Music & Civil Society: A Symphony in the Making

The culminating project of Community MusicWorks's (CMW) three-year grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation was planned as a conference that brought together academics and practitioners to focus on the question of how music can and does play a role in the formation of civil society.

CMW commissioned writer and social activist Arlene Goldbard to report on how this question was fleshed out over two days in November 2011. The resulting publication is now freely available on their website.

Excerpt: "Commitment to reciprocity"

Peer teaching is only one expression of the commitment to reciprocity that seems so central to symposium participants' vision. "If you don't listen while you play," said Pamela Rosenberg, "you don't play well." And if you can play, status sometimes falls away, and musical interaction is the only thing that counts... Continue reading HERE.

Excerpt: "No one knows the future"
No one knows the future, but for practitioners of the types of community-based music education explored at the Music & Civil Society Symposium, the future is an especially open question. Will their work-which focuses on social inclusion and cultural citizenship as strongly as on music-be more widely understood, appreciated, and supported? Continue reading HERE.