Annual Conference 2015

‘Tracks less Travelled’ brings together scholarship that considers places and sounds beyond the canon of traditional music studies and ethnomusicology. While attention in Ireland has focused primarily on the musical traditions of the west, ignoring other regional and sometimes urban traditions, ethnomusicologists are becoming more aware of the cosmopolitan urban soundscapes of Ireland that can embrace the traditional musics of many cultures, while simultaneously revisiting previously studied traditions. The understanding of traditional music in Ireland is enhanced through engagement with other traditional musics in and from other parts of the world and a greater appreciation of the performance and development of Irish music abroad. The tracks that mark our journeys feed into the tracks that we listen to.

The Keynote speaker for the 2015 Annual Conference is Dr Christopher J. Smith from is Professor and Chair of Musicology/Ethnomusicology and director of the Vernacular Music Centre at the Texas Tech University School of Music. In 2015 Professor Smith will be a Visiting Researcher at the Section of Music, DkIT, delivering lectures and developing collaborations with the faculty through the support of the DkIT Research Office. The theme for this year’s conference invites scholars to address the complexities of diversity in ethnomusicology, places and sounds.