NCCO Pre-Conference Virtual Session with The Choral Commons

Emilie Amrein (University of San Diego)

André de Quadros (Boston University)

POSTPONED

This will be rescheduled in the coming weeks.
Please stay tuned for updated registration information.

Purpose: To prepare to engage with the theme of Building the Beloved Community, NCCO presents a pre-conference with Dr Emilie Amrein and Dr André de Quadros.

Building the Beloved Community is the dream of our time, and yet feels somehow almost unreachable. Choral music has frequently been proclaimed as a means of achieving this dream. “Choral music brings people together,” we are told. This narrative unfortunately neglects the reality that choral music has often been used in ways that serve the purposes of certain elites: e.g., to strengthen structural and systemic violence and exclusion, to reinforce white supremacy, to establish colonial hegemony, to normalize various forms of violence, and to silence marginalized people. This exploitation of choral music is particularly tragic because, as we know, choral music can be a site of resistance to these forces, leading us towards joy, inspiration, and justice. This pre-conference webinar will explore these issues, through readings, viewings, and discussion drawing attention to a vast kaleidoscope of choral singing, the often contested and complex relationship between choral music and community, and abolitionist choral practices for compassionate and just futures.