THE FIRST-EVER FIVE COLLEGE ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
STUDENT SYMPOSIUM TAKES PLACE ON APRIL 26

AMHERST, MA - The first-ever Five College Ethnomusicology Student Symposium takes place on April 26 in Sage Hall at Smith College from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Following registration at 9:00 a.m. in the Green Room, ten students will present their work in three panel sessions beginning at 10:00 a.m.: “Authenticity and Beyond;” “Locating Hip Hop;” and “Sounds of New England.” The day-long symposium concludes at 5:00 p.m. with a keynote address “On the Ethnomusicology of Musical Process: Miles and Mali,” given by Ingrid Monson, Quincy Jones Professor of African American Music at Harvard University. All sessions and the keynote address are free, and the public is welcome to attend.

The symposium has been planned by a group of faculty whose special interests focus on ethnomusicology, a relatively new field within music study. One of the most recent forms of cooperation to emerge within music, this faculty committee last year sponsored a highly successful Five College World Music Festival at Hampshire College. This year, the focus shifts from performance to research as some of their students - undergraduates and graduate students - take center stage to talk about their work as budding ethnomusicologists.

Panel 1 (10:00 a.m. - 12 noon), entitled “Authenticity and Beyond” will feature research presented by Carolyn Clini and Danny Holt of Smith College; Christina Antolini and Chris Castelle of Hampshire College. Moderating the session will be Hampshire College Professor Rebecca Miller, who specializes in music of the Americas. Among the topics to be presented in this session are the musical traditions of Iceland and sacred harp singing in the Pioneer Valley.

Panel 2 (1:00 - 2:30 p.m.) will feature a discussion of “Locating Hip-Hop,” led by Rudy Malabanan and Debbie Tinnerello of Hampshire, and Kara Nostrand of UMass Amherst. Presentations for this session include: “Soul Elements of Asia: Cambodian American Hip Hop in Lowell, Mass.;” and “Claiming Space Through Hip Hop.” Smith Professor of Music Steve Waksman will serve as moderator.

Panel 3, the third and final session, entitled “Sounds of New England,” will take place from 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. Presenters will be: Sean Norton of Hampshire; Lauren Ingram of UMass Amherst; and Shayn Smulyan of Smith. Among the topics they will discuss are: “Of Trains and Troubadours: A photo ethnography of Boston's subway musicians

and “Storytelling for the Over-educated Liberal.” University Anthropologist David Samuels will moderate this session.

The symposium will end with a keynote talk by noted Harvard ethnomusicologist Ingrid Monson, author of the 1996 book Say Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction. A trumpet player, she was a founding member of the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Professor Monson’s current research includes the musics of the African Diaspora, and the impact of the Civil Rights Movement and African independence on the history of jazz.

The symposium planning committee also included music faculty members Jayendran Pillay of Hampshire, David Reck of Amherst, and Margaret Sarkissian of Smith.

For additional information about the symposium, contact Renee Fall, director of Program Planning and Development, Five Colleges, Incorporated: 256-8316; rfall@fivecolleges.edu.