ISME Pre-Conference
Community Music Activity 2026

Community musicking, grounded in the belief that musical participation is a fundamental human right, promotes inclusion, well-being, and belonging (Higgins, 2007a, 2007b, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2024; Small, 1998; Veblen, 2007). Considering Higgins’ (2024) conceptualization of “the welcome” (p. 40) as an ethical act of unconditional hospitality, two musicians reflect on the potential of applying the ideals of community musicking as a framework for care within multiple formal musical contexts to reimagine practices of co-creation and reciprocity in music education settings. Care is positioned not as a supplemental practice but as a necessary and central force with the potential to transform music education ecologies into pedagogical spaces that embrace vulnerability and ambiguity as part of artistic risk and growth. Compassionate music teaching, a demonstration of care enacted through trust, empathy, patience, inclusion, community, and authentic connection (Hendricks, 2018), encourages belonging and shared pedagogic authority through creative experimentation that embraces listening, contradiction, and multiple perspectives (Lipari, 2014; Kallio, 2021). The presenters reflect on their musical experiences across classroom, studio, and performance contexts in public schools, universities, and communities using a collaborative autoethnographic approach. Collaborative autoethnography, as a mirror of co-creation, illuminated ways that the presenters might reimagine, deconstruct, reconstruct, and co-construct applications of community music ideals in our practices in different regions of the U.S. Core concepts such as reciprocity, hospitality, and Higgins’ idea of “safety without safety” (2007b, 2009, 2024) guide this exploration of spaces where learners can take artistic risks while feeling supported and included. Through sustained dialogue and reflexive journaling, they examined how care is embodied, enacted, embedded, and extended (van der Schyff et al., 2018). Themes of community, connection, and confidence emerged, showing how relational practices foster vulnerability, shared authority, and belonging. Broadening the definition of community musicking to include musical contexts beyond intervention, the music of a particular community, or a particular method (Higgins, 2012; Lee & Smith, in review), practicing ideals of community musicking can offer a pedagogical ethos centered on people. In an era when neoliberal educational values prioritize efficiency and competition over connection and care (Chatzidakis et al., 2020), reimagining music education practices through the ideals of community music may offer a counter-narrative: that care, connection, co-creation, and reciprocity are central to meaningful teaching and learning. By prioritizing relationships and allowing space for the “not-yet-imagined” (Higgins, 2024), music educators can cultivate learning environments that inspire connection, challenge normative values, and foster ethical, collective engagement.

The field of community music has long claimed — and struggled over — social impact goals. Efforts to theorize, operationalize, and/or measure social impact include Lonie (2018), Helfter and Ilari (2018), Sloboda et al. (2020), Panebianco and Fouche (2023), Bartleet (2023), Rivas and Cavett (2024), van Zijl and De Bisschop (2024), and Castro-Cifuentes et al. (2025).The purpose of this study was to map the self-reported beliefs and values of community musicians in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in order to identify and theorize connections between their stated social impact goals and their perceived outcomes. The question guiding the inquiry was: To what extent do GTA community musicians reflect global thinking about social impact and what might this reveal about conceptualizations of social impact in different contexts? We conducted one-hour, semi-structured interviews with 17 leaders/facilitators of community music groups in the Greater Toronto Area in 2024-2025. The convenience sample was stratified to ensure the inclusion of vocal and instrumental offerings, low and high SES sites and participants, and culture-specific and culture-non-specific organization orientations. Analysis was informed by van Zijl and De Bisschop (2024), but focused on objects, attributes, states, behaviours, internal relationships, and external environment (Littlejohn, 1995).Analysis revealed that goals and outcomes can relate to any community member or member-group, with the success or failure of groups to achieve their goals dependent on the values, beliefs, practices, and relationships of their members. These goals stem from both the values of the facilitator (e.g., “this music is approachable and this music is for everybody,” “there is no division between us”) and the mission of the group (“we are open to everybody”). These goals may lead to outcomes through a variety of internal and external relationships (“we have students from different nationalities,” “we fused Arabic music in our concerts with flamenco, with Greek music, with Indigenous music”). Compared to the extant research on community musicians in other countries, the participants in our study focused more on inclusion, collaboration, and culture-sustaining goals, and less on wellness, justice, and peace-building goals. The method of mapping goals to outcomes in this study can be used by other practitioners and researchers to better identify, understand, and guide the social impact of community music in their own contexts.

This study explores how inherent educational asymmetry and power relations—shaped by differences in functional music literacy, musical expertise, and perspectives on learning—emerge as tensions between leaders and non-leaders in community music, and how these tensions may be reconstructed through the lens of Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning in adult education (Mezirow, 1991).Community music is grounded in the principle of inclusivity, yet its practice often faces two structural challenges: the institutional fragility of training programs for specialists who instruct adult music enthusiasts, and the disparity between leaders’ expertise and learners’ functional music literacy. These structural conditions can potentially generate underlying conflicts and exclusionary tendencies, which may, in turn, evoke distinctive forms of tension and dilemma among community music leaders.A pilot case study of a regional amateur choral conductor revealed that the causes of teaching stagnation were initially ascribed to external factors. However, through the reorganization of her functional music literacy via movable-do solmization and subsequent retrospective reflection, it became evident that this literacy reconstruction served as a catalyst for overcoming relational and pedagogical tensions.To examine the broader applicability of these findings, the study will conduct semi-structured interviews with a regional instrumental conductor who has experienced a transformation of music literacy through the introduction of movable-do, and with a professional shinobue (Japanese bamboo flute) performer who also works as an instructor. This multi-case comparative analysis aims to identify how leaders from differing musical and pedagogical backgrounds navigate educational differences and reconstruct relational dynamics. The shinobue case, in particular, focuses on how the interplay between oral transmission and Western staff notation mediates cultural differences, illuminating how conflict may be transformed into dialogic relationships.This study suggests that the learning process of a leader’s internal transformation can reconstruct relational dynamics through changes in instructional vocabulary and reconfigurations of role relationships. It thus provides a theoretical basis for conceptualizing the model of “the learning leader” in community music—one that embraces reflexivity, inclusivity, and continuous transformation.

Youth orchestras can function as more than performance ensembles; they can become communities where music-making cultivates dialogue, difference, and belonging. Within the theme “Relationality in the midst of conflict: difference, dialogue, and possibility in community music,” this paper examines how youth orchestras operate as relational and culturally responsive spaces that connect young people through shared musical creation.Drawing on diverse global examples of youth orchestras and models, the study explores ensembles that are reimagining what it means to teach, learn, and create together. With some moving beyond performance-centered traditions, these orchestras foster shared leadership, creativity, and inclusivity. In these contexts, the youth orchestra may shift from a hierarchical structure to strands of relationships, dialogue, and a strong sense of community. The project has two goals: first, to map how youth orchestras across different contexts reflect and respond to the communities they serve; and second, to document the pedagogical and social practices that make such responsiveness possible. For example, research such as the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra study demonstrates that the outcomes of these programs extend beyond technical skill—encompassing emotional growth, resilience, and friendship (Baker, Forbes, & Earle, 2018). Can relational approaches to youth orchestras help us rethink what community music for youth might mean in an evolving world?

The Kiwanis Music Festivals (KMF) are long-standing music education events with an 80-year history of supporting youth in their musical development through performance opportunities, workshops with qualified educators and awards that recognize achievement and excellence. To clarify, the type of music festivals that I refer to in this paper are events that invite music students of all ages and experience levels, studying in both private and school settings, to perform for the opportunity to receive scholarships and other awards. Kiwanis Music Festivals happen across Canada at the local level, and other festivals like it take place at the local, provincial and national levels. Traditionally these kinds of festivals have been a competitive environment with a focus on Western classical music traditions and aesthetic values, leaving some critics to point out the exclusionary and hierarchical nature of events like this (Liu et al., 2024; Powell, 2023; Tucker et al., 2023). This paper explores how one local KMF is moving towards a more community minded and inclusive event through the introduction of programs that address affordability, an increasingly culturally diverse population, and the expansion of musical genres beyond Western classical traditions. This study was conducted using action research methodology with myself as an insider in the organization (working as a festival coordinator). New programs were introduced in recent years including classes for Chinese instruments, fiddle music, pop and rock bands, popular voice and non-competitive class options in all areas that focused on educational goals rather than performing for awards. Throughout the planning of the 2026 festival I consulted with community members, implemented new class programs in the festival syllabus and assessed their effectiveness through post-festival surveys and interviews with students and teachers who participated in new programs. This paper will describe emerging themes including the participants’ sense of belonging among peers, feeling proud of one’s identity and cultural heritage, development of musical skills and building self-confidence. This research also takes up the thorny question of whether there is space for competition within inclusive practice. One of the research findings was that diverse “non-classical” music communities wanted an opportunity to compete for awards, but on their terms, with their music. There is supporting evidence that organizations like the Kiwanis Music Festival can usher in progressive programming that meet the needs of the next generation and represent a diversified community in balance with the traditional aspects of this annual event.

While community music (CM) is usually positioned as outside of school music education, some music teachers in publicly funded JK-12 school classrooms in Canada have incorporated CM practises and approaches in their music classrooms. The purpose of this research study is to better understand their personal stories, values, motivations and philosophies that led them to incorporating CM into their classroom towards exploring commonalities to create a general profile of these outliers in music education. This study used narrative inquiry and included autoethnographic components. In-depth one-on-one interviews were conducted with six educators who self-identified as CM based music educators as informed by Higgins 2017 and followed up with unstructured open-ended discussions. Incorporating my own experience as a CM guided music educator, I delved into their personal histories, attitudes, feelings and opinions and created a composite of some of the significant qualities found in music educators who walk their own unique path in spite of experiencing the same training as all musicians and educators. This presentation presents preliminary research findings focusing on how personal past experiences of musical exclusions shaped educators’ approaches to their students and the curriculum. The study finds that narratives of past experiences with music deeply impacted pedagogies, values, and curriculum development in the classroom. Contrary to typical music educators who maintain the more competitive approach to music education in keeping with the systems that train musicians and educators, CM based educators chose a counter approach. The presentation then explores how those educators implemented their values through curriculum and pedagogy, largely rejecting competition and musical exceptionalism in favour of participation. Nurturing social capital and social justice, study participants focused on participation over production and relished the process over the product in musicking opportunities, and they did it both deliberately and inadvertently. Literature has examined the inclusion of CM into teacher training programs along with the impact of practises in the classroom. This research contributes by looking at the educators themselves to gain a better understanding of their personal values and past experiences which informed their motivation to incorporate CM practises into their classrooms.

Community music is often framed as a practice that fosters inclusion, participation, and social justice. Yet, the structural conditions within which these values are pursued often remain under-examined, particularly when community musicians work in migration contexts marked by bordering and carcerality. This presentation draws on a doctoral project and a critical interpretative synthesis exploring how community music scholarship engages with the structural conditions shaping the lives of people on the move. It asks how migration is conceptualised within the field, and what political possibilities these framings open or foreclose for community music practice.

Drawing on border abolition, critical migration studies, and anti-racist scholarship, the presentation introduces a theoretical framework through which to reconsider community music’s relationship to migration governance. Rather than treating migration as a neutral backdrop to practice, it considers how community music is shaped by broader political and institutional conditions. Building on a critical review of community music literature with people on the move, the presentation identifies several recurring tensions in how migration is theorised and represented, arguing that a deeper engagement with the structural conditions shaping participants’ lives opens up new ways of thinking about community music’s role in relation to social justice.

Rather than offering definitive answers, the presentation asks what it might mean to approach community music through a border abolitionist perspective, and how this might reorient the field towards questions of power, relationality, and the conditions that make equitable participation in cultural life possible.

Keywords: border abolition, migration, cultural democracy, community music, social justice

The Civil War in El Salvador (1980-1992) left approximately 75,000 dead and displaced over one million people. After living in exile, survivors returned to repopulate communities that were devastated during the war. Two arts centers run community music programs in this post-conflict setting: Centro de Arte y Cultura Paco Cutumay (CACPC) since 1997, and Centro Arte para la Paz (CAP) since 2005. In this multicase study, I used Galtung’s concepts of positive and negative peace as a framework to understand the history, context, and the effects of the music teaching and learning practices CACPC and CAP. I collected data from interviews, participant observations, historical photographs, audio recordings, and documents. Both schools have made significant contributions to their host communities. Instructors at CACPC focused on teaching music and promoting value formation, while instructors at CAP thought of music training as secondary and aimed their work towards participant’s mental health and well-being. As music educators face growing challenges in their work with students who have been victims of trauma, this study shows how community music schools can make significant contributions to peacebuilding work by enriching the lives of all those involved. As music educators continue to face the growing challenges of working with students who have been victims of war, forced displacement, and other sources of trauma, the schools studied here are examples of how music education can contribute to peacebuilding work by enriching the lives of all those involved.

This arts-based presentation positions community music as a critical and relational framework for peacebuilding at the intersections of pedagogy, activism, and spirituality (Higgins, 2012; Veblen et al., 2013). It argues that collective music-making, grounded in participation and reciprocity, can serve as a dialogic and reparative practice in contexts fractured by violence, displacement, and systemic inequity (de Quadros & Amrein, 2022; Turino, 2008). Moving beyond performance as product, the presentation conceptualizes community music as a process of ethical co-creation through which participants cultivate empathy, belonging, and social imagination (hooks, 1994; Freire, 1970).Drawing on more than two decades of personal experience in arts-based collaborations—including work with Israelis and Palestinians, rival gangs in Boston prisons, and communities along the U.S.-Mexico border—the session examines how communal musicking generates conditions for what Lederach (2005) calls the “moral imagination”: the capacity to envision and enact relationships that transcend cycles of harm. These arts-based projects, situated in environments marked by polarization and trauma, reveal how artistic practices invite ambiguity, foster vulnerability, and open pathways for participants to “rehearse peace” (Barlow, 2021).Methodologically, this arts-based presentation integrates arts-based research (Leavy, 2015), participatory action research (Fine & Torre, 2021), and trauma-informed frameworks (van der Kolk, 2014) to examine the pedagogical and affective dimensions of community music practice. I will focus on case studies of collaborative song-creating, storytelling, and performance as modes of narrative repair, identity affirmation, and intercultural dialogue (Bajaj, 2015; Zembylas, 2019). The analysis traces both tangible and relational outcomes—co-created artworks, digital archives, and performances that articulate collective visions for peace, alongside processes of ethical listening, recognition, and belonging that may contribute to sustainable transformation.By framing community music as a form of socio-spiritual practice, the presentation contributes to emerging discourses in peace education, community arts, and decolonial aesthetics. It demonstrates how community music can destabilize entrenched binaries between the aesthetic and the political, the sacred and the secular, and the individual and the collective (Alexander, 2005). In doing so, it extends theoretical conversations in cultural and peace studies while offering adaptable models for practitioners seeking to integrate community music into community development, education, and reconciliation work.Ultimately, this presentation reimagines peacebuilding not as the absence of violence but as a lived, creative, and communal process—one that resists domination through the cultivation of sonic connection, shared vulnerability, and collective hope (Lederach & Appleby, 2010).

In the field of community music, there has long been resistance to defining a distinct community music pedagogy or referring to a particular community music method (Higgins, 2025). Additionally, there remains a lack of theorization around the concept of facilitation (Mantie, 2024). While community music practice aims to advance cultural democracy, collaboration, access, equality, and empowerment, little attention has been given to how community musicians translate these abstract ideals and concrete project goals into practice within workshop settings. This paper seeks to deepen understanding of how community musicians plan for facilitation—specifically, the role that planning plays in preparing workshops and how those plans evolve during facilitation. Findings from a literature review and qualitative interviews with fifteen experienced community musicians from around the world will be presented.

This paper explores how nonrepresentational, site-specific music in public spaces can function as a positive ethical resource. The triptych described is an ongoing arts-based research project comprising three immersive, binaural sound installations created for civic sites in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Each installation invites community members into an encounter with sound and music that resists narrative, representation and prescribed meaning.Guided by Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy as interpreted by James Vander Zaag, the study examines whether nonrepresentational art can meet the interrelated criteria of a positive ethical resource:1. Interrupt totality — to disrupt systems of meaning that reduce the Other to the Same;2. Affect the subject before interpretation — to evoke a movement of response prior to cognition;3. Call the subject into ethical responsibility — to awaken relational attentiveness within the listener.Through a methodology integrating arts-based research, autoethnography, a/r/tography, and constructivist grounded theory, the project situates artistic creation as an act of inquiry, and headphone mediated, site-specific listening as a form of participation. Data sources include reflective journaling, environmental observation, qualitative and qualitative feedback from listeners.Early findings show listeners frequently describing moments of temporal disorientation followed by a heightened sense of empathy, community, contemplation, or social awareness—affective shifts that resonate with Levinas’ notion of ethical becoming. These experiences suggest that community music practices grounded in nonrepresentational art may cultivate forms of ethical understanding and action not mediated by representation, narrative, or consensus.This project expands upon community music’s practice of relational ethics, extending beyond participatory music-making or shared repertoire to include modes of listening that sustain civic imagination and relational accountability. In contexts marked by social and ecological precarity, such practices may help describe publicly accessible music and art as integral to the acts of negotiated and relational meaning-making that contribute measurably to the wellbeing of the community.

This study examined differences and characteristics in community music content preferences among generational groups in Guangdong, China. While prior research has highlighted the social functions of community music, we addressed a gap in the systematic analysis of how preferences diverge and converge in an era of globalization and localization. This study employed a qualitative multiple-case study design, focusing on six community music groups (three youth, three older adult) involving Cantopop, guitar and ukulele, ancient-style music, red song choir, and private folk ensembles. Data collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and musical text analysis were interpreted to understand how individuals embed personal life experiences, social contexts, and values into musical meaning. Findings revealed a generational spectrum: the grandparent generation (65+) exhibited a collectivist-oriented repertoire of red songs, revolutionary film music, and folk songs, reflecting a historically rooted identity. The grandchild generation (20-35) preferred fragmented and diverse forms such as classic Cantopop, indie rock, and online music, focusing on personal emotions and life experiences. The parent generation (45-60), though less active participants, served as cultural bridge; their adolescent-era Cantopop and Mandopop significantly influenced the younger generation’s tastes. A limited convergence in preferences was also observed. Although older adults prized the artistic value of music from their youth and questioned contemporary pop standards, they still embraced certain popular online songs without abandoning their core repertoire. Younger participants, while exploring new forms, sustained engagement with classic Cantopop for nostalgic identity construction. Their connection to red songs and folk traditions, however, remained passive and occasion-specific, not part of their active repertoire. In conclusion, differences in intergenerational musical preferences not only embodied distinct socio-cultural characteristics of different epochs but also highlighted the unique role of music as a cultural vehicle in intergenerational transmission.

How can pop music facilitate understanding among different cultural groups? In a contemporary society marked by increasing division, the lack of cross-cultural understanding among different social groups has been contributing to numerous conflicts and hatred. Meanwhile, music, as a form of creative arts that reflects the cultural background and social context of the musicians who create or present it, might offer an effective means of bridging differences among people from diverse cultural backgrounds. Pop music is a global phenomenon, and thanks to globalization, it is now easier than ever to access forms of pop music created by people from other cultures, and create blended forms of music that have gained popularity among audiences around the world. In this paper, I used case study research method to explore the cultural communication phenomena between Western and Chinese pop music. The paper begins with a short autoethnographic component, in which I describe my own experience of growing up listening to both Chinese and Western pop music and how it helped form my intercultural view. Building from the autoethnography, the second half of the paper takes up several well-known pop songs from both Western and Chinese music industries. For each case, I analyzed the cultural context and social background reflected through the music production styles and lyrical content. By comparing and concluding those cases, I interpreted the cultural-blended nature and cultural communication arising between audiences in both industries. Through the showcase, analysis, and interpretation of cross-cultural pop music experiences, this paper demonstrates how songs are connected to intercultural connection globally. While community music tends to focus on the people making music, this analysis focuses on the music that is shared to provide a nuanced picture of the impact of music on cultural diplomacy among communities.

Knowing and being known is at the heart of community music practices, enabled in the collaborative processes of co-creation. For a facilitator, it is imperative to understand that an equal creative partnership, listening with respect and openness, and attending to the narrative participants want to share helps establish connections and respect-in-action in the space. To ‘counter’ silence, Schwab (2010) suggests that ‘telling and witnessing are necessary for healing trauma’ (p. 48). Bearing witness to the participants’ stories as they want to tell and express them is powerful within a group and can support recovery with dialogue and conversation as crucial to this process.As a phenomenological concept, dialogue, conceptualised as ‘across’ or ‘between’ speech (etymonline.com) can be understood as the flow of meaning. As such, it connects to notions of listening, bearing witness, conversation, and voice. Freire (1970) highlights the importance of dialogue, suggesting that ‘dialogue characterizes an epistemological relationship. Thus, in a sense, dialogue is a way of knowing and should never be viewed as a mere tactic to involve students in a particular task’ (p. 17). What is illuminated here is the social aspect of dialogue in the process of knowing. If we are to cultivate trust with our participants, dialogue is a way we can engage in the reciprocal process of knowing to break down some of the potential hierarchical, cultural, and social barriers. For a trauma survivor, the process of building trust will be more challenging. A facilitator will need to support individuals responding with incremental steps, that repeatedly reinforce an environment of trust, and are built over time.This presentation examines both the importance and function of dialogue within trauma-informed community music practices. Dialogue is a fundamental notion in facilitation of trauma-informed practices, important in building connections, community, and unconditional positive regard. Waltzer (2021) explains, ‘Meaningful dialogue engages both parties to listen intently and engage with the other person beyond a trivial conversation. For caring educators, inner-dialogue, a conscience leading to ethical decision-making, requires space, support, and validation’ (p. 6). Highlighted here are notions of reflexivity in practice and the concept of dialogue as both an external (relational) and an internal notion. Additionally, cultural contexts need to be understood and acknowledged with space for dialogue and conversation to enable cultural representation through diverse participant voices.

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the role of music and storytelling in the complex process of temporary emplacement experienced by both facilitators and refugee participants in a Tijuana community music and art programme. Drawing on figured world theory (Holland et al, 1998) and theories of place-making, -keeping, and -knowing (Bedoya, 2014), the author narrates key moments from the participatory music and storytelling sessions and explores the unique ways that im/mobility, place, and belonging are imbricated in Tijuana’s border geography. Using observational research with multisensory inputs (McKechnie, 2008; Smit & Onwuegbuzie, 2018), this presentation interweaves self-interrogations of pedagogy and identity with the artistic and narrative work made by session participants in order to explore the questions: How does place figure into the temporary construction of individual and collective ‘identities-in-practice’? How might places of transience be ‘storied’, embedded with histories and present-day stories of survivance (Brightman 1989; Bullchild 2005; Vizenor, 1999)? And how might these place-narratives be understood as storyscapes, ‘a cultural landscape where land and space merges with personhood and identity’ (Victor et al, 2022, pg. 13)? Extending from Holland et al (1998; 2008), the author considers the role of place as a hidden figure that can contribute to a person’s self and collective understanding and to feeling ‘at home’ (Huff 2006; Thornton 2008). The author argues that, with Empowering Song (de Quadros & Amrein, 2023), the practice of collaborative art- and music-making can be an expression of a philosophy of joining (Peterson et al, 2010) - linking individual to collective, collective to place, place to individual, and so forth. In addition to advancing a theoretical model, the paper adapts the notion of indigenous storyscapes (Elsey, 2010) to place-based community arts practice broadly, proposing a framework of arts emplacement that cultural workers can use to critically reflect on and understand ourselves as we encounter one another creatively.

This paper seeks to deepen inquiry of community music as a form of social and political activism through lenses of prefigurative politics, decolonial sociology and the work of anarchist anthropologist David Graeber. Through these conceptual lenses, the activism of community music is positioned as a global, decentralised, prefigurative movement concerned with care/freedom in which disparate sites of action are tacitly connected across diverse geographies through a conceptualisation of insurgent cosmopolitanism. This argument is developed through three conceptual emphases: Firstly, through the lens of prefigurative politics (Monticelli, 2022), community music activism is positioned as mode of future-oriented world building concerned with small-scale experiments in building alternative forms of relationality and relational aesthetics in the here-and-now. Secondly, Graeber's (2024) call for a societal arrangements based on co-constitutive conceptions of care/freedom, where freedom is an ethical horizon defined by one's capacity to engage unrestricted, non-coercive playful action and care is the labour through which the material and relational conditions are established that make freedom practicable, community music activism is illuminated as a strategy towards this aim. Thirdly, decolonial sociologist Santos’ concept of counter-hegemonic globalisation (2007; 2008), or insurgent cosmopolitanism supports in the recovery of an activist community music movement, globally distributed yet implicitly linked through shared resistance and refusal of the norms, values, and practices of the dominant global neoliberal hegemony.Grounded in the author's PhD study, a Critical Participatory Action Research (Fine and Torre, 2021) study collectively investigating the activist dimensions of community music with music facilitators working in different global contexts implicitly and explicitly connected to struggles for justice. Examples of contemporary global community music practices drawn from this research reinforce these claims. Through this theorisation of the social and political activism of community music, this paper proposes conceptual vocabulary that can support future inquiry, and illustrates their conceptual application as heuristic tools for future research.

In contrast to Mason (2000) and Wilde’s (2013) notions of solidarity as mutual concern and empathy, Clare Hemmings (2012) develops the concept of affective solidarity as rooted in affective dissonance. When facilitating group singing activities involving marginalized individuals, it must not be assumed that, although the identities and experiences of the singers may be shaped by the same oppressive discourses, they share the same feelings toward these marginalizing forces. Balén (2017) discusses group singing as “a compelling way for many to organize for social change” (p. 110). Here, a sense of community may be understood as formed through affective solidarity through and between bodies, as they recognize, critique, and resist power structures embedded within the choral environment—and their personal lives—through the act of singing. According to Freire (2018), in order to liberate oneself from oppressive discourses, one must gain an in-depth understanding of the world through the practice of critical reflection and engagement with the other. I argue that vulnerability is imperative to reciprocal and meaningful musical and social experiences within the group singing context.Singing is an inherently vulnerable act (Welch, 2005), and group singing, particularly, exists in a transformative liminal space (Curtis, 2023; Turner, 1969) demanding courage and vulnerability from both singers and facilitators. The use of the word ‘vulnerable,’ however, is more commonly applied, in the literature and in practice, to the marginalized individuals who participate in group singing activities, with less attention to the vulnerable position of the facilitator. Vulnerability requires a facilitated space commonly referred to as ‘safe’; a notion I grapple with in my own pedagogical and facilitative musical practice, as ‘safety’ is experienced differently by everyone and, thus, difficult—if not impossible—to facilitate. Thus, I explore possibilities for reimagining the learning environment as a space in which courage is required, “rather than the illusion of safety” (Flensner and Von der Lippe, 2019, p. 284).In this presentation, I explore the notion of affective dissonance as related to courage and vulnerability on the part of both singers and facilitators, highlighting the impact of reflective practice within group singing contexts involving marginalized individuals. I critically examine the notion of safety in relation to group singing activities involving marginalized individuals, and discuss the importance of courage in this creative learning environment, from the perspective of reciprocal engagements between facilitators and singers.

Church worship music ranges from traditional hymns to Contemporary Worship Music (CWM), a Christian congregational song repertoire influenced by Western popular music styles (Ingalls, 2018). Worship teams, typically made up of vocalists and instrumentalists on drums, keyboard, and guitars, lead and perform CWM. With the rise of CWM and popular instruments in churches, some worship settings function as sites of informal (Green, 2002) and non-formal (Veblen, 2012) music-making (Author, 2019), encompassing practices central to community music such as listening, composing, and arranging, often directed by learners. Yet, the Christian church remains a distinctive context for music teaching and learning that has not been extensively addressed in community music literature. This project explores how music teaching and learning function as forms of community music-making within congregational settings. Focusing on two Reformed Christian churches in Canada, the study examines how relational musical experiences, collaborative learning, and participatory practices shape both musical and theological formation among community members of all ages. By viewing churches as active community music spaces, the study highlights how worship leaders facilitate intergenerational engagement, dialogue, and reflective participation through music. Building on my dissertation research, this project expands its scope from worship musicians to the wider congregation, integrating community music and music learning theories to better understanding how musical participation through worship fosters relationality, belonging, and theological formation. In this paper, I draw on data collected in October 2025 through observations, document analysis, and interviews conducted in two Reformed Christian church communities. Each congregation served as an individual case and primarily engaged with CWM as a central genre of worship music. Data from each case was analyzed individually, followed by cross-case analysis, guided by frameworks related to community music and informal music learning (Green, 2002, Veblen, 2012), theological formation (Smith, 2013; Wolterstorff, 2015), and participatory musical development (Folkestad, 2006; Wright, 2016). Findings from this study aim to highlight the communal dimensions of music-making within faith contexts, advocating for a deeper integration of community music principles within church music practice and research. Results have the potential to contribute to new avenues for both teaching and scholarship in this interdisciplinary space.

Even though community music (CM) is not established as a concept or field in Norway, activities that are commonly understood as CM activities and practices are found in Norway (e.g. workshops and participatory music making in local communities). These are often led by music teachers and music therapists, many in institutionalized settings such as hospitals, prisons and schools. In other words, Norway is not without CM, but neither is CM emphasized, insofar as participatory music-making practices are institutionalized into educational and therapeutic logics not necessarily making room for all the values and perspectives in the international field of community music. To challenge this situation, one of the authors established a CM course at a higher music education institution in Norway. This presentation describes the characteristics of the programme, and the challenges involved in the process of developing it.The CM elective course (CMC) (10 ECTS) was launched in 2024. It combines academic studies, practical and musical work and workshops, guest speakers and off-campus projects and placements. The course is open to students from all study programmes (performance, conducting, composing, music teacher training) and levels (bachelor, master’s), but most students are bachelor students in their last year, or master’s students.One of the challenges in developing the course was how to frame, name and promote an unfamiliar concept and practice. A second challenge was to make a study programme that made room for students with very different musician identities and different degrees of experience from participatory music making. A third challenge was to on the one hand make students understand the need for CM perspectives in Norway and on the other make them able to put these perspectives into practice.The course included participation in off-campus placements in Norway and South Africa. In Oslo, the students took part in establishing a music group or choir at Voksenopplæringen (Adult Education) in Oslo, for non-native Norwegian speakers. On a study trip to Johannesburg, students experienced the work in the Field Band Foundation, an NGO demonstrating a CM practice combining inclusion, social justice and an aural-based musical approach with national championships.The presentation will go into the details of the development and challenges of the CM course, and how it contributes to identify challenges in the Norwegian musical context.

The impact of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s 2023 bankruptcy was profound on the local arts community and its supporters. Long before this upheaval, however, a conflict existed between the orchestral paradigm’s elitist tradition and those who sought an earnest collaboration with the community. In spite of my institutionalized training and 18 years as a performer with the KWS, I questioned the relevance of the institution in the modern age of trans-culturalism, anti-colonialism, and reconciliation. Nevertheless, I was unaware that the KWS’s misfortune would lead to the start of my PhD in Community Music in less than two years.I have always been passionate about sharing music with my community, including with individuals who do not patronise traditional venues. I discovered that orchestral Learning and Community Engagement (LCE) activities in which I participated are lacking in relevance to the audience. In my new position as LCE manager with the KWS, I lack the support to provide musicians with much more than organizational logistics. After discovering Community Music, I found its tenets (Higgins & Willingham, 2017, p.5) inspiring yet largely absent from the orchestral world. Social justice concerns, for example, are deficient as institutional neutrality proliferates organizations for fear of alienating sponsors. There is, for example, a refusal to address the close ties of the musical canon to imperial history, such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the near obliteration of Indigenous culture (Holder, 2024). In a survey of European LCE managers, Petri-Preis (2025) found a common conviction that musician visits to schools can supplement curricular music education. Dollman’s (2024) comprehensive study of LCE programs highlights inspiring programs linked to major orchestras in Sydney and Los Angeles. These programs rely on the broad budgets of the organizations and required the construction or renovation of venues to act as homes for the programs. Little has been written about grassroots projects that could be implemented with tighter budgets and in smaller urban centres. Alsop et al. (2025) present a qualitative study regarding the effectiveness of orchestral LCE concerts but provide few specifics regarding participatory activities and strategies of engagement.My pilot study involves of survey of musicians to uncover lived experience of working in LCE. Those involved in specific ventures, such as the Lullaby Project, will are being interviewed with the goal of uncovering a rich narrative. A series of workshops will introduce musicians to structured improvisation based on teaching by Bruscia (1987).

This arts based presentation describes a pilot project created by the author and presented by the Regina Musical Club called “Instruments of the Orchestra: Up Close & Personal”. The intention of this series was to facilitate empathetic introductions to orchestral instruments by local, professional musicians as part of an engaging performance presentation in casual, chamber music settings.In Canada, Western classical music is a colonial art that too often can alienate people who have limited prior experience with the genre. The goal of these concerts was to use the musicians’ introductions to establish an open dialogue with audiences, foster a non-hierarchical connection between musician and listener, and build new relationships with community members. Each presentation involved live performance excerpts and ensembles were coached by the author on how to contextualize their art so it might resonate with non-musicians using plain language. Musicians were encouraged to talk about who they are, why they enjoy the music they play, and how their instruments work in order to demystify the music making and bond with community members emotionally, on a human level. Ample time in each presentation was dedicated to welcoming questions or comments from audience members about anything they wanted to discuss more. In this way, the orchestral musicians also learned more about their audiences’ interests and how their art could be perceived by non-professionals. The idea was to eliminate the “third wall” and to invite a two-way dialogue so the musicians also became listeners. Each ensemble presented twice: once for an elementary school audience and once for a public, primarily adult audience in a friendly venue.In addition to exploring the objectives of this pilot project, the author will also describe their methodology, findings, and conclusions from working with these professional musicians and seeing them interact with new audience members. Using this pilot project as a case study, this arts based presentation will discuss how we might use dialogue and ways of listening in western classical music to navigate differences, reduce perceptions of inferiority, and bridge cultural practices.

A keyword in this year’s CMA seminar is dialogue—but what do we in community music mean when we use this term? Typically invoked in music projects that seek to bridge difference, the word suggests that something significant is taking place beyond the usual experiences and benefits of collective music-making. It may also imply a particular ethical orientation that values multiple voices and fosters reciprocity and understanding. Yet recent research indicates that dialogue is understood and operationalised in diverse ways in music, leaving practitioners, researchers, funders, and policy partners sometimes talking at cross-purposes. Without clarity about how dialogue in music-making is fostered, experienced, or sustained, the term risks operating as an aspirational signifier whose meaning remains difficult to interrogate or learn from.This paper shares findings from a three-year investigation into music in and as dialogue in conflict-affected, intercultural, and asymmetric contexts. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature on dialogue, peacebuilding, and community music; interviews with musicians working across divisions; and reflections from my experiences as a musician-peacebuilder in conflict-affected places, the research proposes a framework for engaging critically with dialogue in community music. At its centre are three practice modes:1. Dialogue-as-improvisation, drawing on Bohm to emphasise emergent, open-ended collective exploration;2. Dialogue-as-multivocality, informed by Bakhtin and Cavarero, characterised by the ethical recognition and relationality of distinct voices; and3. Dialogue-as-pedagogy, grounded in Freirean praxis, oriented towards naming the world and developing critical consciousness.The paper argues that a significant variable in music-as-dialogue processes is the extent to which they can create and hold space for intentional engagement with the conflict issues and power relations underpinning intergroup division. By articulating assumptions, limitations, and possibilities within each practice mode, this contribution invites community music practitioners and scholars to rethink what counts as dialogue and to approach it as a situated, relational, and critically demanding practice.

As a facilitator working musically and socially with children living in care, I constantly sought the most meaningful ways to engage with them. One day, Eve, a sexually abused child, confided in me, “It’s nice, for once, to talk about what I want to do”. Her words stayed with me as I embarked on my PhD research in a local residential-care facility for abused and neglected children. She made me wonder: “How can I ensure that my music-making practices truly serves this community and respects their experiences without reopening past wounds”? Community-based research is a participatory methodology that fosters open dialogue and collaboration between community members and academic researchers. Rather than the researcher determining what is best for the community, the research objectives and methodological tools are presented and discussed with the community. Together, they reach an agreement, making necessary adjustments to ensure the research respects the community and its members. Participatory research approaches involving youth are increasingly linked to improved outcomes, empowerment, and equity in accessing evidence. Research suggests that young children who have experienced distress or trauma demonstrate greater willingness to engage in discussions about violence and other sensitive issues when research methods uphold and respect their right to meaningful participation. Furthermore, it is supported by a rights-based foundation as per Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), advocating for youth’s active participation in matters affecting them. In this presentation, I aim to explore how community-based research shaped the framework for my community music-making with traumatized children. Specifically, I will explore the obstacles, critical issues, and emergent themes encountered throughout the community-based research process, as they relate to the cultural dynamics, contextual and administrative factors of the residential care facility. As a result, this approach deepened my understanding of this community, justified my presence within the setting, allowing a sense of belonging and mutual trust to emerge between myself and the participants, and simultaneously honored children’s experiences, fostering genuine communication and connection. Children felt safe to share their stories and to explore new ways of living and relating, transitioning from passive informants to active agents engaged in genuine partnership. Ultimately, involving children as co-researchers brought to light unanticipated topics that were not part of my initial research plan, including expressions of frustration, moments of resistance to cooperation, and challenges in envisioning a world beyond the boundaries of institutional life.

Indigenous knowledges, stories, and songs, have been shared in communities for millenia. In contemporary times, Indigenous musicians and educators can work in partnership with classroom teachers to support them to embed these knowledges in a meaningful, appropriate, and respectful manner according to local protocols and centring relationality. In Australia, all school educators are mandated to teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. Despite this being a requirement of the National Curriculum for 15 years, varying levels of engagement from non-Indigenous teachers connected to a widespread lack of understanding and knowledge are reported (Webb & Bracknell, 2021).This presentation shares findings from a project undertaken in Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada and Sapmi (Finland and Norway) to learn how Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators and musicians are foregrounding or showcasing Indigenous knowledges through music in education. With a view to sharing global insights that might inform Indigenous-led music education initiatives in Australia to imagine new possibilities for music education in a broad range of educational contexts. Centring the seminar themes of relationality, dialogue and possibility, the research process was informed by Karen Martin’s (2008) Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing and conversations with purpose (Bessarab & N’gandu, 2010) which are deeply connected with storytelling (Nakata, 2010). These ways of doing are holistic, centre relationships, relationality and occur at what Torres Strait Islander academic Martin Nakata (2010) explains as the “cultural interface” (p. 53) where Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledges meet. Metis scholar Adam Gaudry highlights that any project that involves Indigenous knowledges, must benefit Indigenous people (Gaudry, 2011) while Kirkness and Barnhardt (1991) highlight the four Rs - relationships, respect, reciprocity, responsibility and relationality is also frequently added (Bennett, 2022), which this project aimed to embody.Three case studies will be shared as practical examples of how musicians and educators were showcasing Indigenous knowledges through music in education. The case studies are organised by place and reflect a diverse range of educational contexts including community music, primary schools, music education associations, educational curriculum resources, and an Indigenous-led community music education centre. Overarching themes of Indigenous worldviews, relationships, and extraction are central to the case studies and will also be discussed.

In 1998 Leonard Syme put forward his “control of destiny hypothesis” in which he argued that health is compromised for people who lack “options, choice and discretion to deal with life challenges” (1998: 498). He advocated for supporting children in places of education to make choices and develop problem-solving skills, classifying these skills as social determinants of health. In research into the El Sistema music program (Merati et al., 2020), children identified that music provided opportunities to problem-solve; gain confidence; and build communication skills and relationships. In complementary research focused on First Nations children in Australia, Scarfe et al (2024) argue that music is a “unique cultural, social, political and ecological determinant of health”. However, while research into music’s potential for children to develop life skills is growing, there are gaps in our understanding of how children perceive and experience the process of music-led creativity and its impact on their development.Our research investigates the effects of immersion in music-making and creativity, through an opportunity to create an opera about birds with children and their communities. Yirru-gu-wi-yay-irri is inspired by Dhanggati/Gumbayngirr Elder Dr X Y’s concept of an opera drawing on Aboriginal stories about birds to empower children. There are multiple communities involved in developing the project, including school communities; education providers; and creative practitioners. The aim of the research is to understand children’s perceptions about their involvement in music creativity and link that to social and cultural determinants of health. We hypothesise that children who work collaboratively with adults to produce a creative musical outcome, and lead this process, will develop a set of capabilities which equip them to succeed through primary into secondary school and beyond. Using a Community Participatory Action Research approach, we are co-designing workshops with community that introduce music creativity through accessible and engaging creative means. Our research methods comprise yarning; music and language workshops; body mapping art workshops; and child-friendly quality of life questionnaires. This presentation reflects on workshops held in 2025 and early 2026, which will lead towards the opera production in late 2026. Initial findings include songs and stories written by children, and feedback from community. We also reflect on the creative, social and wellbeing impacts for all; the challenges of holding everyone in the space, allowing all voices to be heard, and staying true to X Y’s vision.

The primary theoretical framework grounding this arts-based research is Generative Justice (McNeill et al., forthcoming), which McNeill (2022) described as “social processes and community practices involving justice-affected people that are somehow generative of relationships characterised by solidarity” (p. 4). GJ pushes against binary logics of criminal practices such as innocent and guilty, criminal and law-abiding, victim and offender, suggesting through relationships and building solidarity with justice-affected people, the complexities of any situation are more apparent. Common features of GJ include recognition, communication of worth/hope, material provision and exchange, social connection, reciprocal concern, collective effort, and change beyond the individual (McNeill, 2022). One example of Generative Justice is the Oakdale Community Choir that included both incarcerated (inside singers) and non-incarcerated (outside) singers who gathered weekly in the prison to rehearse, connect informally, and share reflections through a reflective writing exchange. These regular social and musical gatherings built what one incarcerated singer described as a “community of caring.” It is clear to me that imprisonment and traditional U.S. legal systems are harmful, non-responsive to people’s needs, and profit the prison industrial complex. A basic idea of prison abolition is that prisons do not solve social problems, punishment is not a constructive response to conflict, and beneficial responses to social problems and discord are needed. However, unless society realizes something else is possible, prisons will continue to damage relationships. Researchers have indicated that collaboration through songwriting between incarcerated and non-incarcerated musicians builds solidarity between people inside and outside prison (e.g., McNeill & Urie, 2020; Thomas et al., 2021; Urie et al., 2019). I theorize that if non-incarcerated songwriters build relationships with incarcerated musicians, they may develop a commitment to prison abolition. In this arts-based study, I investigate incarcerated and nonincarcerated collaborative songwriting projects through analyses of original songs, an exploration of the creative processes for writing songs, the difficulties that exist due to prison contexts, and outcomes of these experiences for the nonincarcerated songwriters. How does this work shape the non-incarcerated songwriters’ perspectives and potential commitment to prison abolition. What are the cognitive, emotional, and activist dimensions of these experiences? How do these collaborations contribute to, if at all, non-incarcerated songwriters’ inspiration to work toward reducing harms of incarceration and surveillance, and building community-led systems of care? What is the role of songwriting in building relationships and generating insights about incarcerated lives?

Abortion and reproductive rights are ongoing and extremely polarizing issues, causing a harsh divide between those who identify as pro-choice versus pro-life (Zibel, 2023). It appears one must be distinctly one or the other when approaching the subject, causing each group to refuse opposing perspectives (Rye & Underhill, 2020). In an effort to engage these perspectives and allow the information to be heard in a new way, I have presented the realities of abortion and the reasons behind this choice through a new medium, musical theatre. Through 2023 and 2024, I engaged in the process of writing a musical for my Masters of Community Music capstone project. The musical has been written to follow the storylines of four women as they make the decision to have an abortion, each with different backgrounds and views on the subject. All of my research was done through preexisting stories, using online platforms such as Shout Your Abortion, where people have anonymously shared their experiences with the subject. It features an original score of sixteen songs as well as a full script. The process culminated in directing a fully staged production with a cast of eighteen local performers which was presented on August 29th, 2024, with approximately 270 attendees. Audience members were invited to attend a talkback following the performance for an open discussion on the musical creation and the use of the subject matter. Within this presentation I will share my experience creating this project, detailing process, emotional effects, and learnings throughout engaging in this arts-based research project. By sharing audio and visual clips from the musical and drawing from audience member feedback and written reflections, this presentation will reflect on the transformative potential of musical theatre for spotlighting complex and polarizing social issues and building bridges of understanding and empathy.

In this paper, I will present the starting points of my emerging PhD research, which investigates the interplay between tradition and cultural democracy within contemporary community music practice, and examines the role of the practitioner in achieving a context-appropriate balance. Using UK-based gamelan projects as a testing ground, I examine how community musicians navigate tensions between honouring established musical traditions and facilitating the democratic, participant-led creative processes central to community music (Higgins, 2012, 2024; Kelly, 2022; Matarasso, 2019).With increasing global focus on the implications of recontextualising instruments and ideas classified by certain communities as 'intangible cultural heritage' (UNESCO, 2003), this research connects to the conference’s timely questions around intersectional, dialogic and decolonial approaches and examines co-creation across cultures and disciplines. As the UK gamelan scene matures - with instruments now often used by practitioners generations removed from original Indonesian teachers and contexts - the need for ethical and practical frameworks becomes pressing. Nevertheless, responses must maintain a culturally democratic ethos, aligned with participant-centred understandings of 'the music within community music' (Higgins, 2024), acknowledging the complexity of tradition, authenticity and quality (Camlin, 2014; Schippers, 2006; Setiawan, 2023; Strohschein, 2018), and ensuring that multiplicity, flexibility and contextual awareness remain central.My research explores how tradition-centred and participant-led priorities intertwine in practice, with the intention of developing a framework that does not view tradition and cultural democracy as dichotomous, but rather supports practitioners in navigating multiple, context-responsive considerations. The research focuses on groups working generatively and creatively with gamelan instruments - developing new compositions and improvisations - rather than repertoire-based ensembles, thus requiring different frameworks than those already prominent in global music education literature (Bolden & O’Farrell, 2020; Campbell & Lum, 2019; Solis, 2004).Taking an interpretivist stance and drawing on arts-based and ethnographic methodologies, my research employs case study approaches with multiple UK community music groups, centring participant and practitioner voices through music-making and dialogue. I aim to understand how participants and practitioners perceive multifaceted understandings of authenticity, tradition and cultural democracy, and particularly how they view the role and requirements of the facilitator. While this PhD is in early stages, and is rooted specifically in gamelan-based practice, it ultimately seeks to offer insights for anyone working at intersections of tradition and creative play.

Restrictions on public access to carceral institutions often renders what goes on behind prison walls (including prison music work) invisible, leaving those who are incarcerated living in the shadows of society. Resultantly, facilitators often commence prison music work with a circumscribed understanding of the people with whom, and the context in which, they will be working. This research explores how facilitator perceptions of lived incarceration shape their experience of prison music work. Illuminating this aspect of the facilitator experience may assist community musicians/music educators prospectively interested in doing prison music work to better understand what to expect and how to prepare. For those already facilitating prison music programs, peer experience may serve to validate their own experience.The separation of “offenders” deemed to have engaged in criminalized conduct from their communities, coupled with limited public access to prisons all but ensures members of the public remain unaware of the extent of the isolation, deprivation, and disconnection that characterizes incarceration. It is against this backdrop that many facilitators commence prison music work. As facilitators engage with “offenders” [prison music program participants] in such relational activities as collaborative music-making, opportunities arise for creating connections that permit both the facilitator and participant to reveal and affirm their humanity, to themselves and to each other. These moments in which “offenders” are seen as human can expand facilitator perceptions of incarceration and challenge assumptions about the (in)humanity of those who are incarcerated, thereby shaping how facilitators experience prison music work.This research draws on my unreported doctoral study in which I use an original, three-level ecological model to conduct an interpretive phenomenological analysis of how eight facilitators leading collaborative music-making programs in prisons in Canada, the United States of America, and Australia experience prison music work. At the societal (macro) level, I draw on Bonta and Andrews’ (2007) risk-needs-responsivity model of offender rehabilitation, which emphasizes standardization and prioritizes public safety over offender rehabilitation goals. At the institutional (mese) level, I consider Sykes’ (1958) seminal work on how incarceration is experienced. At the personal (micro) level, I deploy Noddings’ (2013) conceptualization of care ethics, which align with the potential of collaborative music-making to foster reciprocal relationships and which extend to public social institutions (such as prisons). Together these theories support an integrated, multi-level investigation that sheds light on how changing facilitator perceptions of the dehumanizing experience of incarceration can shape their experience of prison music work.

Many community music scholars engage in research with activities or programmes that they themselves lead. This offers the benefits of an insider perspective but introduces additional tensions of insider-/outsider-ness, particularly considering aspects of power dynamics and ethical responsibility. Having existing relationships with participants, as well as being part of the group being researched, invites the possibility of both positive and negative outcomes. Within the context of a community music ensemble, this paper will explore how I, as the researcher-practitioner, negotiated this journey alongside research participants with whom there are ongoing relationships, and what affordances and challenges emerged. Reflexivity, creative practice, and attention to relational ethics were used as ways to move with and through this entanglement, helping to navigate the research process and these dynamic relationships across time. This prompted consideration of many questions along the way. Are participants comfortable sharing honestly with a researcher who is also their facilitator? Do participants feel more comfortable and disclose interpersonal conflicts in the research process? How does a researcher make choices around data inclusion/exclusion that could affect participants? What are the implications of the researcher-practitioner holding this depth of knowledge about participants they also lead? During the back-and-forth nature of moving regularly between research and practice over the course of the study, it also became clear that this process was having an effect on my practice as facilitator of the ensemble, as well as informing the research, iteratively. Acknowledging researcher positionality and the tensions and complexities of multiple, interdependent roles, may allow us to be more attuned to the care necessary for existing and future relationships with research participants, as well as supporting rigorous, ethical and meaningful research.

I begin my story with sound (she/her) as our more-than-human kin. Wolastoqey language, stories, and songs are all beings with spirit, changing and evolving with Wolastoqiyik as both an ancient and modern people. Sound is our culture. She carries our identities, teachings, and traditions, and as our kin, she carries sovereignty. As I assert in this presentation, Wolastoqey sonic sovereignty is the braiding together of Wolastokuk (land), Wolastoqey Latuwewakon (language), and psi-te ntolonapemok (kinship). To explore Wolastoqey sonic sovereignty is to engage with Wolastokuk through kitahkomikumon ktokehkimkun (our Earth Mother’s teachings); Wolastoqey Latuwewakon through Milinaqsultuwok Wolastoqewiyik naka Mawakatomuhtuwok (how the multiplicities of our identities as Wolastoqiyik are carried and united by our language); and psi-te ntolonapemok through woli-tpiyawolutuwok (respectful and reciprocal relationships) and ancestral breath (our ancestral connection, intergenerational dialogue, and spirituality in sound). These concepts express the song of my people, one that can be heard in the words I choose to speak, as well as those I don’t.Wolastoqey sonic sovereignty, and sound more broadly, is transformational. She has the power to reshape our intercultural dialogues, collaborations, perceptions of sound, and understandings of each other as both Wolastoqiyik and non-Wolastoqiyik. In this presentation, I engage with both storywork and etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing) (Bartlett, Marshall and Marshall 2012), drawing on my nation’s oral knowledge and Indigenous scholarship (Reed 2018; Kimmerer 2024; Simpson 2025) to weave together my understanding of Wolastoqey sonic sovereignty. I explore how “Aputamkon,” one of my nation’s hand-drum and powwow drum songs, enacts Wolastoqey sonic sovereignty through all three strands of her latokonikon (braid), enacting change in the process. I invite you to join me and open your ears and heart to the transformational power of our aural kin: sound. Mawintuhtine! Let us sing together!

From Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives, this paper critically reflects on recent collaborations between Indigenous communities, musicians, arts workers, and educators to develop and produce community-centred music education resources for Australian schools. Through conversation and story (Phillips & Bunda, 2018), we examine the processes involved including navigating Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP), establishing localised protocols for broad distribution and balancing community and teacher expectations. Following a review of approaches to resource creation containing Indigenous knowledges and the increasing hunger from non-Indigenous educators to meet ambitious curriculum requirements, we discuss the necessity for Indigenous leadership and a relational and community-centred approach in resource development and implementation.

Drawing upon years of leading professional learning and sharing associated songs and resources to teachers, Yugambeh Elder and Songwoman Candace Kruger discusses her ongoing frustration in how educators and institutions regularly misinterpret permissions, while others continue to be reluctant to respectfully flow Indigenous knowledges forward. Responding to this challenge, Candace collaborated with Gamilaraay arts worker Paula Rankmore to produce the Junggara Pelican Songbook (Kruger & Rankmore, 2026). Contrasting common approaches to publication of Indigenous materials, Junggara Pelican draws upon a single song inviting educators and their students into the rich, holistic cultural knowledges held within it. In discussing its development, Candace shares the critical importance and responsibilities of enacting the philosophy underpinning it: Country Up, an Indigenous pedagogy of practice (Kruger & Vass, 2024).

Speaking from a non-Indigenous perspective, Thomas Fienberg reflects on his long-standing reluctance to involve himself in resource development relating to Indigenous knowledges. Having promoted a heuristic and relational approach to learning through Indigenous music (Fienberg, 2023), Thomas shares how conversations with Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators led to supporting the NSW Department of Education teaching and learning resource Bigger than the Song (NSW Department of Education, 2026). Through discussing the collaborative process behind its development, the risks and benefits of working with education authorities are exposed. Resisting the desire for a “teacher proof” statewide resource, Thomas discusses how relationality and deep listening were at the heart of the philosophical and pedagogical approach. Using additional tools such as a podcast series with Indigenous artists featured and a documentary of a collaborative community project in action, the resource ultimately encourages educators to build local connections, learning on and from Country through the voices of Indigenous Knowledge holders.

References

Fienberg, T. (2023). Music, literature, and community: Reflections on a framework for learning through and from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music. Research Studies in Music Education, 45(3), 444–462. https://doi.org/10.1177/1321103X231192311

Kruger, C. & Rankmore, P. (2026). Junggara Pelican Songbook. Buhlbara media.

Kruger, C. & Vass, G. (2024). Indigenous knowledges and learners. In D. Pendergast, K. Main, and N. Bahr (Eds.), Teaching Middle Years: Rethinking curriculum, pedagogy and assessment (pp. 36–49). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003458586-4

NSW Department of Education. (2026). Bigger than the Song – Music Stage 4. https://education.nsw.gov.au/teaching-and-learning/curriculum/creative-arts/creative-arts-curriculum-resources-k-12/7-10-curriculum-resources/bigger-than-the-song-music-stage-4

Phillips, L., & Bunda, T. (2018). Research through, with and as storying. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315109190

In this presentation, we provide a general overview of three community-led Huasteca music workshops for children and youth in the Huasteca region, particularly from the State of Veracruz, Mexico. We will use findings from a seven-day immersive learning experience that took place in 2022 in the Huasteca region to report on the work that these community-led initiatives are doing in three different municipalities in the north of the State of Veracruz. During the seven-day immersive learning experience, a group of music teacher candidates from the Universidad Veracruzana had the opportunity to witness and learn how Huasteca music is taught in the three community-led Huasteca music workshops and the function of music making in ritual and secular practices for Indigenous and mestizo people. Using findings from that project, we will address the importance of local Indigenous community members in connecting children and youth with cultural practices rooted in the connection to the Land—where music making, dance, and Indigenous languages are at the core of the learning process. For this presentation, we will highlight the work of the Amatlán Huasteca music workshop since one of the presenters is a Huasteco person who has a key role in the structure of this workshop. We will describe the salient components based on relationality and dialogue across Indigenous and mestizo people that have secured the continuity of music making projects in the community of Amatlán for almost 40 years. The collaborations we will describe are a perfect example of how music making can be a useful tool to foster dialogue within the community, while at the same time acknowledging the structural difference between community-led organizations’ priorities and political agendas at the federal, state, and municipal levels. Finally, we will present initial findings from an ongoing research project to revitalize Indigenous languages via Huasteca music making, where the Huasteca music workshops have a central role for revitalizing Indigenous languages.

When political, social, and cultural forces goad “us” to form our identities in opposition to “them,” the differences among groups become chasms. The extreme polarization in contemporary society codes many conflicts as deeply personal, preventing dialogue across difference because no one feels safely heard (Rothman, 2012). While conflict can be a productive force, drawing people to deeper understandings of one another, most lack the tools to create opportunities for conflict to be transformative. Feminist poet Audre Lorde says: “[t]here are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt” (1984, pg. 39). Inspired by this quote and guided by frameworks from peace and conflict studies and community music scholarship, this arts-based presentation explores how songwriting can move from personal expression to creating potential for conflict transformation.John Paul Lederach’s (2005) concept of the “moral imagination” guides creative peacebuilding with four main pillars: a) conceptualizing an inclusive web of relationships; b) holding space to be curious about nuance; c) the belief in the transformative potential of creativity; and d) the acceptance of risk in these processes (pg. 34). With these pillars, Lederach defines the moral imagination as a developed muscle necessary for conflict transformation that allows one to—from the challenges of the real world— “imagine something…capable of giving birth to that which does not yet exist” (2005, pg. ix). Imagination as a tool for social change and, in this case, peacebuilding echoes creative visions by Christopher Small. Small’s earlier work “Music for the Common Tongue” imagined a larger web of music participants through the development of the concept “musicking,” (1987, pg. 50) a term that has been embraced in Community Music research and practice through a later book of the same name (Small, 1998). Furthermore, through musicking structures, Small states that a musical act can bring desired societal structures into existence by mirroring relationship structures, demonstrating productive dialogue, and validating different identities (1987, pg. 74). The pairing of Lederach and Small’s concepts are the foundation for three songs to be shared in this presentation exploring themes of (de)humanization, environmentalism, and hope. Woven through the song performances will be reflections on the research-creation process and future considerations on applying the process to the presenter’s group song-writing work. This presentation explores music’s potential to move us towards each other and towards deeper mutual understanding through productive conflict, intentional dialogue, and curious listening.

What Remains Unspoken? is a movement-based performance created as part of the practice-based research project Embodying Testimonies: Transforming Reflective Journals from Community Music and Movement Workshops with Children into an Artistic Output using the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS). Originating from a research study embedded in her PhD project, the practitioner-researcher engaged in a process of creating a composition through embodied data analysis. The data consisted of reflective journals—referred to as Testimonies—collected during community music and movement workshops with unaccompanied refugee children at SMAN (Society for the Care of Minors and Youth) in Athens, Greece. The workshops were organised and supported by the ERC CoG Grant MUTE - Soundscapes of Trauma: Music, Sound and the Ethics of Witnessing (N.101002720, Principal Investigator: Anna Papaeti).The performance integrates movement and sound, weaving together recorded texts from the Testimonies with music created by the children during the workshops. Performed by the practitioner-researcher herself, the work draws on the expressive power of movement to transform personal reflections into a dynamic performance. The sound-based accompaniment deepens the experience, blending lived memories with creative reinterpretation.The creative process developed through the utilization of the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System (LBMS) as both a translating and creative medium. LBMS is a comprehensive movement system based on the philosophy, theory and practice of Rudolf Laban and his successor, Irmgard Bartenieff, used in both understanding as well as applying multiple aspects of human movement. The process unfolded in two stages: (1) translating words into movement and (2) developing a movement-based composition. The Testimonieswere first interpreted using the LBMS language, followed by explorations in response to the sound-based composition. Movement material was further developed around four themes—Enthusiasm, Collaboration, Pride, and Distress—depicted through Constellation Motifs—graphic representations derived from the LBMS—which evoke the essence of movement. A version of the final composition was recorded and continued to evolve over time through reflective practice.Ultimately, the project aimed to present research findings through an embodied approach rather than a narrative-based one, exploring the tension between what is expressed through words and what remains unsaid. The performance invites the audience to engage actively, translating what they see, hear, and feel into personal meanings. Through the interplay of movement and sound, the piece becomes a living archive, continuously reshaped by both performer and audience, asking: What stories are revealed through the body? What truths linger beyond words?

Through creative nonfiction and image, this presentation explores the relationship of community music and democracy building by intertwining two stories of women walking to their music schools. One woman walked through a poor neighborhood in 1917, considering the possibility of creating a new music school that would serve the children of the neighborhood. The other woman, the author, walked down an urban street in 2004 towards her job at a community music school that also served a low-income neighborhood. Both schools were part of the settlement music school movement in North America, which gave free or low-cost lessons to children in Western Art Music with the rationale that music could be a tool to fill social needs of neighborhoods experiencing poverty and cultural pluralism. Contrasting current literature that posits community music began in England in the 1960s as a part of the cultural democracy movement (Higgins 2012), the settlement movement of the early 1900s in North America created community music as a field of practice that had, and still has, complicated relationships to colonial structures while also advocating for equitable access to music education from poor and immigrant communities. Drawing from a research project that is a critical history of the emergence of community music in North America, this presentation focuses less on methods and more on stories and reflexive practice to create an arts-based presentation that intertwines one largely unknown history of the emergence of community music with contemporary questions of colonization and power in music facilitation that implicate the author in the analysis. The presentation asks what is lost and gained in using music as a tool towards the civic cultivation of disadvantaged groups of people, particularly when music making takes place on colonized lands. In juxtaposing history with contemporary practice, this research aims to create what Gordon Cox (2006) terms a ‘useable past,’ positioning historical research as a form of personal accountability in community music, and offering an unknown history of community music that complicates the field’s relationship to social justice.

In January 2024, at the Isabel Theatre in Toronto, Community Music Schools of Toronto launched its 25th anniversary year with a production of The Great Pause. This piece of original music, sprung from the creative mind of soprano Zorana Sadiq, demonstrates what a genuine community collaboration can produce. Zorana Sadiq took interviews with families, students, local leaders, from both Regent Park and Jane Finch communities in Toronto, took those interviews, transcribed them, and sculpted them into a book of lyrics that composer Suzy Wilde would then shape into 12 bespoke songs that left the audience in tears after its premiere performance. The Great Pause is a real life reflection on the pandemic of 2020, while also revealing the layered injustices going on in our communities. It’s heavy material that over 85 students from both our Regent Park School of Music and Jane Finch music school interpreted with determination and the grit that each of these communities embodies. Dr. Richard Marsella will share video clips from the premiere performance, and unpack the process in creating this special original piece of verbatim music, alongside the communities that we work and play in, in Toronto, Canada. We hope to share knowledge in inspiring similar projects to develop in future, as this sort of collaboration is so meaningful in processing trauma and understanding ourselves.

As artificial intelligence tools become increasingly accessible, community music practitioners face urgent questions about power and participation: Who controls these technologies? Who benefits? And how might we engage them in ways that strengthen rather than erode the relational foundations of community music practice? This presentation explores AI not as an inevitable force but as contested terrain—a site of conflict between corporate and community interests, between centralized and participatory governance, and within the community music field itself about who shapes its technological future.Drawing on Lee Higgins' concept of community music as "acts of hospitality" and the Luddite movement's historical resistance to corporate control of technology (Merchant, 2023), this presentation argues that engagement—not avoidance—is necessary for community music's survival. As Benjamin (2019) warns, AI can function as a "New Jim Code" that hides and accelerates oppression. Yet as Freire's concept of conscientization suggests, critical dialogue with technology can make power relations visible and inform collective action. The question is not whether to use AI, but how to use it in ways that serve participatory values rather than market imperatives (Crawford, 2021).This presentation proposes "relational music-making" (Higgins, 2007) as framework for navigating AI adoption. Rather than treating technology as neutral tool or inevitable threat, it examines how AI enables participation that existing structures exclude—for instance, supporting practitioners in articulating their knowledge through academic discourse, or enabling dialogue about how algorithmic bias reflects and reinforces existing power structures. Drawing on disability justice frameworks (Piepzna-Samarasinha, 2018), the approach centers collective access and interdependence rather than positioning AI as compensating for individual deficits. Examples include using generative tools to provoke dialogue about cultural representation, authorship, and the labor that makes AI possible.At an organizational level, the presentation considers CMA's role in modeling participatory technology governance—creating spaces where practitioners, not just academics or tech companies, shape how AI is adopted. In an era of changing political environments, community musicians and researchers cannot afford to cede technological development to corporate interests. Drawing on models of decentralized governance, the presentation explores how practitioner-led approaches might offer alternatives to centralized control. The session concludes that AI's significance for community music lies not in automation or efficiency, but in the relational questions it forces: How do we build collective capacity? Who has voice in shaping our field's future? And how might we use these technologies to strengthen rather than erode the democratic, participatory values at community music's core?

Community Music has emerged as a growing approach to music making in Canada. While the goals and intentions behind community music have been clearly differentiated from traditional music education in the literature, the specific approaches taken by teaching artists and facilitators have received less attention. A research team has connected three large Canadian Community Music programs: namely, Community Music Schools of Toronto, Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Western Canada, and the Lotus Centre for Special Music Education in Eastern Ontario. The team’s four-phase project looks at these programs’ structures, pedagogical approaches, and areas of impact on participants, eventually leading to a framework for other community musicians looking to create more inclusive communities of musical learning. In the first phase, the researchers identified themes emerging in the program models, organizational structures, program offerings and employment practices of the three schools. In the second phase which will be presented, the research team visited each site to allow observation of over 120 hours of programming. Focus groups were conducted with teaching artists at each site, allowing the research team to hear from over 50 experienced community music practitioners. Emerging themes from both the observational data and teaching artist focus groups will be presented, providing a clearer understanding how community music facilitators see their work and impact, and the strategies they use in practice to achieve their goals.

Community music research has increasingly recognised the importance of participation and inclusion, but much less is understood about the educational processes that make these ideals possible and sustain people’s involvement over time. This paper reviews current literature on facilitation and learning in community music to examine how education shapes participation in practice. While existing studies describe community music as a space of shared learning and collaboration, there remains limited discussion of the specific strategies facilitators use to keep participants engaged. The review considers how teaching and facilitation approaches influence experiences of learning and belonging, and how these are shaped by contextual factors such as place, purpose, and inclusivity. By mapping what is currently known about teaching and facilitation in community music, this paper highlights a gap in understanding the pedagogical strategies that help groups remain active and meaningful for their members. It invites reflection on how facilitation might evolve to remain responsive to the diversity of community music today, how community music leaders can design music-making that fosters sustained engagement, and how music educators might prepare future facilitators for this work. The ideas proposed in this paper aim to open dialogue on how community music can continue to adapt and thrive through inclusive, context-sensitive facilitation practices.

Urban landscapes often expose stark contrasts between wealth and poverty, shaped by deep economic and social inequalities. In cities like Natal, Brazil, drug cartels exploit children and adolescents, while public policies frequently fail to produce meaningful change. Amid this reality, an important initiative has emerged: the creation of children’s and youth orchestras in low-income neighborhoods. These ensembles provide musical education to young people from marginalized communities, seeking to reshape their perspectives, behaviors, and future possibilities. Their broader goal is to guide youth away from hopelessness and risky behavior, reducing exposure to poverty, violence, and crime. This paper draws on data from my doctoral research and introduces new perspectives to explore the idea of Cultural Salvation (CS). It identifies the main features of CS through a review of literature in Music Education and the Social Sciences. Between January 2022 and July 2023, I conducted ethnographic fieldwork at the Ilha de Música Social Project, located in the África Community in Natal, Brazil. Recognizing CS as a form of power is essential for music educators, as it encourages a critical and inclusive approach to teaching music among children and adolescents living in contexts of community music and social inequality. CS is not a conclusion or a fixed classification. Conceived as a Weberian Ideal Type, it should not categorize diverse music teaching practices in contexts marked by vulnerability and colonization. Instead, it serves as a comparative and interpretive tool—one that enables reflection and action toward cultural and educational transformation. As music educators, we must recognize that CS is not merely a historical phenomenon rooted in colonized nations. It endures as a form of power within contemporary musical practices, urging us to engage critically with both the concept itself and the historical experiences of our students. The paper concludes by proposing questions that invite a rethinking of musical practices within social projects, aiming to challenge and dismantle the structural bases of inequality underlying CS. Transforming practices that reproduce exclusion is not an easy task, as entrenched social structures resist change. Yet, I remain convinced of the potential for transformation. The present and future of music education are collective endeavors. Cultural Salvation, more than a theoretical concept, should be understood as a call to action.

The teaching model in the conservatory-style music studio has traditionally favoured a 1:1 master-apprentice binary. In recent years the predominance of this model has come under increasing scrutiny, as notions of pedagogical hierarchies and concerns about boundary breaches (potential for emotional, psychological and even sexual abuse) in 1:1 teaching settings are questioned. Using principles of community music as a framework to invigorate and re-imagine music teaching—in our case, in the voice studio—has been an ongoing, iterative practice that has proven itself to be effective over a period of more than a decade. Implementing such principles as group teaching, partner (peer) practice and support, flattened teacher-student hierarchies, increased student agency over repertoire selection and technical focus, and a robust system of goal-setting and self-assessment with meaningful instructor feedback have been part of an inter-relational, reflexive teaching model that has had transformative effects on both students and instructors. Our research on the efficacy of this teaching model has included both a phenomenological research study of two students who experienced this teaching model in their undergraduate years, and an in-depth case study of both a student and instructor (now co-researchers) who worked together for 4 years under this model. The data indicates many intersecting positive outcomes for students and teachers alike, including increased agency and autonomy, strong feelings of community and belonging, ownership and increasing mastery of one’s technical and musical development. The evidence seems to show that the expansion of the traditional 1:1 model to include these inter-relational and reflexive elements results in successful outcomes and rewarding growth for teachers and students alike. How might we transform the way we teach music to include this community-based model? The research contributes to community music not only in challenging traditional private lesson models of musician education but also in exploring how community music principles can transform the learning experiences of music students towards working in a variety of community and performance contexts, while contributing to healthier, person-centered learning in music education.

In many communities, there are limited accessible opportunities for adults to engage in group singing without long-term commitment, financial barriers, or prior experience. This research explores how breaking down social barriers may impact accessibility, participation, and the musical and social experiences of participants within a low-commitment, drop-in choir framework. In the last two years, over 15% of adults aged 25–34 in Canada reported feeling lonely almost all the time (Statistics Canada, 2025), and 68% of young adults identified as not feeling a sense of belonging or community (YMCA Canada & YMCA of Greater Toronto, 2024). This study takes place during a time when many individuals experience loneliness and disconnection. It examines how group singing may foster social connection while critically considering traditional choir structures and social barriers that may affect accessibility and participation. The study collects interview data from a grassroots drop-in choir designed to reduce barriers such as inaccessible locations, seasonal costs, time commitments, performance focused expectations, and the need for prior musical experience. It explores participants’ musical and social experiences, the potential benefits and challenges of the choir model, and the role flexible participation structures may play in fostering connection and mitigating loneliness. This qualitative study draws from Community Music scholarship and Social Baseline Theory, which suggests that humans rely on social relationships to navigate the world. The research findings explore how reducing social barriers through non-commitment choir models supports positive musical and social experiences for adults.

Intergenerational programs can be an empowering and transformative tool to promote self-expression, positive health and well-being later in life (Creech, 2018). Older adults participating in intergenerational programs experience an increase in self-esteem, express a sense of contribution to their community’s future, and the ability to bring joy to others (Cortellesi et al., 2018). Initiatives like the EU-funded Together Old and Young (TOY) Project, held in seven European countries between 2012 and 2014, show promising benefits for both old and young (Cortellesi et al., 2018). Scholars have also examined how music can act as a catalyst for communication across generations and foster social change, even in small ways (Smilde, 2018). However, the student perspective, particularly youth age six to sixteen, remains under explored. What is the lived experience of students, age six to sixteen, participating in intergenerational music-making? This research investigates the experiences of students involved in community music programs held in retirement homes, with the aim of understanding how intergenerational relationships impact students. Specifically, the study explores the potential benefits of these relationships and music-making experiences from the student’s point of view. The research uses a mixed-methods approach, analysing student narratives through semi-structured interviews, surveys and reflective journals, looking for the connection between the arts and well-being for students. The paper explores key themes, including: the musical skills students develop, their insights into music’s social power, and how they perceive their role in fostering intergenerational community through music. The paper also focuses on students’ self-awareness regarding increased self-esteem, reduced performance anxiety, and a strengthened sense of purpose or identity as musicians through interactions with older adults. These insights offer valuable guidance for music educators and community leaders seeking to understand how student perspectives can inform broader approaches to intergenerational engagement, community music, and the intersections of art and health.

This study explores how intersectional, affirming environments influence both emotional and musical experiences for musicians who have been historically excluded from jazz. Contemporary jazz culture often reflects a competitive, intellectualized environment that prioritizes whiteness and masculinity, defined by Nichole Rustin-Paschal as “jazzmasculinity” (Rustin-Paschal, 2017). While an emphasis on competition and technical skill can indeed be strong motivation for musical growth, these values are most often reinforced by predominantly white and male institutions, creating barriers to entry for marginalized musicians, particularly those with a lived experience of femininity (DiPiero, 2023).This paper draws from an arts-based participatory research project exploring an identity-affirming collaborative space for women-aligned jazz musicians of all skill levels, from beginner to professional. The project consists of three collaborative music-making workshops which incorporate dialogue, improvisational music-making, and reflection, observed through arts-based research and autoethnography. This project is grounded in community music principles through an intersectional feminist lens, intentionally flattening hierarchy to create an inclusive and emotionally safe container for musical expression and collective creativity. This paper will discuss insights from these workshops, including how workshop structures and processes affect the participants’ musical and emotional experiences. Ultimately, this work seeks to highlight how inclusive collaborative spaces can challenge dominant norms around hierarchy, creativity, and collaboration in the jazz tradition.

The under representation of Indigenous African and Afrodiasporic musical traditions in music education and community music has been widely documented by scholars (Bradley, 2016; Brown, 2020; Ermolaeva, 2019; Ewell, 2020; Hamilton, 2021; Hess, 2017; Holder, 2024; Lewis, 2023; Morrison, 2019; McKoy & Lind, 2022; Tsui et al., 2023; Walker, 2020; Yi, 2021). They advocate for culturally affirming approaches that support the identity, well-being, and cohesion of African-descended communities in diasporic contexts. While much attention has been given to the need for cultural and historical significance of Indigenous African and Afrodiasporic musical traditions, less focus has been placed on explaining embodied pedagogies inherent in these practices. This presentation explores how movement, rhythm, and physical engagement—core elements of African and Afrodiasporic music-making—serve as powerful pedagogical tools that foster holistic learning, cultural memory, and community cohesion. Drawing on community engaged fieldwork conducted at summer camps for elementary-aged children of African descent in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, I will present three strategies that I employed to integrate Indigenous African and Afrodiasporic music-making practices. My approach is aligned with current thoughts on decolonizing music pedagogies and social justice practices in community music (Attas & Walker, 2019; Brian-Smith, 2025; Philpott, 2022; Rakena et. al, 2024; Robinson, 2019; Sánchez-Gatt et. al, 2025) as well as longstanding traditions of indigenous African and Afrodiasporic music pedagogies recommended by N’Ketia (1976) and others (Cogdell DjeDje, 2024; Cyrus, 2023, 2013; Eddison, 2024; Fomunyam, 2022; Izu, 2024; Kuwor, 2017; Okafor, 2005; Onwuekwe, 2006, 2011; Pope, 2023; Rakena et al. 2024). I will also discuss the potential of these music practices to promote identity affirmation, healing, and community-building for children and families of African descent in the diaspora.

A Muslim youth group recites zikr in choral harmony. For one student, something she had not felt before arose in the singing. For the first time, she felt she was truly reciting the zikr. This paper takes devotional traditions of Khoja Ismailis living in Canada as a case through which to explore what a living ecology of cultural retranslation might look like in diaspora. As musical and devotional traditions travel across the diaspora, their capacity to ignite the devotional spark—the curiosity and imagination from which living faith and creative belonging grow—begins to fade. For youth navigating integration, linguistic distance, and dominant cultural pressures that reproduce hegemony and homogeny, ancestral sonic traditions grow increasingly remote. The passing of knowledge bearers deepens this gap; dogmatic transmission and unattuned listening compound it, generating resistance rather than reception. This paper reflects on my choral practice where singing traditional devotional music in multi-layered harmony offered a spark for cultural retranslation awakened in a web of living ecologies of retranslation in, beyond, and through community. Drawing on Corbin's warning that traditions risk becoming funeral corteges, His Late Highness the Aga Khan IV’s call to retranslate faith afresh, and Aziz Esmail's poetics of religious experience, alongside community music frameworks of hospitality, this paper looks at how a retranslation ecology across thresholds of community, context, and tradition can generate cultural meaning not only as one-way transmissions but continually remade relational processes. I close this paper with broader questions about institutional responsibility, the role of individuals as sonic ambassadors in a globalized world, and what cultural retranslation might look like for diaspora communities. Tradition's Latin root, tradere, means to give, calling on us not only to preserve and pass down cultural artefacts, but also to create living ecologies retranslation for the love that gave rise to them.

We present the intercultural learning project of traditional folk and popular music at the Ethno Bahia international residency (part of the Ethno World movement) as a tool for understanding the potential dialogues of musical practice within the broad scope of the Ethno World residency program, where sounds, instruments, movements, rhythms, and, above all, young people from so many different cultures come together for eight to ten days. This approach is grounded in the concept of decolonial music education and ethnomusicology, with an emphasis on diasporic Afro-Latin music, within the international debate on community music practice and education. The research combines long-term practical field research with theoretical frameworks, studies, and debates, aiming to ground theories of the postcolonial and intercultural world, and traditional and community music pedagogy.

This presentation reports on a multi-site doctoral study that examined the intersection between music and place through the work of small, volunteer-run community groups across rural and remote Queensland, Australia. These groups, often operating with minimal or no budgets, played a vital role in sustaining musical life in their towns, creating opportunities for performance, education, and connection despite limited resources. Fieldwork was conducted in five communities across south, west, and far north Queensland: Charleville, Townsville, Mount Isa, Airlie Beach, and the Atherton Tablelands. Each represented a unique constellation of geography, economy, and cultural life, yet all relied on dedicated local networks that made music possible.A place-based ethnographic approach combined semi-structured interviews, sketch-map sessions, and participant observation across community halls, festivals, schools, and informal social settings. The study captured the perspectives of organisers, educators, and residents whose volunteer labour maintained local music-making under shifting policy, demographic, and economic conditions. These community groups often operated as the primary facilitators of musical life for amateur and non-professional musicians, providing spaces where people could participate, learn, and connect through music.Preliminary analysis indicates that rural musical ecosystems were defined by both creativity and constraint. Distance, depopulation, and funding scarcity shaped local opportunities, while private venues such as pubs and bars often expressed disinterest or financial hesitation toward hosting live music, despite recognising its community value. Community groups faced challenges associated with small populations, including the transient nature of fly-in fly-out work, ageing membership, and the scarcity of qualified music teachers. These conditions made sustaining ensembles and events difficult, yet they also encouraged inventive, place-based responses. Volunteers described adapting programs to changing capacities, collaborating across towns, and repurposing local spaces to keep music happening. Many articulated a deep personal responsibility to maintain their groups for future generations, balancing pride in their achievements with concern about continuity and fatigue. This study demonstrates that these small volunteer networks are central to the endurance of cultural and social life in rural Queensland.Recognising the value of these organisations is essential for developing equitable and context-sensitive cultural policy. By foregrounding how community groups make music happen, the study highlights the resilience and creativity embedded in rural Queensland and reconsiders how culture, geography, and policy shape the futures of rural life.

This arts-based presentation explores the vital role of community musicians in shaping inclusive musical spaces across Southern Ontario. We celebrate six experienced and older musicians whose work sustains successful living practices that are rooted in community music making. Sites for intergenerational community music spaces include long-running summer festivals, coffee houses, and community centers in Canadian contexts. These case studies explore ways in which regional diversity, historic difference, and cultural mosaic influence community engagement.Despite varied musical genres and contexts, common themes emerge: the intentional leadership of experienced musicians as community catalysts, diverse pathways of involvement and musical training, and the persistence of core values such as accessibility, grassroots initiative and collaboration, and intergenerational connection. Their stories, conveyed through music, imagery, and narrative, offer insights into ways in which these musicians navigate the complexities of fostering musical access amid difference and dialogue. Likewise, in a society that increasingly pushes towards atomization, social isolation, and the dissolution of cultural ecosystems, these case studies illustrate the power of community music in fostering relationships, social cohesion, and the reciprocal inhabitation of place. Moving beyond notions of consensus, the presentation emphasizes the dynamic and relational nature of community-building through music, highlighting the ongoing negotiations of identity, belonging, and intercultural exchange.

This presentation opens up a discussion about how community musicians can imagine, reflect upon and narrate the dynamic relationship between the dimensions of impact in their work. Building on a framework for social impact Bartleet published in the International Journal of Community Music (2023), this presentation will consider how the personal, relational, community, structural and spiritual dimensions of community music do not exist in separate linear silos but rather in deeply relational and interdependent ways. To do this we will share an analytic device we used in the Creative Change Project, a four-year Australian project that explored the role community music practice can play in creating greater social equity. We hope the insights shared in this presentation will inspire further critical thought and reflection from other community music practitioners and scholars seeking to understand and articulate the impact of their work in more nuanced ways.

Now in its third season, Sounds Like Us is an inclusive and cocreative practice of sound experience for young adults with developmental disabilities. Conceived in 2023 in partnership with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) and Community Living Guelph Wellington’s Campus Friends (CF), this program serves 12-15 university-aged students over a ten-week semester. Over the course of twelve weeks, we facilitated ninety-minute Sound Session Workshops (SSWs) which included a range of activities involving sound exploration, musical play, Sonic Score Visualizations (SSVs), movement and dance, and a final showcase featuring original improvisations and compositions created by all students for families, friends, and community members. Using everyday hand-held technologies along with acoustic, digital, and adaptive sound and music making instruments such as the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI), KOALA, and Ableton (bell, 2020; Greher & Burton, 2021; Kaschub & Smith, 2021; Ciufo et al. 2024; Tobias, 2016), participants sampled, recorded, produced, and performed pieces around the themes of personal feelings and emotions, ecology and sustainability, friendship, and love. Drawing from the fields of Critical Studies in Improvisation (Fischlin & Lomanno, 2025; Author B, 2000; Author B & Stewart, 2023; Siddall & Waterman, 2016), Sound Studies (Cobussen, 2022; Järviluoma & Wagstaff, 2002; Waterman, 2002), and Music Education (Abramo, 2014; Author, 2023, 2024, 2025; Hill, 2018; Recharte, 2019; Rinsema, 2017; Rinsema & Author A, 2021; Thibeault, 2017), this study investigates how and in what ways collaborative listening, improvising, and performing impacts the lives of students, mentors, and families participating in the Sounds Like Us program. Situating this work within the wider lens of “sonic lifeworlds” and “creative critical consciousness” (Author A, 2023) and "Moments of meeting: 'Intersubjective encounters' and ‘emancipatory’ experiences of individuals with (intellectual) disabilities in inclusive musical contexts" (Blumer, 2023), our project highlights ways educators, caregivers, and community arts practitioners may carve spaces that foster care, compassion, and joy. In this presentation, we share participants’ reflections and stories, project design prompts, facilitation, implementation and pedagogical strategies, institutional challenges, and themes and findings discovered in the first two years of Sounds Like Us. We also share how and in what ways the direct involvement of our partner contributed to our research design, evaluation, and dissemination, thus highlighting the significant role of community arts participation and its impact on sustaining spaces for social connectivity and equitable participation in society. We are realizing through this project the ways improvisation builds resiliency, helps develop key skills, promotes self-expression, and leads to greater feelings of belonging for participants.

University music programs may not only be a site for musical education, but a setting rooted in potential trauma (Altun & Özdemir, 2018). In the researcher’s province, a prominent university’s music faculty was accused of over 50 counts of sexual assault, alongside harassment, racism, and bullying claims in 2021 (King). Another 2025 provincial arts education survey indicated that the majority of music students surveyed self-identified as trauma survivors (Kind, 2025). There exists a gap in the literature surrounding these impacts, perhaps largely due to perceived and potential consequences for music students who speak out. This study would expand upon earlier research by adding a voice-specific lens and focusing on wellness in a studio context, rather than focusing on the traumas themselves. My research addressed the questions: how can undergraduate voice studios become more trauma-informed, with pedagogical models rooted in care, community, and healing? Which aspects of embodiment or community music practices may promote well-being when integrated into an undergraduate voice course?Two studies were conducted surrounding trauma-informed, community-oriented, and embodiment-based vocal pedagogy. The first involved two undergraduate voice students using semi-structured qualitative interviews and document analysis. The students participated in non-hierarchal learning including partner practice, group lessons, and self-reflective practice. Data was inductively coded and analyzed to produce themes surrounding community and care in the learning space. The second study analyzed impacts of embodiment practices with six singers and trauma survivors. They participated in group singing, art-making, and individual interviews both before and after receiving a trauma-informed Alexander Technique (AT) embodiment intervention, and a focus group immediately following. Data was inductively coded to reveal themes of trauma-informed pedagogy, group singing as connection, and embodiment as musical and personal integration. Both studies revealed that singing in community often stimulates feelings of support, care, and safety. However, they lacked a clear understanding of trauma’s impact on vocal music education and an honest reflection across the undergraduate experience. This led to a third study proposal: an autoethnographic, document analysis-based case study of the researcher’s four years of weekly practice logs while participating in community-centred practice principles in an undergraduate voice studio from 2017 to 2021. This research demonstrates the importance of, and possibilities for, incorporating community music principles into the undergraduate voice studio. Voice practitioners may benefit from an in-depth look at diverse studio practices meant to support a culture of community and care, rather than perpetuating harm or (re)traumatizing our singers.

Community music has evolved considerably in Germany over the last decade, especially within institutional contexts. This development has been driven by the Munich Community Music Action Research Group, founded by Alicia de Bánffy-Hall in 2013 as part of her doctoral thesis (de Bánffy-Hall 2019). In 2019, the Konzerthaus Dortmund launched the first community music department (Konzerthaus Dortmund 2025), followed by various projects within music education departments of concert halls and theatres. My research project, 'Cultural Democracy through Community Music?', explores how the tension between the original orientation of a cultural institution[1] and the ideals that characterise community music is managed in practice. The study comprises qualitative case studies and participatory action research. During the first phase of the case studies (October 2024 to May 2025), I observed community music projects in institutional settings across England. This preliminary fieldwork provided me with an opportunity to critically reflect on institutional practices in which community music is already well established. Further, I conducted 15 interviews with community musicians and education managers working in state-funded cultural institutions in Germany, and analysed areas of tension in different contexts.These findings inform the participatory action research project, which forms the second phase of my research (December 2025-July 2026). During the 2025/26 season, the Staatstheater Augsburg is delivering its initial community music theatre project with artists from the theatre in Augsburg-Oberhausen. Bringing together a team of facilitators, singers and musicians from the theatre, music students, and local participants from diverse backgrounds, the project seeks to reimagine music theatre as a co-created, dialogic practice. As both a project leader and a community music facilitator, I occupy an 'insider' position (Herr and Anderson 2005: 31). Being affiliated with the Staatstheater and having lived in Oberhausen, I collaboratively explore community music practices with artists, participants, and mentors from the local community.The aim of my research is to create transparency about the development of community music in cultural institutions in Germany and to initiate processes of institutional reflection. The participatory action research framework allows me to reflect on my own practice as a community musician, project leader, and critical friend within the institution.[1] I am referring to publicly funded cultural institutions, such as concert halls and orchestras, whose programming is primarily focused on classical music. This investigation does not include schools or universities.

This paper examines Samuel A Floyd Jr.’s idea of “individuality within the aggregate” from his discussion of the roots of collective musical invention in his seminal work “The Power of Black Music.” Working from Floyd’s concept, I argue for the importance of framing community music research through black geographies, critical community music studies, and cultural studies to aid in challenging research frameworks and community music projects that operate from deficit framing approaches within historically marginalized communities.I highlight the work of two artist-based, community music projects from the Midwestern United States that formed in the late 1960s and early 1970s to push the boundaries of experimental music: the St. Louis-based Black Artists Group (BAG), and the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). In both cases, distinct music-making practices emerged from the collective practices of the artists themselves, giving rise to community music projects that employed interventionist strategies within their local geographies. Notably, their community arts work of grew out of collective philosophies that centered experimentalism as emancipatory art practice, asserting the worth and freedom of the individual as part of collective music-making.I then draw from the writings of George E. Lewis, Katherine McKittrick, Josh Kun, Shauna Redmond, Guthrie P. Ramsey, and Bernice Johnson Reagon, to further explore key concepts of collective musical invention woven through both projects. These concepts include: multivocality; shared cultural memory; liberatory acts of space making; resistance and organization; and collaborative experimentalism. I examine these key concepts in a brief, non-exhaustive review of literature to better support researchers and facilitators who aim to acknowledge and support diverse musical modalities and their attendant epistemologies in community music spaces. In recognizing and acknowledging these differences, facilitators and scholars might strengthen interventionist strategies for community music-making that support identitarian and ideological dissonance that is often overlooked in favor of unitary representations of cultural and political identities.

In the context of global population aging, the concept of "successful aging" has prompted academia to explore effective ways to improve the physical and mental health of the elderly. However, there is extremely limited research on how the elderly population in China (especially those born in the 1945-1960s and who experienced the Cultural Revolution) can achieve their later life well-being through community music practice.This article reports an ethnographic study on the Jinan Elderly Ethnic Orchestra in China. The author uses participatory observation, informal interviews, video and discourse analysis research methods to identify the correlation between music and well-being reflected in daily rehearsals, member exchanges, and public welfare performances. Intended to explore how community music participation affects the well-being of the elderly population in China.Research has found that its correlation is mainly reflected in three aspects: (1) gaining a sense of cultural belonging. The process of rehearsing and performing Chinese folk songs and revolutionary songs has continuously awakened and strengthened their collective cultural memory, finding profound spiritual comfort and intergenerational resonance in familiar melodies; (2) Promote community connections. The band has created an equal "acoustic home" for a diverse group of people who cross their original professions (retired workers, veterans, teachers, doctors, farmers, geologists, engineers, etc.). They came together with a shared interest in music and health, support and encourage each other in long-term music activities, and enhance their sense of happiness, identity recognition, and collective belonging; (3) Social role transformation. The members have transformed from "retirees" to active "cultural volunteers", and have gained a profound sense of value and self-identity by participating in more than 20 government supported public welfare performances every year. Research suggests that the bottom-up linkage mechanism of "cultural belonging, community connection, and role transformation" has given multiple meanings to the community participation actions of the Chinese elderly music group. It not only opens up a new path for obtaining healthy physical and mental experiences through music participation (以乐养生), but also provides a Chinese case for understanding the potential of community music activities in promoting positive aging and improving the effectiveness of public cultural services.

In the midst of social, cultural, and educational tensions, orchestral music education concerts continue to offer a unique space for relational engagement—where listening and audience becomes a shared act of meaning and music-making. As performing arts organisations increasingly rely on pedagogical and outreach-focused concerts to build sustainable audiences, understanding how these events are experienced by diverse listeners is critical. However, despite widespread practice, little is known about how audiences—families—perceive and engage with the educational intentions embedded in concert design. This gap is especially pronounced in regional and community contexts, where relationality is often central to both artistic and educational aims.This presentation shares findings from a qualitative study conducted in a regional Australian town, where a volunteer community orchestra has, for over a decade, curated interactive learning concerts for children and families. Designed by teaching artists with expertise in music education and audience research, these concerts are delivered in partnership with local government, childcare centres, and a professional performance venue as part of an annual school holiday arts festival. The study foregrounds audience perspectives—child and adult alike—to explore how pedagogical intentions translate into lived musical experiences, and how relationality is fostered through inclusive, responsive concert design.

Abstract:Music has long been recognized as a powerful means of cultural expression and exchange. In diverse multicultural contexts, children’s choirs provide unique opportunities to foster empathy, preserve heritage, and promote intercultural understanding.Background:Scholarship on music education and intercultural learning demonstrates that singing together enhances social cohesion and offers children a platform to serve as cultural ambassadors (Joseph & Southcott, 2015). Research on cultural diplomacy underscores the potential of artistic practices to bridge divides, preserve minority traditions, and cultivate global citizenship (Nye, 2008; Schippers, 2010).Aim:This paper examines how children’s singing projects operate as forms of cultural diplomacy, focusing on storytelling, heritage preservation, and community engagement. It highlights children not only as learners of music, but as ambassadors who represent and connect diverse communities.Method/Framework:Drawing from case studies of children’s choir participation in multicultural festivals, international community events, and intercultural collaborations, this paper explores how music education fosters both individual identity and intercultural dialogue. Events such as International Children’s Day, cultural garden celebrations, and global community festivals serve as illustrative contexts.Summary of Main Ideas:Song functions simultaneously as personal expression, communal heritage, and intercultural bridge. Through rehearsals and performances, children learn musical and linguistic traditions, embody narratives of belonging, and share them across cultural boundaries. Storytelling through song is emphasized as a pedagogical strategy that enables young singers to both preserve their heritage and engage others in meaningful dialogue.Conclusion/Implications:By conceptualizing children as cultural ambassadors, this paper argues that music education extends beyond the classroom to become a tool of cultural diplomacy. Such practices foster inclusiveness, strengthen intercultural ties, and prepare children to challenge prejudice through shared creative expression. In alignment with ISME 2026’s overarching theme Unity in Music Education: Building Bridges for All, the paper demonstrates how choral practice, and intercultural performance can contribute to building bridges in increasingly diverse societies.

Small, handheld instruments like shakers, claves, or sound tubes are widely spread in community music practices due to their accessibility and ease of use. They are generally affordable, available in many places, and well-suited to group performance - making them ideal for inclusive and open-access musicking with diverse participants.This presentation takes a closer look at the nature of those small instruments, their characteristics, design, and affordances they bring for musical co-creation and interactive play. After a brief historical overview, we turn towards current developments in the space, and present some recent work in the field of new interfaces for musical expression, such as interactive soundballs and other sensor-enhanced devices. Our own work also includes 3D-printed woodblocks that were designed to facilitate music rehabilitation for elderly individuals and were recently used in a pilot study. Finally, we suggest some design principles for creating new small instruments with a focus on the interactive affordances for community music scenarios, and the presentation concludes with proposing various novel methods for working with small handheld instruments in those situations. Conclusively, we aim to motivate community music practitioners to have a closer look at the instrumental affordance level of those instruments and how to facilitate engaging co-creative scenarios appreciating those little things that can make all the difference.