Choral Singing and the Transnational

This Royal Musical Association (RMA) Study Day is jointly hosted by the University of Glasgow and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, and will take place in the Scottish Music Centre on Friday, 11th April 2025. Registration begins at 0930, with introductions and the keynote starting at 1000.

Choral singing occupies a significant place in the field of participatory music-making and has in recent years become the focus of several diverse strands of academic study. What might be described as a ‘choral turn’ over the last two decades has seen developments within the fields of historical musicology (Strimple 2005 & 2008; Geisler & Johansson 2014), singing for health (Robertson-Kirkland et al 2021), and practice-based research focussed on collective music-making (McCoy 2013). However, questions of transnationalism, migration, and postnationalism (Appadurai 1996; Tölölyan 1996) as they might apply to choral culture, writing and practice, are currently under-represented within the academic narrative, although studies within the field of music more broadly have successfully applied sociological and cultural-historical frameworks (Bohlman and Scheding 2015; Knyt 2018; Treece 2022).

This Study Day therefore questions how we might understand choral music making as a transnational force by exploring the intersection between its history and contemporary praxis. This includes, but is not restricted to composition, conducting and musical direction, and musicology. It will offer an opportunity to bring together musicologists, composers, musical directors, and singers whose work includes elements of transnational practice, or with lived transnational experience.

Please note that access to the Scottish Music Centre is via the Stage Door on 87 Albion Street, G1 1NY.

Presentations and workshops by:
John Butt (Keynote Speaker; University of Glasgow)
Róisín Blunnie and Laura Sheils (Dublin City University)
Laura Silva (Ohio University)
Marina Rossi (University of Trento)
Ashley Holdsworth Quinn (University of Glasgow)
Kenneth Tay (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)

Organising Committee:
Ashley Holdsworth Quinn (University of Glasgow)
Kenneth Tay (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland)
Kotryna Starkutė (KMH Stockholm)
With the support of Maureen Wolloshin (RMA Student Liaison Officer)