International Musical Entities in the 21st Century: The Impacts of Global and Transnational Flows
Chair(s): John Pippen (Colorado State University)
This panel features ethnographic case studies that examine how trendsetting contemporary musical establishments such as international music festivals and music conservatories are continually shaped and transformed by accelerating currents of globalization and transnational politics. By focusing on four geopolitically distinct localities from the U.S., Europe, and Central Asia, the presenters of this panel demonstrate how global and transnational forces inform the development of these localities’ diverse cultural practices, values, and identities. Drawing on ethnomusicological methodologies, the panel underscores the complexities that underlie the convergence of locally-determined traditional attitudes and personal and institutional efforts to attain cosmopolitan ideals. In “African American Jazz in Diaspora,” the author illustrates how jazz conservatories in Denmark serve as preeminent sites to observe one confluence of racial strains and ethical principles that guide the institutionalization of African American jazz in diaspora. Similarly, in “See Local, Listen Global,” the author presents a case in which an internationally acclaimed, locally-organized music festival in East Tennessee capitalizes on traditional Appalachian aesthetic parameters to achieve its cosmopolitan aspirations. “The Colorado City Music Festival” represents the clash between religious creeds of an orthodox Mormon community in Southern Utah and secular ideals of a cosmopolitan world. “Zamanvi or Emruzi Music,” a twenty-minute, ethnographic documentary, showcases how traditionally-trained musicians in the geopolitically isolated countries of Iran and Tajikistan strive to gain global status by participating in international music scenes and by creating music that adapts their traditional repertories to globally accepted musical criteria.
Presentations in the Session
African American jazz in diaspora: The case of Denmark’s Rytmisk Musik conservatories
Leslie C. Gay Jr.
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Scholarship following Gilroy’s work contends with longstanding questions about the role of the Americas in shaping African diasporic musics, like jazz. Models of diaspora range from ideologies that privilege the U.S. as a site of origin (Atkins), to others that decenter Black American musicians in favor of transglobal networks (Johnson), to those that emphasize patterns of emigration and homecoming (Flores). These debates highlight questions of race, racism, national identities, and global flows. Through ethnographic and historical methods, I consider these questions with respect to an under-explored case study—the institutionalization of American jazz into the national identity and educational agenda of Denmark, as pioneered by Astrid Gøssel (1891-1975) and Bernard Christensen (1906-2004). Known for embedding jazz within Danish educational institutions, Gøssel and Christensen were musicians, scholars, and educators who promoted Black music as intellectually and musically meaningful, and as a pathway to alternative sounds and practices. The establishment of jazz conservatories under the rubric of rytmisk musik in the 1980s—led by musician-educators Lief Falk, Astrid Elbek, and Erik Moseholm—crystallized Gøssel and Christensen’s ideals in celebrating jazz for its musical freedoms and social consciousness. How does a sense of Americanness persist into this diasporic context? In part, Denmark’s educational ideology connects deeply with African American musicians, many of whom emigrated to Denmark and toured there. However, Danish advocacy of jazz established a cultural-racial tension of diasporic articulations that, following Edwards (2003), translate across explicit gaps of difference, that opened doors for Black musicians and jazz, but within problematic stereotypes.
See Local, Listen Global: Perceiving “Knoxvillian” at the Big Ears Festival
Nicholas Horner
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Nestled in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, the Big Ears Festival transforms Knoxville’s downtown into a cosmopolitan center. I argue in my paper that Big Ears nurtures perceptions of a distinct “Knoxvillian” creative culture while promoting the city’s Southern Appalachian identity to support festival branding within a global music market. In March 2025, the Big Ears Festival featured internationally acclaimed artists such as Rufus Wainwright, Anoushka Shankar, and Bela Fleck. Within this diverse lineup, Festival Executive/Artistic Director Ashley Capps integrated performances by Knoxville musicians as well as collaborations between visiting artists and local ensembles such as the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Opera Gospel Choir, and St. John’s Episcopal Choir. The Big Ears Festival featured local performers within carefully curated historic and non-traditional venue spaces that enhanced their appeal for a cosmopolitan/international audience. Big Ears’ strategic programming highlights Knoxville’s forward-thinking sensibilities and promotes the multicultural character of the city. Informed by ethnographic data collected during my multi-year engagement as a festival contractor, I explain the ways in which Knoxville’s progressive attitudes intertwine with traditional local values and aesthetics. Moreover, my paper sheds light upon the juxtaposition of local and cosmopolitan values within the festival’s program and its engagement with citywide issues of gentrification, inaccessibility, and class divide. This paper contributes to the ethnomusicological literature that focuses on the intersection of identity and festivalization of local values, exposing the role skillful staging of musical acts can play in shaping public perceptions of identity.
The Colorado City Music Festival: Mormonism, Intercultural Hospitality, and Secular Ideals
Mehrenegar Rostami
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Collectively known as Short Creek, the twin towns of Colorado City and Hildale have been host to the annual Colorado City Music Festival (CCM) in Southern Utah since 2015. Drawing on twelve months of ethnographic research on the Mormon community in this region, I argue that an ethos of intercultural hospitality that emerges through the CCM festival marks a key point in secularizing Morman cultural practices and reviving musical activities. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) had banned music for decades. Adherents of FLDS split from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in the mid-nineteenth century over leadership controversies concerning the practice of polygamy. Located within the isolating walls of the Canaan mountains, the FLDS community remained hidden from the prying eyes of the outside world. A noticeable number of Short Creek residents continued to follow the FLDS’s principal tenets after the U.S. government arrested their controversial leader Warren Jeffs in 2006. Others who were cast away or had voluntarily left the church sought to engage with the world through intercultural exchanges. Organized by a transplanted West-Georgian, country-blues musician Tom Bennett, CCM offered an avenue to achieve this objective by promoting the ethos of intercultural hospitality. This ethos enables the Short Creek community to host a wide range of musicians and audiences from across the U.S. Moreover, it contributes to an ethnomusicological understanding of how this community negotiates secular ideals to preserve aspects of their traditional Mormon identity in an increasingly globalized world.
Zamanavi or Emruzi: Music as a Gateway to the World
Hiwa Hawaii
N/A
Zamanavi or Emruzi is a short documentary that features how local and traditional musicians in Iran and Tajikistan attempt to make their music globally relevant. Iran and Tajikistan are two countries in central regions of Asia that have been relatively isolated from the international community due to their geographical location and authoritarian politics. Hence, musicians have had limited opportunities to readily travel to different parts of the world or engage with the global music industry. Yet, the ethnographic interviews I made between 2015 and 2018 with the help of my partner reveal that they have become increasingly conscious in engaging with educational and musical activities that can make their music more appealing to a global audience and garner them global recognition. Employing the term zamanavi (заманави: modern), Tajik traditional musicians in Dushanbe relentlessly emphasize the significance of composing or producing music that can fit the Zeitgeist of their time. To make their music zamanavi or modern, they perform at festivals that are typically modeled after their European or North American counterparts, they integrate Western popular instruments such as synthesizer and guitar into their traditional ensembles, and they employ electric or amplified versions of their traditional musical instruments. Similarly, in Iran, local musicians proactively look for opportunities through which they can develop their craft as emruzi (امروزی: contemporary) to an audience outside the national borders of Iran. This documentary highlights important ethnomusicological issues such as how global exchanges can lead to the creation of new identities among musicians.
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