Sound in the Land 2014 will explore music and the environment while discovering new Mennonite perspectives. This event is a sequel to the highly successful Sound in the Lands 2009 which explored Mennonite music across borders and boundaries, and Sound in the Land 2004 which dealt with Mennonite musical diversities. Sound in the Land 2014 is both a festival with multiple concerts, performances and workshops featuring many musical styles, and an academic conference with papers and presentations exploring the new field of “ecomusicology” (music and the environment) from various Mennonite perspectives, locally and globally. R. Murray Schafer, well-known Canadian composer/founder of World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, has consented to be a keynote speaker. Organizer Carol Ann Weaver is thrilled to add that “World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, the leading music and the environment organization founded by R. Murray Schafer, is endorsing Sound in the Land.”
Proposals are already being accepted for presentations and musical compositions at Sound in the Land 2014. The proposal deadline is March 1, 2014, but we wish to hear from you as soon as possible. Expect concerts (choral, instrumental, soundscape, folk/jazz), workshops, papers, nature walks, and singing! We will explore ways of hearing the earth and listening to the environment. For this we seek proposals that present new insights in ecological understandings of music and sound. We are seeking contributions from as wide a range of contributors as possible, including creative writers, environmentalists, scholars, and musicians. We look forward to rich dialogue across a range of related disciplines, as we explore new ways for Mennonite people to relate to the environment. By bringing together musicians, environmentalists and writers into fields of ‘creation care’ and ecomusicology, we will study sound from an environmentally ethical basis, consistent with long-standing Mennonite values. grebel.ca/sound