Hayes School of Music

Music Humanities Community Conversations Series 

The Music Humanities Community Conversation Series provides a forum for students, faculty, and staff at Appalachian State University and community members to engage current topics in music humanities through invited talks and workshops given by scholars, artists, and cultural leaders from Appalachian State and the surrounding region. Read more about our upcoming events below!

• The events are free and open to the public.
• Events will be in Schaffel Recital Hall or Rosen Concert Hall in the Broyhill Music Center:
• Attendees may park in the Schaefer Lot, Broyhill Lot, or Peacock Lot for free from 5:00pm to the end of the event.  The Broyhill Music Center is at 813 Rivers St, Boone, NC, 28608. 
• For more information, contact Dr. Jacob Kopcienski, via email at kopcienskija@appstate.edu or by phone at 828-262-7385.
• This series is sponsored by the Hayes School of Music, with several events generously co-sponsored by the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University.

"Song Journeys: Places of Honor with African Folk Songs"

• Wednesday, November 12, 6:00-7:00pm. Free and open to the public!
• Q&A and reception to follow
• Schaffel Recital Hall, Broyhill Music Center

Seminar Presentation

Alan Lomax wrote that, “A folk song is actually a continuum of performances, each one varying in great or slight degree, and thus it grows as it lives.” American musicians and Appalachian arts practitioners often draw from a continuum of traditions inherited from the British Isles, with Celtic or Scots-Irish influences, including tunes and dances common across the North American continent. Although grounded in this tradition, Choral and educational repertoire are also shaped by African nuances, such as blue notes, freedom songs, or jazz standards. As a native Appalachian, I have long studied the song traditions of southern Africa and southern Appalachia through many moments of musical transmission along with fellow scholars, from the continuum of university students traveling to South African partner institutions to fellow singers hither and yon. As I reflect on this work, I wonder: What stories do we tell ourselves and our culture about the importance of African folk songs, and what place do we reserve for ourselves and others amidst the singing and dancing of traditional music? Have we created opportunities for music to shift our hearts and minds? Have we held or dwelt in places of honor for the songs and the singers?

This talk will be based on my travels and academic sojourns seeking origin stories and tracing journeys of African songs and musical arts in our collective contemporary lives. I will share repertoire collected with the help of Dr. Bhekani Buthelezi, from the University of Zululand Department of Creative Arts and Indigenous Knowledge Centre. Participants will have the chance to sing, listen, and generate ideas for cultivating places of honor with South African and other folk songs as source material and inspiration.

Presenter Biography

Dr. Susan W. Mills is Professor Emerita in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. Her career focuses on developing relevant, balanced, and inclusive music and arts education. Her love for mentoring and folkloric music has woven multicultural music research with performance on choral stages in the U.S. and South Africa with singers of all ages.  She was an American Council on Education Fellow, a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa, and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg.  Her research based on these experiences was published in Embedding Social Justice in Teacher Education and Development in Africa (2021) and Contemporary Research in Music Learning Across the Lifespan (Routledge, 2017).