This international forum aims to propose a transnational overview of the current state of research on music mediation and to share the various outlooks on these practices. In addition to its theoretical impact that aims to systematize the observations, this forum will offer multiple opportunities for meetings between practitioners and for networking between practice and research communities. This will be as much about highlighting the professional knowledge of actors in the chain of mediation professions as about giving visibility to the most recent research findings in the field.

Argument

Many music outreach initiatives are emerging in community, penal, health, social work, and education circles. Additionally, arts and culture institutions are, on one hand, taking note of issues of physical and symbolic accessibility and, on the other hand, emphasizing the benefits of music practices in terms of social justice, inclusion, social responsibility, etc. (Beauchemin, Maignien, and Duguay 2020). In the Francophone world and some Spanish-speaking countries, what is known as music “mediation” (FR: “médiation”; SP: “médiación”) tends to bring together activities that range from public or “applied” musicology to musical activities in the community, including arts and culture education (Kirchberg 2020). The plurality of terms used in German (Musik vermittlung, Kulturelle Bildung, Musikpädagogik) or in English (music outreach, music engagement, civic practices, public musicology, music in social work, music education) to translate the French expression “médiation de la musique” is a constant reminder of the multitude of issues at stake with these music and social practices at the crossroads of democratization and cultural democracy.

Far from the unifying goals these practices strive for, the plurality of designations around which research groups and professional networks (ITAC, RESEO, SIMM, EPMM, FNAMI, Artist as changemaker) congregate may result in fostering silo-thinking that immobilizes practice and research. The dispersion of these forces accentuates the fault lines that on-the-ground practice is working to move beyond (teaching artists vs mediators, researchers vs practitioners, education vs social action, popularization vs participation). Pondering issues of popularization, awareness, experimentation, transmission, accessibility, social inclusion, wellness, health, equity, empowerment and/or cultural rights that are at the heart of these music practices calls for a pooling of practice and theory resources. The goal of this international conference is to take a comprehensive look at music mediation in its plurality, from conception phases to implementation to evaluation.

This international forum aims to propose a transnational overview of the current state of research on music mediation and to share the various outlooks on these practices.

In addition to its theoretical impact that aims to systematize the observations, this forum will offer multiple opportunities for meetings between practitioners and for networking between practice and research communities. This will be as much about highlighting the professional knowledge of actors in the chain of mediation professions (Pébrier, Courant, 2019; Bretel, and Mercier 2018) as about giving visibility to the most recent research findings in the field (Kirchberg 2021).

Registration

Registration is now open to the general public until September 15, 2022.

Programme

The event is taking place at three different locations, but the main one is University of Montreal's Music Faculty

Tuesday October 11th: Opening

Music Faculty

Claude-Champagne Hall – Foyer

• 1 pm  Welcome and registrations
• 1:30 pm Opening word
• 2 pm Plenary conference by Marie-Christine Bordeaux: Defining cultural mediation: issues of practice, issues of conceptualization

3 pm BREAK

3:15 pm Communications session. Historical conditions in the emergence of music mediation

(Moderator to be confirmed)

• Communication 1. Michel Duchesneau, “The social value of music in France at the turn of the 20th century: the challenge of a mediating musicology”
• Communication 2. Lucie Kayas, “Analyzing and understanding Leonard Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts from the sources”
• Communication 3. Axel Petri-Preis, “The Big Bang of Musikvermittlung (Music Mediation). On the Emergence of a New Social World and Its Future Innovative Potential”

4:45 pm BREAK

Serge-Garant Hall (B-484)

• 5 pm Workshop 1. Adama Daou, “The balafon, an instrument for better listening”

Claude-Champagne Hall – Foyer

6 pm Poster presentation and diner cocktail

• Poster 1. Philippe Poisson & Cécile Richard, “Mediation through practice and creation in the DUMI training course (university diploma of performing musician)”
• Poster 2. Paola Deteix, “Public, applied, shared musicology… New names for musical research with a social impact? »
• Poster 3. Marie Eliane Dubois, “Orchestral Learning Devices in the Montreal Region. Myths, facts, strengths, and weaknesses »
• Affiche 4. Lucie Kayas & Sylvie Pébrier, “The challenges of mediation at the CNSMDP” [with Sabine Alexandre, Benjamin Aponte & Valérie Guéroult]
• Poster 5. Émilie Lesage “From social commitment to the promotion of music: discourse of Quebec classical music institutions during the pandemic”
• Poster 6. Jordan Meunier, “The first steps of cultural animation in Montreal and the electro music of Jean Sauvageau: When the counter-cultural egregore mutates into a playful device for social integration”

Wednesday October 12th: Formation

Music Faculty

Serge-Garant Hall (B-484)

8:30 am  Welcome

9 am Plenary conference by William Robin, “Timely Interventions and Public Scholarship in Music Studies”.

10 am BREAK

10:15 am  Workshops and practice community

B-325 Local

• Workshop 2. Marc-Antoine Boutin, “Cache-Noisette: A musical escape game”.

In front of Claude Champagne Hall

• Workshop 3. Camille Villanove, “Musical Forest bathing: for rejuvenating listening”.

B-420 Local

• Practice community 1. Dinah Trotoux & Louison Barbaud-Haas, “Collaborative play – The art of mediating music”.

Serge-Garant Hall (B-484)

11:30 am  Communications session 

Thinking about the posture of music mediators (moderators to be confirmed)

• Communication 4. Irena Müller-Brozovic, “Resonanzaffine Musikvermittlung as an interactive art of relationship. A theoretical framework identifying influencing aspects and systematizing different approaches of Musikvermittlung”.
• Communication 5. Théophile Bonjour, “Musicologists in a situation of mediation: comings and goings”.

Claude-Champagne Hall – Foyer

12:30 pm LUNCH

Serge-Garant Hall (B-484)

2 pm  Communications session

Music mediation training and professional practice (moderators to be confirmed)

• Communication 6. Florence Mouchet & Stéphane Escoubet, “Opera and the student public: how to foster encounters?".
• Communication 7. Bérangère Dujardin “University in France and High School of Music in Switzerland: places to train mediators”
• Communication 8. Sylvie Pébrier “Scientific neutrality and artistic excellence, two axioms at the risk of mediation?”

B-420 Local

3:30 pm  BREAK

Serge-Garant Hall (B-484)

3:45 pm  Round table Training and profession. Moderation: Cécile Prévost-Thomas

• Vania Cauzillo RESEO
• Philippe Poisson & Cécile Richard CFMI de Lille

B-325 Local

Master class 1. William Robin, “Music Scholarship and the ThinkPiece”.

Master class for students only

One of the primary vehicles for productive discourse in the twenty-first century online ecosystem is the “thinkpiece”: a timely reflection that mixes analysis and opinion. Scholars in many disciplines have deployed this genre in order to advocate for their expertise in non-academic publications such as the New Yorker, Slate, and Vox. So, too, can music scholars: even if one’s research focuses on an esoteric and seemingly not “newsworthy” topic, there is often a way to conceptualize its relevancy to a broader audience. This workshop will involve brainstorming, conceptualizing, and “pitching” thinkpieces, allowing participants to reflect on how their scholarship can gain relevancy in a fast-paced online environment and, more broadly, act as a form of public service.

5 pm Trip towards Place-des-arts

Espace OSM

6 pm Networking evening « Techn’OSM » offered by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra

Thursday October 13th: social engagement

Conseil des arts de Montréal

Atrium

8:30 am Welcome

9 am Welcome from Claudia Berardi & Ansfrid Tchetchenigbo, cultural advisers at CAM

9:15 am Plenary conference by Sean Gregory: The Creative Imperative: Participatory Music-Making as a Platform for Social Change

10:15 am BREAK

Studios to be confirmed

• 10:30 am Round table Music mediation and social action. Moderation: Hyacinthe Ravet.

11:30 am  Communications session

The effects of these activities and the challenges of evaluating them

(moderators to be confirmed)

• Communication 9. Soriya Jabeen and Mark Grattan (Safety In Music CIC) “Preventing Violence and Crime Through Music as a Creative Practice”
• Communication 10. Karine Hahn “The territory as a component of the production of music: what impact in the mediation devices?”

Atrium

12:30 pm LUNCH

Studio à préciser

1:30 pm  Workshops

• Workshop 4. Anne Laure Guenoux “Transversal mediation: bringing together all the works of all the practitioners?”
• Workshop 5. Salima Bouaraour “The key elements of DJing”

2:30 pm  BREAK

Studios to be confirmed

2:45 pm Communications session

A critical look at the effectiveness of action taken. Moderation: Hyacinthe Ravet.

• Communication 11. Rémi Deslyper & Florence Eloy, “The heterodox appropriations of musical practice in artistic and cultural education. The case of Demos and Orchestra at School”.
• Communication 12. Angelika Güsewell, "Shared creation: a transdisciplinary course of cultural mediation".

3:45 pm BREAK

Studios to be confirmed

4 pm  Communications session

Dispositive analysis (moderators to be confirmed)

• Communication 13. Abril Padilla, “From the spiral ear to the Cri du Patchwork: the mediation of contemporary music on the radio. Two case studies in France between 1980 and 2019”.
• Communication 14. Elena Lapina, “Digital device in the mediation of classical music: the challenge of agency”.
• Communication 15. Laura Eaton, "Factors of success of the music mediation activities of Quebec symphony orchestras".

Workshop 6. Isabelle Ronzier, “Musical mediation workshop through creative writing”.

5:30 pm 5 MINUTES WALK TOWARDS THE FIER MONDE MUSEUM

Musée du Fier Monde

• 5:45 pm Opéra de Montréal – Networking event and cocktail

“The social actions of the Opéra de Montréal or the opera as an actor of social transformation.”

Friday October 14th: Profession

Saint-Laurent Cegep

8:30 am Welcome.

Locals to be confirmed

9 am Workshops

• Workshop 7. Olivier Hego, “Participatory workshop: What is the territorial dimension of the music mediator?".
• Workshop 8. Simon Chalifoux, “Different registers for different types of mediation context”.
• Workshop 9. Véronique Girard & Le Vivier, “The Vivier Mobile, a collaborative creation device for electronic music”.

10:30 am BREAK

10:45 am Communications session

Practicing music mediation: professional issues

(moderators to be confirmed)

• Communication 16. Raphaël Roth, “The trajectories of musicians working in France: investigation of musical education and its mediations”.
• Communication 17. Lorraine Roubertie Soliman “A research-action on the modalities of inter-professional coordination within the Demos Clermont-Ferrand orchestra: challenges and methods”.
• Communication 18. Frédéric Trottier “In the making of music: the project coordinator, the choir director and the researcher”.

Adrienne-Milotte Hall (E70)

12:30 pm LUNCH

1:45 pm Local to be confirmed

Initiative hub: « On the crossroads… again »

This “crossroads” is dedicated to participants who wish to engage in research/mediation activities that will be developed in the future by the EPMM. Confirmation of interest will be requested in response to an email to be sent in August. Music Faculty – Claude-Champagne Hall

Concert for young audiences presented by students from the Faculty of Music initiated into mediation by Thierry Weber.

If this concert for young audiences is a real opportunity to share privileged moments of live music, it will also be an opportunity for young conductors to acquire concrete experience in the mediation of music.

Starting from the works and their interpretive wishes, Thierry Weber will invite the students to think about and then carry out (presentation and direction) this educational concert by deploying different pedagogical strategies adapted to the challenges of transmission.

 Bistrot La Fabrique

6 pm Closing banquet