Can Western art music ever be equitable in practice and in perception?

Novem­ber 12 @ 7 pm EST
Zoom link 
Face­book Event


Cura­tor: Parmela Attari­wala
Guests: Pat Carrabré, Ian Cus­son, Lise Vau­geois, Dinuk Wijeratne

Var­i­ous aspects of coloniality—including post­colo­nial­ism and neocolonialism—play out in crit­i­cisms of, and sup­port for, West­ern Art Music, as well as in recent calls to decol­o­nize the insti­tu­tions that sus­tain it. The “Re:Soundings” diver­si­ty report, com­mis­sioned by Orches­tras Cana­da, high­light­ed mul­ti­ple nodes at which con­tem­po­rary encoun­ters between West­ern art music and oth­er musics have been prob­lem­at­ic. How can we recon­cep­tu­al­ize the para­me­ters by which we cur­rent­ly define avant-gardeism in music, and in doing so, might we also begin to unshack­le the art form from its Euro­cen­tric priorities?

Part of the Decol­o­niza­tion Series.