Conference Program

Choral practice constitutes a privileged space of cultural participation in which individuals and groups build forms of belonging, learn shared practices, and negotiate collective meanings. This experience is not merely a musical activity but also a social context in which forms of cooperation, mutual recognition, and participation in the cultural life of the community develop. Choral practice can also be interpreted as a form of cultural literacy through which individuals acquire tools to recognize, interpret, and attribute meaning to the cultural products they encounter throughout their lives. Participation contributes to the development of an interpretive competence that allows individuals to orient themselves critically within the symbolic systems of their community, thus constituting an important dimension of citizenship formation (Turino 2008).
The choir can therefore be interpreted as a community of practice, a social space in which learning, the transmission of knowledge, and the construction of identity occur through both shared participation in a common activity and processes of situated learning, in which musical and relational competences gradually develop within collective practice (Lave & Wenger 1991).
This contribution is based on twenty years of research conducted through methods typical of anthropological inquiry and complemented by a component of autoethnography, which values the researcher’s direct involvement within the practice under study as a tool for analysis and critical reflection (Ellis, Adams & Bochner 2011). Choirs are observed as micro-communities comparable to the villages traditionally studied in anthropology: circumscribed social spaces in which it is possible to analyze from within forms of organization, systems of relationships, collective rituals, and the processes through which belonging is constructed.
The comparison between two case studies is conceived as an exercise in comparative ethnography aimed at highlighting how different configurations produce distinct modes of participation. The study compares two geographically close contexts characterized by different forms of organization and participation: Lombardy and Trentino.
In the Lombard context, choral practice tends to take the form of a community of practice oriented toward identity and group stability: joining a choir often implies exclusive and long-term participation, fostering strong collective identification and lasting social bonds. In the Trentino context, by contrast, a more fluid and network-based model of participation emerges, in which singers with recognized competences may participate in multiple ensembles and actively negotiate their presence and musical trajectories.
This comparison highlights a tension between two different modes of participation: on the one hand, a model based on identity-based belonging and group stability; on the other, a model characterized by mobility, multiple affiliations, and greater individual autonomy. Which of these forms of participation proves more effective in fostering processes that contribute to the construction of active citizenship?
Through this open question, the contribution proposes to examine choral practice as a space in which dynamics of belonging and negotiation emerge, reflecting on the role of such practices in educational contexts as sites of participation, social formation, and the construction of democratic values.