The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music presents: Twenty-First CMT Colloquium
“Remote Learning Contexts: Representation, Continuity, and Change in the Transmission of Irish Traditional Music Outside Ireland”
Presented by Dawn T. Corso (Assistant Professor of Music Education and Ethnomusicology)
This colloquium is the twenty-first in a continuing series of lectures, to take place on the last Friday of the month. Each features a presentation by a faculty member, student, or guest in the areas of Composition, Musicology, or Music Theory (CMT), followed by a time for questions, comments, and general discussion. It is hoped that these monthly sessions will be an opportunity to communicate current ideas and research in these areas within the Fred Fox School of Music.
This paper will explore the transmission practices of traditional Irish music outside Ireland, focusing particularly on the learning processes in three different contexts in Arizona. The questions this paper will address are: 1) who are the learners engaging in these Irish music settings; 2) what are the ways in which these “students” of traditional Irish music are learning; 3) what challenges or obstacles do these musicians face when learning traditional Irish music; and 4) how might musical and non-musical cultural understandings of traditional Irish music be impacted by these various learning processes and environments. Final thoughts will include considerations for teaching Irish traditional music in schools and universities outside Ireland and directions for further research.
About the presenter
Dawn Corso earned an M.A and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the tutelage of music educator Dr. Gregory DeNardo, ethnomusicologist Dr. Thomas Turino, and educational anthropologist Dr. Jacquetta Hill. She also holds undergraduate degrees in ethnomusicology and anthropology with a minor in psychology. Her graduate work first focused on the implementation of multicultural music education in general music settings and later shifted to informal learning processes amongst African-American children as they occurred outside school settings.
Dr. Corso has taught general music, choir, band, and orchestra in PreK-12 schools and university courses in ethnomusicology, music education, music in general studies, teacher education, and educational psychology. Additionally, she has served as conductor of several community choir and band ensembles in Phoenix and continues to perform as a coloratura soprano and trumpet player in the area, as well as joining local musicians of Irish and Zimbabwean musics when possible.
This combined background of research, teaching, and community engagement, has led to her current inquiry into the cultural processes of learning traditional musics and the translation of vernacular practices into formalized music education settings. She focuses on the traditional music of Ireland and the Irish diaspora in the U.S. and Shona mbira music of Zimbabwe. Dr. Corso currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and Music Education at the University of Arizona’s Fred Fox School of Music.