Promoting International Year for Cultural Rapprochement – Forum 3
Monday, June 28, 2010
Paris, France
UNESCO Conference Room 1
Music as a Catalyst for Cultural Dialogue and Communication
Organisers: Melody for Dialogue among Civilizations Associatio in collaboration with UNESCO, the Arts Arena of the American University in Paris and the Musée d’Orsay
Objectives
La musique est, par excellence, le langage le plus universel, sans barrière linguistique et comme une forme d’expression innée de toute personne, pour manifester ses sentiments culturelles. La diffusion et transvasement des musiques, qui sont produits grâce à une infinité de canals de communication, soit pour moyens techniques, soit directement en rassemblements ou rencontres de toutes sortes de personnes, ouvrent une escène de connaissance universelle, loin de tous les conditionnements de langue, race, religion, et particulièrement les différences des statuts sociaux ou culturels des personnes qui les écoutent ou exercent. Les mouvements migratoires, qu’ils arrivent par terre, par mer et par l’air, apportent en special un nouveau dynamisme a la vie culturelle des différents lieux et declenchent une avalanche de nouvelles influences.
The Forum will explore the role of music as a facilitator for individual and community communications with the aim of promoting better understanding of the uniqueness of each culture and in promoting cross-cultural understanding and galvanizing conditions for learning to live together in harmony. Through systematic interaction facilitated through music, humanity with its rich cultural diversity can come together as “one”.
In our complex world no single language, no ideology and no particular societal approach has succeeded in establishing broad-based and enduring mutual understanding and appreciation for others. In this equation, music and musical interactions have played only a marginal role. The Forum will review the role of music transcending different types of barriers and it will explore its role as an invaluable contributor to impart tolerance, stimulate intercultural communication and advance mediation and peace-making.
Participants will reflect upon exciting examples and experimental approaches by visionaries such as George Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Yo-Yo Ma and Zubin Mehta, being protagonists of (Western) classical music as well as popular musicians. This shall highlight the potential of music as a means of dialogue. The role of television and the internet, such as in the case of the youtube orchestra, underlines the high potential of music for mass communications.
Participants are invited to discuss the impact of the global communication and information patterns and their linkages with cultural practices. They will reflect on the role music can play as a tool for advancing a dialogue among communities and nations, strengthening in the process respect for cultural diversity and peaceful coexistence: From an educational point of view.
Panelists at the Forum include musicologists, media specialists and visionaries. The debate will be organized in two successive panels on the themes of “Media and Dissemination of Culture (including music)” and “Music as a tool and motor of inter-cultural dialogue”. The session will end with a musical performance by a String Quartet playing in harmony with virtuosi artists from different origins.
