Interweaving Music Styles: Does Anyone Have A Guide?
The blending of different musical styles is increasingly regarded as a source of creativity and artistic value. Encouraged by prominent figures, institutions, festivals and residencies, more musicians are experimenting with intercultural collaboration. Yet these encounters can also generate uncertainty and debate around musical value: in what way can an intercultural musical encounter be considered “beautiful” or “virtuous”? For whom, and according to what criteria? Should we assess only the outcome, or also the quality of the encounter, relationships and processes through which it unfolds?
This presentation draws on two perspectives. First, I will examine observations from my work as an ethnomusicologist on intercultural music festivals and projects in Germany and France, comparing their differing conditions of possibility and visibility and the questions they raise. I will then reflect on my experience as a Professor appointed in 2025 at the Geneva University of Music: How can intercultural issues be addressed within an institution committed to openness while shaped by longstanding structures and mindsets? How might we encourage more creative and reflexive approaches to intercultural musical practice?
Prof Talia Bachir-Loopuyt
Talia Bachir-Loopuyt is an ethnomusicologist and anthropologist specialising in the music of the Maghreb and Middle East, particularly Turkey, and its dissemination and transmission in Europe. She trained in Germanic Studies at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and in oriental music at the École Nationale de Musique in Villeurbanne and in Turkey.
Her doctoral research, conducted jointly at EHESS Paris and Humboldt University Berlin, focused on world music festivals and the ideal of a plural society in Germany. As a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Saint-Etienne and University of Lausanne, she studied the dissemination of Turkish music in France, the visibility of Islam, and the history of ethnomusicology, child musicians and music in plural societies.
Since 2016, she has been a senior lecturer at the University of Tours, where she contributed to the creation of the Master in Music and Human Sciences. She is involved in several academic organisations and journal committees, and is co-director of the Haizebegi festival in Bayonne and a member of the scientific board of the CMTRA – Ethnopôle Musique, territoires, interculturalité.
Haute école de musique de Genève