Category: Social Justice
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The experience of casual teachers at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Following on from my blog yesterday, I’m sharing the second article I prepared for @SydneyCon students before the strikes last week, so they would understand why we’re striking, and perhaps even join us on the picket line to ask for better working conditions for the teachers which we argue are better learning conditions for them.…
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Why our Conservatory students should care about the 40:40:20
This last week, I was a picket captain for the first time in my life, during the two-day #USydStrike. While I’ve decades of experience in social justice work, from marching in rallies, to picketing visiting politicians, through to my teaching and research/creative work, I only joined and became active in the National Tertiary Education Union…
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Why should Sydney Conservatorium students support their teachers?
In this blog I’m sharing the third “explainer” that I made for @SydneyCon students about not only why NTEU members were striking last week, but also why they ought to support that strike by not crossing the picket line (or even joining us on it!). This explainer was a little more chatty… OK, so we…
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Αγάπη (Agapi) and other kinds of love (Music Theatre/Hip-Hop/Intercultural Art)
Premiered at the National Museum of Australia, April 2022 Concert blurb: Experience Agapi & Other Kinds of Love by renowned Greek-Australian poet and rapper Luka Lesson. Accompanied by cinematic scores and hip-hop numbers composed by Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s James Humberstone, this soulful performance will ignite your heart. Agapi & Other Kinds of Love tells the story of…
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Luka Lesson X James Humberstone, locked down 20-21
Luka and I had been working on Odysseus since 2016, but it became clear that our massive orchestral-choral-Hip-Hop-cinematic theatrical work wasn’t going to premiere through the pandemic, so we got to work remotely, through the lockdowns, on three orchestrated video-poems, written and performed by Luka, with music by me. There’s a strong theme of Social…
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Empathy in the time of division (viola & electronics)
JamesHumbers · Empathy in a time of division My submission for the 2020 “Art Has To Be Contagious” installation in Tübingen, Germany, Empathy in a time of division is for electronics with solo viola and delay. [See art-has-to-be-contagious.com for more.] Live viola performed by the wonderful Connor Malanos. Please contact me if you’d like to…
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Class, control, and classical music
Last week I was lucky enough to meet Anna Bull, the author of Class, Control, and Classical Music (Oxford University Press, 2019: Kindle | OUP). We had a great chat over a long lunch and I know her work is going to make a huge impact on my own, both research-wise and in my teaching.…
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Music Zettel Ep. 4 – Music Education & Social Justice
I’ve been to Alice Springs to work on a new project, Ilyawe, and in this episode I introduce the project in the context of social justice in Music Education. You can find out much more about the project at its website, www.ilyaweproject.com. There is a longer version of this podcast at https://humberstone.org/?p=1219 with more background about the…
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Music Zettel Ep. 4 – longer version – Music Education & Social Justice
This is the longer version of Episode 4 of my podcast, Music Zettel, in which I’ve included more information about the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in contemporary Australian society for context for listeners, especially from overseas, who may not know the background. Note – I suggest you don’t listen to this…
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The Weight of Light (Song Cycle)
Australia’s participation in the war in Afghanistan is the nation’s longest ever military involvement. What happens when an Australian soldier, who is carrying a dark secret, is forced to confront the full force of the family that he left behind? Nigel Featherstone A song cycle commissioned by the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium of Music with The…