Past Events in the Division of Musicology and Ethnomusicology

Zoom Lecture:

A Dive into Music and Disability,
from Theory to Practice

Diane Kolin

Thursday, November 30

1 PM US/Canada Central Time

(11 AM US/Canada Pacific, 2 PM US/Canada Eastern, 7 PM GMT, 8 PM CET)

Free and open to the public via Zoom

Diane Kolin is a PhD candidate in Musicology at York University, Toronto. Her diverse research interests include Critical Disability Studies, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Liszt, and her dissertation focuses on professional musicians, composers, and music specialists with disabilities. She is the editor in chief of the Journal of the French Beethoven Society. The study of Beethoven’s deafness and Diane’s personal history led to her research in disability and music. Diane is also a voice teacher and a singer who advocates for more accessibility in orchestras, choirs, and music education.

Ms. Kolin’s visit to Prof. Dell’Antonio’s Fall 2023 course Musicking and Disability and this lecture were made possible thanks to the generous support provided by the Butler School of Music and the co-sponsorship of the UT Disability Cultural Center.

Mystakidis Residency UT Austin November 2023

Guest Artist Residency with

DIMITRIS MYSTAKIDIS

Dimitris Mystakidis is a guitar virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, researcher, and professor of Greek popular, folk, and traditional music. His research and performance work has spearheaded the revival of Greek folk guitar styles and techniques, while his cultural advocacy has contributed to the inclusion of the folk guitar into the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Greece in 2021.

Mystakidis has collaborated with many prominent Greek artists and has contributed to over 100 recordings. His long-time collaborators include Nikos Papazoglou and Thanasis Papakonstantinou, two monumental figures in the Greek music scene. As a solo recording artist, Mystakidis has released seven LPs, which feature arrangements of rebetiko songs and traditional repertoire, as well as his own compositions.

Mystakidis has served as professor at the University of Epirus’s Department of Folk and Traditional Music since 2001, and at the University of Macedonia’s Department of Music Science and Art since 2014. He has published two books on technique, repertoire, and modal theory for Greek folk guitar and Greek lute.

WEDNESDAY 11/15

10am – 11am and
11am – 12pm

MRH 2.614

Guest Lecture: The Modal System of Greek Urban Folk Music

Greek urban folk styles operate within a distinct musical system that blends features of the Ottoman makam tradition, western European tonal music, as well as Greek rural idioms. Urban folk musicians inherited a mixed set of musical terms, which they employed as an ad hoc “code” for internal communications, however with notorious inconsistencies and confusions. In the last few decades, several members of this music scene have attempted to systematize this modal system within a consistent theory. Dimitris Mystakidis is among the leading theorists in this endeavor. In this guest lecture, Mystakidis will introduce the fundamentals of this fascinating modal system, and will demonstrate its intricacies through a modal analysis of a piece that he will perform with UT’s Middle Eastern Ensemble “Bereket” on Thursday, 11/16.

7pm

MRH 2.634

Folk Music in Greece Today: A Conversation and Demo

Despite their great popularity among Greek audiences, traditional, folk, and popular music styles have held an inferior status to Western art music in the realm of education and cultural policy. Dimitris Mystakidis has actively advocated for the recognition and legitimization by state institutions of indigenous Greek musical styles and instruments. Thanks to his efforts, the Greek folk guitar was inducted to the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Greece in 2021. In 2022, folk instrument instruction was finally recognized as equivalent to Western art music instruction in the conservatories in 2022. Students of folk music are now able to be awarded degrees and diplomas in music performance from the Greek Ministry of Culture.

Mystakidis will respond to any and all questions regarding the state of Greek music today, through reference to his own career as a performer, researcher, teacher, and advocate, and through practical demonstration in the form of musical performance.

THURSDAY 11/16

7:30pm

Jessen Auditorium

Featured Artist, UT Middle Eastern Ensemble “Bereket”

This residency was made possible thanks to the generous support provided by the Butler School of Music, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREEES), and the Fine Arts Diversity Council (FADC). We are also thankful for the sponsorship of UT-Austin’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) and the Center for European Studies (CES).

AGEMS Spring 2023 Colloquium Series

Jon Silpayamanant Virtual Residency

Wednesday, November 2, 2022 – 9 AM – as a guest of MUS 213M, History of Music 1

“Forced Musical Labor: A Colonial History of Classical Music and Music Schools (1527-1750)”

The session will focus especially on the history of forced musical labor models used by the Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish at colonies in South America and Southeast Asia during the early modern period. Please see Classical Music and its Slave Orchestras for an initial essay by Silpayamanant on this project, and Silpayamanant’s web page for more context.

Thursday, November 17, 2022 – 1 PM – as a guest of the AGEMS Colloquium

“Integrating Colonial Histories of Forced Musical Labor into the Music History Curriculum”

The session will address the broader research and pedagogical project that Silpayamanant is developing on the topic of enslaved musical labor as an essential component of the European colonial and trade-expansionist project, drawing from his Bibliography of Slave Orchestras, Choirs, Bands, and Ensembles.

The Musicology/Ethnomusicology Division thanks the Fine Arts Diversity Council for its generous support of this virtual residency.

Reddit comes to UT Austin

An afternoon of activities with Sherwin Su, a senior manager for sales and partnerships at the social media platform Reddit. He has over a decade’s worth of international experience in multimedia and tech, including work for/with Google, YouTube, AT&T, Verizon, Pinterest, GE, DraftKings, Bumble, and The Honest Company. Sherwin also leads the Reddit Asian Network Employee Resource Group.

Casual Chat over Lunch on Asian-American Representation in Social Media Companies
Oct 6, 2022 12:00-1:00pm, Flawn Academic Center (2.236)
For undergrad and grad students interested in the intersections of diversity, social media, tech, and Asian American representation. Lunch provided. RSVP required; spots limited.
https://gradschool.utexas.edu/events/1034

Talk on Inclusive Practices in Social Media & Tech Industry
Oct 6, 2022 3:30-5:00pm, Flawn Academic Center (2.236)
Sherwin Su will share experiences working in social media/tech and efforts to build more inclusive spaces within the industry. Open to all.
https://gradschool.utexas.edu/events/1035

Reception
Oct 6, 2022 5:00-6:00pm, Gordon-White Building (2.206 Multipurpose Room)
After the talk, Sherwin is eager to meet and chat with students during a reception. Those who can’t make it to the talk are welcome to follow and join in. Open to all, no registration needed.

These events are generously supported by the Butler School of Music, the Graduate School, the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, and Texas Career Engagement.

For further information, contact: Dr. James Gabrillo <james.gabrillo@austin.utexas.edu>

AGEMS Fall 2020 Colloquium Series

Maureen Mahon: Remembering the Shirelles: Gender, Race, Genre, and the Formation of the Rock Canon

Thursday, October 15, 12:00pm CDT

Alisha Lola Jones: ”I Am Delivert”: The Pentecostal Altar Call and Vocalizing Black Men’s Testimonies of Deliverance from Homosexuality

Tuesday, October 27, 12:30pm CDT

Lauren Eldridge Stewart: Class in Session: Fashioning Social Hierarchies in Haitian Concert Music Series

Thursday, November 19, 4:00pm CST

A Conversation with Danielle Brown

Monday, November 30, 3:00pm CST

Melena, born in Havana, Cuba, is an accomplished percussionist and educator of Afro Cuban music. She studied ethnomusicology at UCLA, where she received her B.A. and M.A. degrees, graduating with honors. Her Afro-Cuban sound is a conversation of melodies that she plays with fierce passion. Melena is a multi-talented percussionist who plays congas, timbales, bata drums, and shekere. She is an artist who exemplifies the sound of legendary players from the past, while combining the modern sounds of today. Melena studied privately with the Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba as well as with the many gifted percussionists on the island such as: Miguel “Anga”Diaz, Yaroldy Abreu, Roberto Vizcaino Guillot, Cristobal Larrinanga, Mario Jauregui, Lazaro Ros, Regino Jimenez, and Daniel Herrera. 

Melena has toured, performed, and recorded with legendary artists such as: Barry White, Stevie Wonder, Macy Gray, Julio Iglesias, Giovanni Hidalgo, Chucho Valdes and Irakere, Francisco Aguabella, Bennie Maupin, Byron Miller, Will Calhoun, Ray De La Paz, Mario Ortiz, Jr., Chino Nuñez, Chayanne, Poncho Sanchez, Frankie Morales, Eva Ayllone, Peru Negro, Oscar Hernandez (Musical Director of Spanish Harlem Orchestra) and Afro Cuban All Stars. In Havana, Cuba she has been invited as a special guest to perform with Los Papines, Pablo Menendez and Mezcla, Raices Profundas, Canela, Leyendas.com and Cuba’s national treasure the Septeto Nacional de Ignacio Piñeiro.

Learn more about Melena