on Javanese Music, Shadow Puppetry

Sumarsam, Alumni Participate in Indonesian Performance Conference

Culture of India Celebrated at Annual Navaratri Festival

Sumarsam’s Book on Javanese Performing Arts Published

Puppetry, Gamelan at Indonesian Performing Arts and Public Life Symposium

Arévalo Mateus PhD ’12 Completes Audio-Preservation Project on Dominican Music

Sumarsam, Lane Attend World Puppetry Festival in China