International scientific symposium ‘Music and Dance on East-West Axis: Correlations and Mobilities’
The international scientific symposium titled ‘Music and Dance on East–West Axis: Correlations and Mobilities’ co-organized by the Institute of Musicology SASA, SASA Department of Arts and Istanbul University State Conservatory, will be held on the premises of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, from 4-6 September. The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at the SASA Grand Hall on Monday, 4 September, at 11 a.m.
The scientific symposium, which is to be conducted in English, will see the participation of ethnomusicologists, ethnochoreologists, musicologists, historians and anthropologists from Serbia, Turkey (particularly within the bilateral scientific cooperation on the TRackeRS project), Austria, Germany, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, the United States of America, Australia, France and the United Kingdom.
Adding on to the previous Balkan music and dance research (especially the one inspired by the work of Edward Said and Marija Todorova), this event will provide an opportunity to rethink the East, particularly with a focus on determining common heritage, practices and inclinations in music and dance – beginning with new applications and interpretations of the concepts of Orientalism and post-colonialism, to structural analysis results presentations of supposed eastern influences in a broader sense.
Jim Samson, a leading authority in global musicology who dedicated capital works to musical practices in the Balkans and Black Sea countries, will give a keynote lecture. On this occasion, he will discuss the symbolic geography of the East and the West starting from a musical and critical theory point of view. Some light will be shed from various perspectives on the following: Vranje folk music, performances of the Roma in Serbia, manners of representation of ‘Turkishness’ in the music of southern Slavs, swinging between the East and the West in Serbian art and popular music examples, Ottoman heritage matter problematization, music and dance in Western diaspora, and new theoretical interpretations inspired by the topic of the symposium.
During the symposium, recent editions of the Institute of Musicology SASA will be presented, and all participants will have an opportunity to have a working visit to the national ensemble ‘Kolo’.
As part of the accompanying programme of the symposium, the concert titled ‘Soundscapes of the Serbian Cultural Space’ will be held at the Ethnographic Museum on Monday, 4 September 2023, at 7 p.m., which will be organized in cooperation with the Department of Ethnomusicology of the Faculty of Musical Arts of the University of Arts in Belgrade and ‘Tradicija Viva’ ensemble will perform. Admission is free of charge.
The live stream of the opening ceremony and all lectures at the SASA Grand Hall is available at LIVE STREAMING