Boyoung Chang

Boyoung Chang is an assistant professor in East Asian Studies at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on the production and circulation of photography and art created in and about modern and contemporary Korea. She has published work on the visuality of both North and South Korea and is currently working on a book project analyzing how Korean photography since the 1990s has embodied the nation's transformation, represented by democratization and globalization.

Sounds of Haunted Past: Kim Young Eun's Multimedia Art

Zhishu Chang is a Chinese composer and performer based in Baltimore. Described as meticulous, adventurous, and inclusive, her music often draws influences from traditional Chinese music. Artistically, she strives to express humanity's sympathy and arouse concern for self-esteem, the natural environment, and intercultural reflections. Chang has collaborated with leading groups and soloists including the TAK Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Next ensemble (mixed choir), Divertimento Ensemble, Beijing Contemporary Soloists, Irvine Arditti, Ryan Muncy, Li-Chin Li, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Academia China, China Huaxia National Orchestra, Valencia International Contemporary Ensemble (VICE), Trio Clavino, and Hopkins East Asian Traditional Music Ensemble (HEAT). Chang holds a BM in composition from the China Conservatory of Music and an MM in composition from the Peabody Institute. She is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in composition at the Peabody Institute studying with Felipe Lara and Du Yun.

Zhishu Chang

Intercultural Fusion and Embodiment of Guqin Aesthetics in Lei Liang's Harp Concerto

Ian Chung

Ian Yeonchan Chung is a composer who creates a distinctive voice by combining elements of classical, jazz, and non-Western music to transcend cultural boundaries and reach a diverse audience globally. Chung recently won numerous awards, including the James E. Croft Grant for Emerging Wind Band Composers, the Dr. Gerald Kemner Prize Orchestra Composition Competition, the ASCAP Louis Armstrong Scholarship, the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music, and the 8th Esko Linnavalli Big Band Composition Competition in Finland. He is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory under Dr. Chen Yi’s guidance. He completed his Master of Music at Brooklyn College under the supervision of Tania León and Jason Eckardt, where he cultivated his cosmopolitan approach to music composition. He also studied jazz composition with Michael Mossman, who helped to build his musical identity.

Composing Democracy: Political Music of Isang Yun and the Construction of Collective Identity

Michael Frishkopf

Michael Frishkopf, Professor of Music at the University of Alberta, is an ethnomusicologist, performer, and composer. A graduate of Yale College (BS Mathematics, 1984), Tufts University (MA Ethnomusicology,1989), and the University of California, Los Angeles (Ph.D. Music, 1999), Dr. Frishkopf's ethnomusicological research interests include music of the Arab world; Sufi music; sound in Islamic ritual performance; sound therapies; music and religion; music and architecture; comparative music theory; social network analysis; digital music repositories. His research combine a number of different fields, including ethnomusicology, anthropology, Middle East studies, religious/Islamic studies, psychoacoustics, computer science, media studies, literary studies, music theory. He has received fellowships supporting his research, including grants from NFRF, AMII, Fulbright, the American Research Center in Egypt, the Social Science Research Council, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the Killam Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Synergies of the Nay and the Shakuhachi: a duet through nature, culture, sound, ritual, and mysticism

Xingyu Ji

Xingyu JI (Cynthia), PhD candidate in Peking University School of Arts. She holds a B.A. in piano performance from the School of Music in Soochow University, a M.A. in music from Hong Kong Baptist University and M.A. in musicology from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Her recent research areas include German romantic works in the 19th century, American experimental music in the 20th century, contemporary Chinese music works, the cross-cultural music research of Chinese and Western music compositions, and sound art. Her papers have been published in academic journals such as Journal of Northern Music, Music Research. She has attended and published her papers in many international academic conferences, including Royal Music Society Annual Conference (RMA), European Chinese Music Fund International Conference (CHIME), the International Musicological Society Regional Association for East Asia (IMSEA).

Examining “Chineseness” in Contemporary Cross-Cultural Music: A Study of Tan Dun’s Works

Gamin Kang

Gamin is a multi-dimensional artist performing across the genres of traditional Korean music and cross-disciplinary collaborations worldwide. Ralph Samuelson, a senior advisor of Asian Cultural Council, praised gamin as "a true pioneer and innovator, leading traditional instruments in exciting new directions."Gamin plays 3 types of Korean winds and is a designated Yisuja, official holder of Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 46 for Court and Royal Military music. She holds a PhD in Korean Musical Arts at Seoul National University. Re-inventing new sonorities from ancient, somewhat restrictive, musical systems, gamin has received several cultural exchange program grants, including Artist-in-Residence at the Asian Cultural Council, and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Korea. Gamin has collaborated in cross-cultural improvisation with world-acclaimed musicians Jane Ira Bloom, Elliot Sharp, Ned Rothenberg, Jen Shyu, and was a featured artist in Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road Ensemble.

Unveiling Lou Harrison’s Korean Inspirations: Musical Exploration of Piri, Court Music, and Cross-Cultural Creation

Eunmi Ko

Hailed as exceedingly interesting(New York Concert Review) and kaleidoscopic(San Francisco Classical Voice), Eunmi Ko concertizes as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout Asia, Europe, and the Americas and appeared in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, and Herbst Theater, among others. As a sought-after collaborator and champion of new music, she works with contemporary composers, ensembles, performers, and other artists. Ko was an artist-in residence for McCormick Percussion Group, Iceberg New Music Institute, Present Music, COMA (Madrid International New Music Festival), San Francisco International Piano Festival. Ko holds graduate degrees (MM and DMA) from the Eastman School of Music. As is the Co-founder and President of the Tampa-based new music organization Contemporary Art Music Project (CAMP) she has developed intercultural composition projects with Korean composers, working specifically with Asian female composers on creative projects addressing race and gender prejudice.

Project Muted: New Works by Asian Female Composers for Prepared Piano

Shirly Mac

Shirley Mak is a Musicology/Ethnomusicology Ph.D. candidate at Brown University. Her dissertation research focuses on intercultural collaborative music making within the Silkroad Ensemble and Global Musician Workshop. Her interests also include issues of music and identity, the impact of globalization on music (including the diasporic and transnational in music studies, and world music), and the inclusion of postcolonial theories and global discourses in Western classical music pedagogy. She received her M.A. in Musicology from the University of Amsterdam, and her B.A. in Music from Queens College, CUNY.

Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop in Hangzhou, China

Chelsea McBride

Driven by an endless need for expressing herself creatively, composer and multi-instrumentalist Chelsea McBride is establishing herself as a mainstay of the Canadian and American jazz scenes. Now based between Miami and Vancouver, McBride made her first international trip guest conducting at the 2019 Perth International Jazz Festival and Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival in support of her recent big band recording, Aftermath. She successfully completed an 11-city cross-Canada tour with her big band, Chelsea McBride’s Socialist Night School, in the summer of 2018, and has performed at JazzYYC, the Halifax Jazz Festival, and the TD Toronto Jazz Festival among others. She has been named one of Canada’s top 35 jazz musicians under 35 by the CBC and was the inaugural recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Emerging Jazz Artist Award.Chelsea is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, but maintains a busy binational performance schedule. Chelsea has released three albums with Chelsea and the Cityscape and three with her Socialist Night School, all of which can be found on Bandcamp.

Kogun, Toshiko Akiyoshi

Kanykei Mukhtarova

Education PhD in Ethnomusicology, University of Alberta, Canada. Diploma in piano performance and teaching (honours). Kanykei is a PhD graduate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta, Canada and aresearch fellow at the University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan.She graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire Musical College (Moscow, Russia) and the Kyrgyz National Conservatory (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan). Kanykei attended the Arts Management program at Indiana University, USA and was an intern at Folkways Records at the Smithsonian Institution. In 2006, Kanykei established the annual Bishkek International Jazz Festival which she managed until 2018. In 2008, she established the “Public Foundation Central Asian Arts Management,” which facilitates different cultural projects in the Central Asian region. Her research interests include Central Asian music, ethnojazz in Central Asia, twentieth-century Kyrgyz opera, music and identity, jazz fusion, multiculturalism and applied ethnomusicology.

The New Music of Central Asia: Collective composition as a means of expression for musicians in the region

Afarin Nazarijou

Afarin Nazarijou’s musical journey began in Tehran, Iran, where she discovered her passion for music at the age of five. Initially trained in piano, her true calling emerged when she found the Qanun, a traditional Persian string instrument. Graduating from the Tehran Music School, she furthered her education at the University of Tehran, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Performing Iranian music. Continuing her studies, Afarin pursued a master’s program in Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory of Music. Under acclaimed mentors, she honed her skills, graduating with honors in 2021. Seeking further enrichment, she earned another master’s degree at the University of Alberta in 2023.With captivating performances blending traditional Persian melodies with modern improvisation, Afarin has enthralled audiences worldwide. She now shares her passion and expertise as a teacher assistant at the University of Alberta.

On My Compositions

Tung Nguyen

Vietnamese keyboardist Tung Nguyen is a graduate of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary, and holds a DMA in Piano Performance from the University of Oregon, having specialized in historical performance practice and piano pedagogy. He has performed in numerous concerts in Europe and Oregon as a soloist and collaborative pianist. He is the laureate of national and international piano competitions, notably the Young Musician International Competition ‘Città di Barletta’ in Italy, and the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Young Artist Competition spanning Oregon and the Northwest region. Tung Nguyen has performed with major chamber groups and orchestras in Oregon, including the Eugene Symphony, Oregon Bach Collegium, Oregon Mozart Players, and at the Oregon Bach Festival. Tung's research interest includes piano pedagogy, iconography, early music, and Vietnamese music. Tung is currently on the piano faculty at Oregon State University.

LECTURE-RECITAL: LOUISE THÁI THỊ LANG’S FÊTES DU TÊT - A MUSICAL REPRESENTATION OF VIETNAMESE CULTURE

Edy Panjaitan

bio

Piano Music of Ananda Sukarlan

Deepak Paramashivan

Dr. Deepak Paramashivan holds PhD's from the University of Alberta (Ethnomusicology) and the Indian Institute of Science (Energy and Climate Engineering) in India. He is an assistant professor in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India. He is a professional Indian Sarangi player, having toured throughout Europe, USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea both as a soloist and collaborating with Ustad Aashish Khan, Pandit Swapan Chaudhary, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Pandit Yogesh Samsi, Pandit Birju Maharaj, A R Rehman and the Hollywood music director Rick Boston. An expert Sanskrit scholar and actor in South Indian traditional theatre, he has acted and composed music in Indian films such as the Sanskrit/Kannada bilingual film Ekachakram and Kannada film Maavu-Bevu. Working at the intersection of music composition, healthcare and technology, he is currently pursuing a PhD in Music and AI at the University of Alberta.

The Use of Western Music in the Indian Cinema

Madlen Poguntke

Madlen Poguntke is a flutist and musicologist whose work bridges artistic practice and academic research. She holds two Bachelor of Music degrees and the Staatsexamen in secondary school music education from the University of Regensburg. She earned two Master of Music degrees in flute and traverso at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and a Master of Arts in musicology at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Her research focuses on historical performance practice, socio-historical aspects of music, and the impact of AI on music. She is currently pursuing a PhD in music education in Munich and a PhD in musicology at Seoul National University. She has received multiple awards and scholarships and was honored for her artistic achievement as a cultural representative of her hometown. In addition to her artistic work, she contributes reviews and essays to leading music journals, engaging in scholarly discourse on music.

Female Composers in the Shift of Societal Reflections A Comparative Study of Germany and South Korea

Mehdi Rezania

Mehdi Rezania, born in Abadeh, Iran, is a composer, santur player, and researcher. He started music at age 13 and studied the advanced method of santur playing under Ardavan Kamkar in Tehran. He co-founded Baarbad Music in Toronto with Toloe Roushenas and has performed numerous times with many local and international musicians. His music projects have been supported by grants from the art councils of Toronto, Edmonton, Ontario, Alberta, and Canada. His composition received the bi-annual Robert Stenson Award from the Society of Ethnomusicology. He has released five music albums and presented his research at over twenty national and international conferences. Rezania has been the music advisor to Iranian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Tirgan Festival in Toronto. He has a BFA and MA in music composition from York University and an MA and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Alberta. His interest is in the contemporary classical music of Iran, from analytical and theoretical to contemporary history and cultural issues.

Bicultural Composition: Iranian Santur in Diaspora

Basel Rajoub

Basel Rajoub is a composer and saxophonist who has honed both a distinctive sound and an original musical language for the saxophone inspired by the rich melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of the Middle East. Born in Aleppo, Syria, Rajoub graduated from the Damascus High Institute of Music, where he majored in trumpet. Later, he taught himself to play the saxophone and began composing for the various ensembles in which he has performed, including AKMM, Aga Khan Master Musicians. His compositions draw on the characteristic microtonal intervals of Middle Eastern music to illuminate a panoramic emotional world that extends from prayer to dance. A resident of Geneva, Switzerland, Rajoub serves as Artistic Director of the Oriental Orchestra at Haute école de musique Genève.

“Tashkent”

John Robinson

John Robison is Professor of Musicology and Early Music Ensemble director at the University of South Florida, and has been on the School of Music faculty since 1977. He teaches history surveys, graduate history seminars, symphonic literature, intercultural composers, and other topics at USF. He received his Doctorate in Musicology from Stanford University in 1975, where he specialized in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque topics with an emphasis on historical performance practices. Since 1990 his research interests have become more global through his work on contemporary composers from diverse Asian, African, and Latin American cultures.

The Roles of Chinese Instruments in Zhu Jianer’s Orchestral Music

Seungchan Song

South-Korean cellist SEUNGCHAN SONG is building his career as a captivating chamber musician and soloist. He has participated in III International Klaipeda David Geringas Cello Competition (Lituania), Gustav Mahler Competition (Czech Republic) and French Music Competition, and has held solo recitals in US and Asia. Having made a solo debut at the age of 12, he has worked with Jinju Symphony (Korea), Richmond, Carmel Symphony, Midwest Chamber Ensemble, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, among others. He has participated in masterclasses by Zlatomir Fung, John Sharp, and Mike Block and studied with Susan Moses, Astrid Schween and Ukjin Yang. Seungchan holds a Bachelor of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a Master of Music degree from University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is currently pursuing his doctoral degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, where he performs as the cellist in UMKC Conservatory’s Graduate Fellowship String Quartet.

Extended Technique as an intercultural medium in Yun’s Glisseés

Chao Tian

Chao Tian is a Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology at Boston University. Her research focuses on musical improvisation, the Chinese philosophy of music, and intercultural musical collaboration. She earned a B.A. in Music Performance and an M.A. in Musicology from the China Conservatory of Music. A former member of China’s renowned 12 Girls Band, Chao has performed in over 30 countries and regions worldwide. In 2017, she was selected for the prestigious Artist in Residence program at the Strathmore Music Center. She is also an alumna of Art Omi and a NextLOOK artist at the University of Maryland. Chao’s research project, Unheard Sounds, examines the transformation of artistic language in the intercultural collaboration of immigrant artists. Her music project, From China to Appalachia, created in collaboration with Grammy Award winners Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, is dedicated to exploring the artistic commonalities between Chinese and American musical traditions.

Unheard Sounds: Navigating Identity and Memory Through Intercultural Musical Improvisation

Anton Vishio

Anton Vishio teaches music theory, skills, and global music analysis at the University of Toronto; before that he taught at William Paterson University and other schools in the United States. A pianist and composer as well as music theorist, he has published or presented work on the music of Iannis Xenakis, Jo Kondo, Brian Cherney and several others; more recently, he has been working on a project involving music and translation, as well as the relationship between theory and performance in works of post-tonal music.

Variations in Intercultural Perspective

Kevin Wilson

Kevin Alexander Wilson is an internationally performed composer, ethnomusicologist, capoeirista, and co-founder of an intercultural music festival based out of Lisbon, Portugal. His research focuses on intercultural composition and analysis, post-colonialism and identity. Dr. Wilson's regional musical interests include Brazil, Eastern Europe, and Indonesia. He is currently a part-time faculty member at Lakeland Community College.

Confluence of Culture: an intercultural analysis of Budhi Ngurah’s Borobudur

Baturay Yarkin

Dr. Baturay Yarkın, a jazz and tango pianist, has performed on prestigious stages worldwide, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, tango, and Ottoman/Turkish music into his performances. Born in a family of musicians, he secured the first position in the Istanbul University State Conservatory's part-time program at the age of 7. By the age of 12, he had achieved third place at the European Young Pianists Competition. After completing Industrial Engineering (BA) and Piano (BA), he was accepted to Music Theory and Composition (MA) at ITU. As an Erasmus Exchange student, he expanded his musical expertise in Jazz and World Music Departments of Codarts, Rotterdam Conservatory. His groups, included Yarkın Duo with Dr. Nağme Yarkın, has performed the Netherlands, France, Italy, England, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, the USA, Canada, China and Kazakhstan. He completed his doctorate at Istanbul University State Conservatory’s Music Department in 2022 and served as an instructor there from 2018 to 2024. Dr. Yarkın has released eight personal albums, which are available on digital platforms.

A study on Fusion Albums containing Jazz Music and Turkish Music

Nağme Yarkin

Dr. Nağme Yarkın is an Istanbul based musician who was born into a musician family. As a performer and composer, she is known for her works combining Anatolian Music and Jazz Music. She started into music by playing piano at the age of 3. She graduated from the Composition Department at Istanbul University State Conservatory with Master's and Doctorate degrees. With her traditional instrument, kemenche from Istanbul, she not only introduces traditional Turkish music to the world, but also makes innovations in the field of jazz fusion by playing her own compositions and arrangements in her concerts and albums, with the Yarkın Duo and Quartet groups she established with her brother, pianist Baturay Yarkın. By combining these two music genres, they have performed at various festivals, concerts and gave workshops in many countries from Europe to America. Since 2017, they have been giving concerts within Silkroad GMW, founded by Yo-Yo Ma. In 2018, they gave two workshops at Berklee College of Music. Yarkın had concerts with Andre Rieu as part of his world tour in 2013 and 2014. In 2022, she released the polyphonic Istanbul kemençe album “Künh” consisting of her own compositions, as the first in the world. Alsa Dr. Yarkın has been working as an Assoc. Prof. at Istanbul University State Conservatory since 2012. She continues her studies at the University of Alberta in Canada as an invited professor for the 2022-2023 semester.

New Polyphonic Compositions Containing Elements of Ottoman / Turkish Music

Krystal Zhang

Krystal Tangmuyang Zhang is a Ph.D. candidate in Musicology at the University of Alberta, specializing in Chinese film music studies. Her current doctoral research focuses on two contemporary Chinese composers, Tan Dun, and Zhao Jiping, and their six significant film compositions from the 1980s and 2000s. She explores the interrelationship and interaction between Chinese-language cinema, composers, and film music within the global film-music industry and its history. Her research interests also include contemporary compositions for traditional Chinese instruments and the development of contemporary Chinese orchestras within the Chinese-speaking community. Zhang obtained her B.F.A. from Chinese Culture University in Taipei, Taiwan, where she majored in zheng (a 21-string traditional Chinese instrument) with a minor in piano. Her academic journey in Canada began with her master’s studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she completed her master’s thesis, "Diegetic Music and Identity in Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness (1989).”

Chinese Film Music in the 1980s: Zhao Jiping, Yellow Earth (1984), and the Beginnings of Early Global-Local Interactions