“Re-Inventing Tradition? Teaching and Learning Irish Traditional Music in U.S. Higher Education”
Presented by Dr. Dawn Corso
This colloquium is the sixth in a continuing series of lectures beginning in Fall 2017, typically taking place on the first Friday of the month. Each session features a presentation by a faculty member, student, or guest in the field of music education, followed by a time for questions, comments, and general discussion. These sessions are for the purposes of communicating current ideas and research, connecting with the profession, and building community among and between students and teachers in the Fred Fox School of Music, as well as the larger Tucson area.
“Re-Inventing Tradition? Teaching and Learning Irish Traditional Music in U.S. Higher Education”
This paper explores the transmission processes of Irish traditional music outside Ireland, specifically regarding its presence in higher education in the United States. Motivation for the research comes from the author’s experiences teaching an advanced music education methods course and leading an Irish traditional music ensemble at the University of Arizona. The former class used a hands-on approach to understand skills, content, context, pedagogy, potential problems, and the importance of including varied musical cultures in U.S. music education through experiencing Irish traditional music. The latter course functioned like many university performance ensembles, apart from attempting to adhere to an aural/oral transmission process while working with students who were most comfortable with and proficient at performing vis-à-vis Western music notation and theory. This study investigates musical and cultural transmission during these classes and includes ethical considerations, teaching suggestions, and a rationale for the inclusion of Irish traditional music in higher education. A version of this talk was recently shared during the Celtic Connections Festival in January at a conference entitled, “Pedagogies, Practices and the Future of Folk Music in Higher Education,” at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Dawn T. Corso, current assistant professor and area coordinator for music education, earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She also holds undergraduate degrees in ethnomusicology and anthropology with a minor in psychology. Dr. Corso’s university classes cross the boundaries between music education and ethnomusicology, and she leads two ethnomusicology ensembles. Dr. Corso has taught general music, choir, band, and orchestra in PreK-12 schools and served as conductor of several community choir and band ensembles in Phoenix. She is a regular presenter at ethnomusicology and music education conferences focusing on the intersections between learning, music, and culture, and her interdisciplinary work can be found in such national and international publications.
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