Lee Willingham
Director, Laurier Centre for Music in the Community Coordinator, Graduate Programs in Community Music
Wilfrid Laurier University Canada
lwillingham@wlu.ca
Abstract
In 2008, the Senate of Wilfrid Laurier University approved the establishment of the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community, a faculty based research center with the mandate to connect, collaborate, and contribute to and with music in the community through research, events, and public forums. Laurier is located in the Waterloo Region, a center of high tech industry (home of Blackberry), and information and communication technology. It is also a community with deep roots in music with German and old order Mennonite traditions. Today, a multi-cultural blend of urban and rural communities, Waterloo Region boasts two universities and a large community college. It is what Richard Florida (2002) suggested has all of the ingredients of a “creative class” community, with a diverse array of arts and street festival events.
The Laurier Centre for Music in the Community (LCMC) has supported with research the fact that music is one of the fundamental ways in which humans express themselves, emotionally, cognitively, and spiritually and most frequently they do so with others in a musical community setting. LCMC explores the dimension of life that intersects with music. In the fall of 2013, a new graduate program was launched for students seeking an MA in Community Music. In 2014 16 students were enrolled, with wide ranges in experience, age, and interests. Successful candidates of the Master of Arts in Community Music meet the program outcomes through a balance of courses, applied field experience, reflection, and research.
In descriptive narrative style, this paper outlines the basic framework for this new graduate program and provides examples of how LCMC has become a vital agent in developing social innovation and cultural capital in a region known for its research in theoretical physics, computer science, and technology hubs. A variety of community music events, partnerships, and conferences undertaken under the auspices of Community Music at Laurier are also described.
Keywords: Higher education, music leadership, models of practice, partnerships, research
This is the story of how a traditional music school in a mid-sized Canadian university undertook the mission of establishing a place in higher education where Community Music study and practice are central to its vision and purpose.
Waterloo is in the center of Southwestern Ontario, 100 kilometers west of Toronto, Canada’s largest city. With a population of about 650,000 people, Waterloo is a region of municipalities, villages, and rural townships with rich agricultural lands. It is the home of a large German immigrant population who settled there in the late 1800’s. It is also one of the largest Mennonite settlements, a settlement that includes Amish and a range of old order “horse and buggy” Mennonites, as well as what might be considered modern Mennonites who are fully assimilated into today’s culture, but hold the core life values of simplicity and pacifism. Both the German and Mennonite traditions hold music in high regard, although valued very differently in purpose, and practiced very differently in style and genre. (http://ebybook.region.waterloo.on.ca/) This rather pastoral image of Waterloo, however, is juxtaposed with the following:
two vibrant universities with collectively more than 60,000 students (in addition, the University of Guelph is 20 km to the east with a student population of 25,000) and a multi-campus college, a high tech park with world or national headquarters of the digital giants, a declining manufacturing sector whose buildings are being rejuvenated with hubs of startups, launch pads, social innovation centers, work-live spaces, and transportation connectors. A new Light Rail Transit system is being built that will connect the region like a spine from top to bottom. In fact, Waterloo was named by economist and urban business scholar, Richard Florida, as a center with the core ingredients of a creative class, where higher education, science and technology, a diverse and a rich cultural life. He states: “Creative people have always gravitated to certain kinds of communities, such as the Left Bank in Paris or New York’s Greenwich Village. Such communities provide the stimulation, diversity and a richness of experiences that are the wellsprings of creativity. Now more of us are looking for the same thing…this transformation is the shift to an economic and social system based on human creativity” (2002, p. 15.) He argues that tastes for lifestyle, work, and community are driven by the potential of living lives of flexibility, creativity, and ultimately lives of meaning. In a technology conference Florida stated,
“Waterloo Region, in particular, is in the middle of the shift from the industrial to a creative economy” (Waterloo Record, Workplace 2017 Conference, October 16, 2007.)
So, why would Waterloo be an appropriate place where community music is a focus for exploration and facilitation within a university?
In 2004, Laurier University Faculty of Music engaged in discourse with members of both the university campus and wider community to establish and deepen networks and to determine its value as a culturally appreciated asset in this area. The Faculty of Music is housed in a building that has no main entrance or welcoming portal.
Although presenting many concerts, symposia, conferences, and public events annually, it was evident that the main population did not know what the Faculty of Music did, for whom it existed, or what type of student attended. It was suggested that at the time of my appointment, I might be able to help “drain the moat, lower the draw bridges,” and engage the community in a wider capacity, in both an awareness of and also to participate more in the activities of the academy. At this time, Community Music as a globally emerging discipline was not considered a means of developing a framework of rethinking a traditional philosophy modeled on the “conservatoire”
system.
A two-year research project was designed, to determine the nature of the relationship between music and the people in our community. With street surveys and focused interviews, some interesting data was gathered (results presented at ISME 2008, Bologna).
First, what does Waterloo Region offer? At that time (2007-8), an inventory of music events and institutions was taken.
Then, people were asked to describe how they were educated in music, followed by how they interacted with music in their lives today, and how was music important to them, what they did with music and what they would like to do with music.
The results, predictable, perhaps, were, nonetheless, interesting, and supportive of the establishment of a research center, the purpose of which would be to enhance the musical life of our community, both locally and beyond.
Please permit a personal digression. Much of my career as a music educator has been occupied in creating conditions where the music that is valued by our students and is prevalent in their lives might also be honored as a subject of study within the academy. I took an oppositional position to the “tyranny” of conductor-driven-ensemble-based curriculum as anti-creative, undemocratic, and often demeaning, even potentially damaging to our students. In papers, as a journal editor of a national publication, and as a chapter book editor, I regularly challenged our higher educators, teacher-practitioners, and emerging young teachers, to privilege the musical preferences of our students, to learn how to use creative games and compositional/improvisational devices to animate the stale and formulaic music that was spewed out by the industry to be consumed holus-bolus by the music educational consumer. Although pockets of educational innovation in music emerged, along with several programs that engaged in peace and activism as a focus for their music making, in general, very little has changed. Is it pointless to try to transform a well-oiled machine, where annual conferences selected keynote speakers who inspired the teachers with all of the well-worn clichés of how bands build discipline, self-confidence, build brain cells, none of which could be supported with evidence based research? Discouraged, somewhat deflated, and thinking about other things to do in my future, I registered as a presenter at ISME 2008, Bologna.
Curious about this commission called Community Music Activity, I stopped by and took in their closing session. In reading CM papers, journal articles, and getting a sense of this diverse community, the warmth of the group was almost overwhelming, and the sense of inclusivity quite different than my previous experiences. In fact, it occurred to me, that had I hung out with this gang, I might have felt more of an insider than with my music education colleagues who often viewed those who shared my vision as a rather anarchistic. An atmosphere of camaraderie and trust was compelling, and the connection between my work at Laurier’s LCMC and what the CMA Commission espoused was deeply made.
Throughout all this time, and to this day, I straddle both worlds, conducting choral ensembles, adjudicating, presenting workshops, and standing in front of ensembles.
However, in my growing understanding of the principles of CM, the whole approach
to communal music making has undergone a gradual transformation to where ultimate relationships and processes trump the usual frenzy to eliminate musical mistakes, and get the ensemble performance ready at all costs. Just prior to attending ISME 2014, Brazil, a week was spent with church musicians with the task of forming a community choir that would sing the great music of the Christian faith in a public concert in a cathedral, a 45 year tradition that held high a standard of quality repertoire and performance (Summer Institute of Church Music). This program, of course, is offered in the interest of inspiring church musicians to go forth and do the same. Well, it was done, but in a very different way. By incorporating a number of workshops that examined personal values, relational and corporate health, explored spontaneous composition and improvisation, and along with non-formal techniques that encouraged one’s personal voice, rather than mute it, the culminating concert was deemed to be the “best in our history.” I’ve been asked to return next year. This is but one example of how CM informs traditional practice.
The mission of Laurier Centre for Music in the Community is to connect, collaborate, and contribute through research, symposia, workshops, publishing, projects, partnerships, and concerts. LCMC seeks to connect with music in the community, to collaborate with the music makers, and to contribute to the vitality of the music of people.
LCMC is a significant achievement in the context of a research-based university in that:
- LCMC welcomes research addressing any aspect of music and community - LCMC welcomes research in any acceptable method
- LCMC seeks research that informs and guides practice.
- LCMC research informs Laurier education course materials in the development of future community music leaders.
LCMC supports a variety of partnerships and events, some of which are outlined below.
In 2010, the process of developing a graduate program in CM was initiated, and clearing the myriad hurdles of the government rules and regulations, approval was received for an inaugural class to begin in September of 2013. Sixteen students were admitted with some in their second year of the program in the fall of 2013.
Here are the nuts and bolts of the program:
Successful candidates of the Master of Arts in Community Music will have met the following program outcomes.
• Earned a recognized qualification in Community Music.
• Developed and applied research skills and contributed to the body of research on the role of music in the community.
• Demonstrated a foundational understanding of global Community Music practices.
• Built and reflected upon personal leadership skills, engaged self and others within a community-building practice, grounded on a solid theoretical foundation.
• Developed and applied creative and practical skills in a network of interdisciplinary arts fields.
• Articulated an advanced and integrated conceptual understanding of the relationship between theory and practice in community music leadership.
These outcomes are achieved through a balance of courses, applied field experience, reflection and research. The program is built on:
• 5 mandatory courses
• 1 elective course
• 2 term applied placement in community context
• Research project and paper (not thesis or MRP)
• Public demonstration: lecture/demonstration/display/curated event, etc.
The framework for the program is built on the principles of CM practice as applied to our context at Laurier: a foundation of contemplative practice, evident through loving-kindness, empathy; music as an “act of hospitality” (Higgins, 2012). It aspires to outcomes of wholeness and health in body, mind, and spirit, and an ethos of activism through intentional support of social justice initiatives.
Profound experiences in our students’ lives are being revealed as a shift in the core values, including those of roles, hierarchies, elitism, the privileging of western art music over all else. Perspectives now that are giving way to respect, homage to the diversity of practices and ethics, and above all, an organically connected interdependent community of scholars and facilitators are emerging. As reflective practitioners, the narratives are powerful and moving.
Research studies, including the initial one referenced above have included exploring the relationship between the Faculty of Music and an independent music establishment that teaches popular styles of music lessons and has a stage that features independent bands. A funded study investigated the health of community bands in Ontario. A funded music teacher professional development project was designed and implemented using a Collaborative Learning Community (CLC) model. The impact of the annual Sing Fires of Justice, a festival of song and word, was researched with a focus on the choral community. LCMC is now engaging in a study of music in Canada’s Aboriginal community, where a program called “Bridging Communities through Song” has become a partnership among the Good Hearted Women Singers (Mino Ode Kwewak N’gamowak) with university choirs, the Police Association Choir, and well known stars from Canada’s native community. Currently, a consortium of Ontario universities is designing a major project to develop composition and improvisation curricula for the education system with Laurier’s Community Music as a lead partner.
In addition to research projects, there are a number of programs and events are sponsored and administered by LCMC.
- Sing Fires of Justice Multi-Faith/Ecumenical Festival of Song and Word (annual)
- High School Invitational String Symposium (annual)
- Laurier String Academy, Community School for String Players - LCMC Award Presentation (annual)
- Symposium-Town Hall-Workshop weekend (annual)
- Teacher Professional Development Day: workshops and reception
- Music Care Conferences (annual, presented in various cities across Canada)