Dr: Elizabeth Clendinning: Thinking “Things” Over: On the Lives of Musical Instruments
Thursday, March 20th, 6:00-7:00 PM
Q&A and reception to follow
Location: Schaffel Recital Hall, Broyhill Music Center
The average American home contains an average of 300,000 objects. Yet, where do they come from? How are their “lives” entangled with our own?
In this lecture, we explore these issues through examining the lives of musical instruments from their making to the musical “afterlives” of objects in museums. Drawing on examples from Graceland to Bali and beyond, we touch on themes of biography, cultural diplomacy, collection and curation, and sustainability. Attendees will be invited to reflect on the importance of sentimental and practical objects in their own lives, as well as their own relationships to making, enjoying, and passing on material objects.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Elizabeth A. Clendinning is an Associate Professor of Music at Wake Forest University and director of the university’s Balinese Gamelan Giri Murti. She is a graduate of Florida State University (Ph.D. 2013, M.M. 2009) and The University of Chicago (A.B. 2007). Her teaching and research focus on the Indonesian performing arts, global music pedagogy, and material culture and sustainability. She is author of American Gamelan and the Ethnomusicological Imagination (2020) and co-author (with Henry Spiller) of Focus: Gamelan Music of Indonesia, 3rd edition (2022). This lecture draws on current teaching and research projects about the lives and exhibition of musical instruments.
About the Series
About the Series: This event is part of the Music Humanities Community Conversation Series, which 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.
- The events are free and open to the public.
- 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.