global music – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Musician Without Borders: Riff Cohen

“A musician without borders, singer-songwriter Riff Cohen shares her vision about intercultural dialogue in an interview for Culture(s) with Vivendi.

Born in Tel Aviv from a father of Tunisian origin and an Algerian mother who lived in France, Riff Cohen grew up in a multicultural environment. In her first album, A Paris (AZ, 2013), the young artist creates an atypical musical style, as eclectic as her origins. According to Riff Cohen, music can bridge cultures and foster mutual understanding.”

I think music is also a language…

Source: (2014). Riff Cohen: “I create a new culture that combines my different origins”. Vivendi.

See her YouTube channel to watch all her videos.

Using Music to Start Intercultural Dialogues

Luis Gimenez Amoros is an accomplished guitarist from the Valencia region of Spain. He combines traditional music from the Spanish Levant with musical influences from Europe, Asia and Africa, starting intercultural dialogues with other musicians as he travels.

Amoros conducts workshops, performs concerts, and records albums with the musicians he meets, and has been quoted as saying: “Music has its own map that goes beyond borders” (Abdullah, 2022). He also lectures on ethnomusicology for various universities, and publishes academic articles, such as:

Amoros, L. G. (2018). Nubenegra records and Saharawi music: A musical and social interaction beyond transnationalism. Expressions maghrébines, 17(2), 187-202.

For further information, follow the link to his website, where there are lots of other videos available, or read this article about one of his recent trips:

Abdullah, M. (2022, June 22). A musical journey from Spain to Egypt: Reconnecting cultures through sound. Egyptian Streets.

U Arts Helsinki: Global Music & Community Engagement (Finland)

Two positions in Global Music and Community Engagement, Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland. Deadline: different for each position (see below).

With a focus on intercultural dialogue and collaboration, the Global Music Department creates a unique educational environment for musicians from diverse musical and cultural backgrounds. Through the interwoven areas of the curriculum and immersion in an intercultural environment, students expand and deepen their musicianship, artistic identities, and approaches to arts-based community engagement and research. Degree studies are offered at bachelor, master, and doctoral levels, with students developing the ability to perform, create, communicate, collaborate, facilitate, carry out research, and lead in a wide range of musical, cultural, and socially engaged contexts.

In 2022, the new Elsa Brule Centre for Global Music and Community Engagement is being established under the umbrella of the Global Music Department, which will include this new lectureship post. As part of the work of the centre, students will utilise their unique skills to connect with the world around them through working on socially engaged community projects as an integral part of the curriculum. With the focus on creating art in collaboration with diverse areas of society, students and teachers facilitate projects in refugee centres, immigrant communities, schools, prisons, and with marginalised community groups in Finland and around the world.

There are two positions available:

Lecturer of Global Music and Community Engagement – deadline 23 April 2022

Professor of Global Music and Community Engagement – deadline 1 May 2022