50th Anniversary World Music Symposium

From the Exotic to the Global: Perspectives and Reflections on Teaching World Music in the 21st Century

April 8-11, 2025

Fifty years ago, Kuo-Huang Han established the NIU School of Music’s world music curriculum and led students in our first world music concert on April 8, 1975. NIU will celebrate this milestone by hosting "From the Exotic to the Global," a 50th Anniversary World Music Symposium.

The symposium will provide a platform for music educators, ethnomusicologists, musicologists, composers, performers and interdisciplinary scholars in cultural studies to exchange innovative ideas about globalization in music practices in the 21st century.

Format and Themes

The symposium will include two keynote addresses, three lunch-time performances, two evening concerts, an open-mic night and a showcase world music concert, as well as research paper sessions, roundtable discussions and workshops/demonstrations.

To expand the term "world music" and its possibilities, the symposium will focus on three broad pedagogical trends:

World music in education: teaching methods, teacher training, the use of technology, the adoption of culturally responsive pedagogy, and instruction in music theory and music history
World music in performance and composition: the tension between preserving tradition and developing new stylistic approaches and stylistic fusions, as well as the use of mixed media to enhance musical creations in a wide variety of genres (i.e. visual arts, dance, theater)
World music in cultural studies: K-12 social studies and interdisciplinary studies in the arts and humanities (anthropology, history, art history, foreign languages, political science, sociology, intercultural communication, global studies, etc.)

Schedule

Wednesday, April 9

Time	Session Title	Presenter(s)	Location
8:30-9:30 a.m.	Reasoning Identities: A Study of Musical and Cultural Convergence in Birds of Angkor	Wai Hin Ko Ko	Room 157
	Adopting Egyptian Folk Music Practices in Miniature Piano Etudes to Improve Children's Eurhythm	Nahla Mattar and Marwa Abdel Salam	Recital Hall
	Buddhist Conceptions of Time, Nonduality, and Nirvana in the Music of Chinary Ung	Nicholas Fagnilli	Room 171
	Nurturing through Singing: Jing-Tang Songs Among Female Hui Muslims in Shandong, China	Jiaqi Li	Room 171
11-11:30 a.m.	Practices of Interdisciplinary Creations of Music in Higher Education	Ling-Huei Tsai	Recital Hall
11-11:30 a.m.	Embodied Music Theory - Teoría Corpórea de la Música	Iván Caramés Bohigas	Room 171
1:30-2:30 p.m.	Conveying Thai Intonation on Western Strings: New Approach to Pitch, Microtones, and Performance Practice	Athita Kuankachorn	Room 157
	The Integration of the Dizi Techniques in a Western Ensemble Setting	Hong Da Chin	Room 157
	Leveraging Midi Polyphonic Expressive Instruments for Creative Sonic Exploration in Microtonality and World Music	J. Byron Wise	Recital Hall
	Exploration of Contemporary Chinese Music Improvisation and Musicianship Pedagogy	Di Zhan	Room 171
2:45-3:45 p.m.	Influences of Western Individualistic Ideology in Building Thai Artists: A Case Study of Julian Cary	Julian Cary	Room 157
	Cultivating Music for All: The Experience and Practice of Yue Geng Nong Ensemble	Chih-I Hsiao	Room 157
	Teaching Japanese Music: Curriculum Design and Performance Activities for K-12 Schools and Colleges in the U.S.	Jittapim Nan Yamprai	Recital Hall
	Consideration, Fieldworks, and Politics for Composing for Non-Western Instruments	Ching Nam Hippocrates Cheng	Room 171
	Creating a New Voice with Gamelan	Chih-Chen Wei	Room 171
4-5 p.m.	Archival Videotapes and the Transmission of Cambodian Dance Stories	Toni Shapiro-Phim and Phousita Huy	Room 157
	Jazz Modes Resembling Jins and Maqam: Jazz Imitations of Middle Eastern Melodic Sounds	Sopon Suwannakit	Room 157
	Making “Chinese Music” in Canada	Matthew Poon	Recital Hall
	Pedagogical Approaches to the Seven-Character Melody in Taiwanese Opera	Hsin Yen Yu and Ming-Lin Chen	Recital Hall
	World Music Textbook Workshop	Kristina Nielsen, Jessie Vallejo, and Chris Witulski	Room 171

Thursday, April 10

Time	Session Title	Presenter	Location
8:30-9:30 a.m.	The Philharmonic Chorus of Tokyo and Its Diverse Activities: From World Heritage Cathedral to Local Elementary Schools	Hiroshi Ando	Room 157
	Singing Across Cultures: Practical Approaches to Thai Choral Repertoire	Dolhathai Intawong	Room 157
	From Body to Sound: Complementarity and Inspiration in String Instrument Learning and Practice	Kuan-Yun Huang	Recital Hall
	Sounding Trauma: The Musical Classroom in the Moria Refugee Camp	Jennifer Sherrill	Recital Hall
	A Pedagogical Approach to Cumbia: The Colombian Diaspora in Nuevo León, México	Fernando Marroquin Mendoza	Room 171
9:45-10:45 a.m.	Bridging Cultures and Technologies: Exploring Digital Tools for Teaching Culturally Diverse Musics	Hyesoo Yoo	Room 157
	The Application of AI Technology in World Music Education, Using Northern European Music as an Example	Wen-Hsiu Chen	Room 157
	Shūbūkai, The Fujima Style School of Classical Dance	Yoshinojo Fujima (Rika Lin)	Recital Hall
	Questioning the Appreciation of Thai Traditional Music through Western-Thai Choral Arrangements: A Case Study of Chulalongkorn University Chamber Choir	Pawasut Piriyapongrat	Room 171
	Open Heart, Open Mind: Performing World Music in Your Own Backyard	Eric Johnson	Room 171
1:30-2:30 p.m.	Building a Korean Community through Music	Byung Sug Kim	Room 157
	Teaching Korean Music in the U.S.	Hyunchae Kim	Recital Hall
	In Search of Authentic Assessment: Self-Assessment in the World Music Classroom	Nancy P. Riley	Room 171
	We Know What We Like, We Like What We Know: Integrating Positive Leadership Strategies in Secondary School World Music Courses	Micayla Bellamy Adams	Room 171
	Sounding Time and Space: Jose Maceda's Cassettes 100 (1971)	Laverne David C. de la Pena	Concert Hall
2:45-3:45 p.m.	Centering Orality and Holistic Learning in Music Pedagogy: Afro-Cuban Santeria and Collaborative Intercultural Exchanges	Zane Cupec, Melvis Santa	Room 157
	Questioning Celtic: Critical Discussions of Traditional Music, Heritage, and Belonging in a University Setting	Jonathon Smith	Room 157
	Expanding Musical Horizons: Integrating Korean Folk Traditions into School Curricula	Hyesoo Yoo	Recital Hall
	Integrating World Music Pedagogy in Middle School Choir Education: A Case Study from Southern Arizona	Jiayi Wang	Room 171
4-5 p.m.	Culturally Responsive Music Teaching in the Singapore Context	Eddy K.M. Chong	Room 157
	The Animal Dance as an Integrated Learning Activity for Primary School Students	Nikolay Demerdzhiev	Room 157
	Communities of Global Music: The History of the Center for World Music	Nolan Andrew Vallier	Room 171
	Distant Proximities: Re-imagining Our Instrument, Our Voice, a Performance-Based Workshop in Improvisatory Cultural Encounters	Kit Young	Concert Hall

Friday, April 11

Time	Session Title	Presenter	Location
8:30-9:30 a.m.	You Have a Banda, and You Don't Know It!	Roberto De Leon	Recital Hall
	Composing Across Traditions: A Javanese-Arabic Modal Fusion in Classical Samai Form	Albert Agha	Room 157
	Intercultural Competence and General Music Education: A Practitioner's Approach	Manju Durairaj	Room 171
9:45- 10:45 a.m.	Mariachi Melodies, Equal Futures: Harmonizing Education for All	Tony Ozuna	Recital Hall
9:45- 10:45 a.m.	Culturally Responsive Teaching Through Korean Samulnori Percussion	Jordan Yi	Room 171

History of World Music at NIU

NIU Presidential Teaching Professor Emeritus Han and his graduate student Jeff Abell titled the April 1975 concert "Musica Exotica," to both attract a large audience and suggest the "exotic" excitement of the non-western classical music featured in the concert. For most audience members from the NIU community, this concert was their first opportunity to see and hear instruments and music styles from around the world.

Fifty years later, NIU's world music offerings are no longer exotic but rather an integral part of the fabric of our community and a distinctive element of NIU's proud tradition of excellence. This is the powerful result of the tireless efforts of generations of enthusiastic scholars, performing artists and educators on and off the NIU campus who have developed and presented hundreds of concert performances and outreach programs over the past half-century.

Today, it is a matter of course to hear NIU's panoply of world music ensembles and our excellent steel band. Our rich, deep and pioneering history has both paved a nationwide path for academic world music studies and is simultaneously a reflection of broadening trends in musical idioms and practices since the 1970s. It is precisely this history and trajectory that has generated the theme of our symposium.

Travel Arrangements

Symposium Accommodation

Holmes Student Center Hotel

Book a room for your stay April 8-11. Use promo code 5159 for symposium participants.

Airport Pick-Up and Drop-Off Service

Evergreen Limousine and Transportation
Bill Lamb
Mobile Phone: 815-761-4449
Email: Psipower12@gmail.com

The rate for one way pickup/drop-off is $125 per person (before tips). Each additional passenger sharing the same ride will be an extra $10. It is recommended that you contact Bill Lamb at Psipower12@gmail.com to arrange the airport ride as soon as you have your flight booked.

Directions to NIU Main Campus in DeKalb

From the West

Exit I-88 at Annie Glidden Road.

From the East

Take I-90: Exit at Rt. 47 South to Rt. 38 West to Annie Glidden Road.
Take I-88: Exit at Annie Glidden Road.

From Midway Airport

Exit north on Cicero Avenue.
(IL Rt. 50) to I-55 South (Stevenson Expressway) to I-355 North (North-South Tollway) to I-88 West (East-West Tollway)
Exit at Annie Glidden Road.

From O'Hare Airport

Exit I-190 to I-294 South (Tri-State Tollway) to I-88 West (East-West Tollway) to Annie Glidden Road.

From the North or South

Exit I-39 to I-88 East to Annie Glidden Road.

Parking and Campus Map

Parking
Interactive Campus Map

MIDSEM Annual Meeting

April 11-12, 2025

The Midwest Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (MIDSEM) annual meeting will take place, at NIU. The opening session will be a joint event with the World Music Symposium. Register and/or submit a proposal today.

Learn More