Interweaving Music Styles: Does Anyone Have A Guide?
In the world of music, the blending of different styles is now widely regarded as a positive source of creativity and merit. Encouraged by renowned figures, institutions, festivals and residencies, more and more musicians are being drawn into experimenting with forms of intercultural collaboration. These dynamics sometimes produce paradoxical effects, giving rise to uncertainties and debates regarding the assessment of musical value: in what way can an intercultural musical encounter be deemed “beautiful” or “virtuous”? For whom, and according to what criteria? Should we consider only the outcomes of these collaborations, or also the manner in which the encounter unfolds, the quality of the relationships and, ultimately, the process rather than the result?
This presentation will be structured in two parts. First, I will review observations I have made as an ethnomusicologist working on intercultural music festivals and projects in Europe (Germany, France). I shall compare a number of cases, their differing conditions of possibility and visibility, and the questions and debates they have raised. I will then discuss my experience as a Professor appointed in 2025 at the Geneva University of Music. How can we address intercultural issues within such an institution, which is driven by a ideal of openness but also by long-standing structures or mindsets that may hinder this openness? How can we encourage creative and reflexive intercultural approaches?
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