We are soon receiving a complete draft of Volume IV for our book series Deep Soundings: The Lexington Series in Historical Ethnomusicology. It will be one of the few books to offer an ethnomusicological perspective on a European composer, in this case Xaver Scharwenka, and is written by Dr. Mikolaj Rykowski, vice rector with the Paderewsky Academy of Music in Poznan, Poland. This book promises to advance the field of historical ethnomusicology with new insights into sociocultural and historical aspects of European art music, enriched through application of glocalization theory. Two additional ..read more

This week we formally established cooperation at the doctoral and postgraduate levels between universities in Norway and Hong Kong.  This was through both signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and the holding of our inaugural joint doctoral symposium. I am grateful for the support of our rektor Gunnar Yttri, vice dean Vegard Fusche Moe and the vice president and dean of the Hong Kong institution, Prof. Sing Kai Lo.  Koji Matsunobu, a highly accomplished scholar who I have known for many years, is the main partner for this project on the Hong Kong side.  Click HERE&nbs ..read more

The Sympathetic Resonance Trio is now making its second demo recording. The latest repertoire includes songs from an unusually diverse array of genres: a local Norwegian boating song, a romantic Russian art song (by Glinka), a timeless Bob Dylan tune, a ritualistic piece by a Sami songwriter, a jazz standard waltz-ballad, and a Russian folk song.  In addition to singing and playing trumpet with this group, recently I have been developing technique on the cajon, a versatile percussion instrument from South America that helps to add some additional depth to the trio’s sound. Our first de ..read more

I look forward to serving as the first Opponent (external examiner) at the end of May for a PhD defense ceremony at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. Laura Ellestad has produced a very interesting dissertation in the field of historical ethnomusicology on Norwegian-American fiddling traditions. It is a quite interesting study, and I hope there will be an enthusiastic audience at her doctoral defense.  This will be my first time to take part in a doctoral defense at the Norwegian Academy of Music. I have previously participated in doctoral disputations at two of the other major ..read more

April 2023, and we are busily preparing to offer the course PhD911 Non-Western Educational Philosophy and Policy, now that the administration has completed its admissions process. I am pleased to report that we had 34 applicants from universities in 17 countries: Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Uganda, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, UAE, Iran, Bangladesh, India, China, Australia, Canada, and the USA. The course runs during the first two weeks of May 2023 as an entirely online doctoral seminar, and its live discussion sessions will be planned for compatibility with the various time ..read more

The Faroe Islands is an autonomous territory of 18 islands located north of Scotland, between Iceland and Norway. With roots traceable to a teacher’s seminary founded in 1870, the University of the Faroe Islands is located in the capital city Torshavn (pictured here).    It is a pleasure to have the opportunity to serve as a supervisory professor on the PhD dissertation committee of Knut Eysturstein at University of the Faroe Islands. Knut is researching music traditions of the Faroe Islands and ways of sustaining traditional music through school education ..read more

I am happy to announce that Dr. Nasser Sahim Aljassim successfully defended his PhD degree in musicology at the Uzbekistan State Conservatory of Music, Tashkent at the end of March 2023. It was a pleasure to serve as the doctoral opponent (external examiner) for his unique doctoral dissertation comparing music traditions in Qatar and Uzbekistan. Dr. Nasser Sahim is an accomplished musician who works with the Qatar Foundation and Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra. His main supervisor was professor Elnora Mamadjanova. The dissertation is available in multiple languages ..read more

It is a pleasure to announce that our book Comparative and Decolonial Studies in Philosophy of Education has just been published, and is now available as a download via SpringerLink. Here is a link to the website for that: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-99-0139-5 This book is designed to stimulate alternative ways of understanding the nature and value of education based on historically-informed awareness of ideas from parts of the world that experienced colonization ..read more

  I look forward to giving a keynote speech soon for the Arts Education Symposiumat the Technical University of Kenya. My title is Rediscovering the Wonderment of Arts in a Fragile World, and it will address some of the main themes and lessons learned from some recent research and development projects. Here is a link for more information about the symposium: https://tukenya.ac.ke/eap-symposium Kenya is a nation with a rich artistic heritage and innovative work in the arts education fields, so it is exciting to have this opportunity to interact with scholars and educators there, but th ..read more

It is a pleasure to be visiting Spain (first Madrid, and then on to Granada, and finally Malaga) as my first research trip in the RESUPERESproject, an EU Erasmus Plus initiative for interdisciplinary and comparative study of resilience in higher education. We look forward to developing a clearer understanding of how the Norwegian and arts components of the project will integrate with the rest of this initiative with partners in Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Serbia.   ..read more