Transcending established structures and reaching out to humanity through art and music in times of crisis

Abstract: The arts are a force for change and transformation. When linked to culture and identity, their spiritual, creative and symbolic aspects hold the power to transform and modify our personal behaviours, which in turn have repercussions on the collective. The arts can and must align us with lessons and visions of the world through traditional narratives, diverse music and richly resonant images that reach out to our humanity.

In this way, the arts hold concrete power to reveal lessons of truth in relation to climate action and the specific policy changes that must be demanded of businesses, governments and leaders. Recently, for example, the National Arts Centre Orchestra teamed up with Canadian, Indigenous and Northern composers, musicians, visual artists, writers, and scientists to engage in a multidisciplinary conversation that offered a response to the environmental crisis. Even in the early history of Western European culture, the art of music was said to be capable of inducing catharsis leading to personal and collective transformation.

This presentation is intended as a reflection on these aspects of art and music, and conversely, on the structures that, in our institutions, continue to value and protect inflexible systems that contribute to the exclusion of individuals and the stifling of diverse voices.

Speaker:

Rachelle Chiasson-Taylor leads a multifaceted career in early music performance, musicology, teaching, music archives, cultural policy in the Government of Canada, as well as being an entrepreneur in research and linguistic services for music and culture internationally. She holds a Doctor of Music in Performance as well as a PhD in musicology, both from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University. As a music archivist and policy advisor at Library and Archives Canada, she acquired familiarity with government leadership in culture, libraries and archives, and the arts. As a performer, she has recorded three albums on the ATMA label devoted to the keyboard music of the late Renaissance and has performed all the keyboard works of William Byrd. She is an adjunct professor in the Performance area at the Schulich School of Music and an instructor primarily in early keyboard literature and performance practice. Her research has been published in Canada, Belgium, Poland, and in the United Kingdom, and she is co-editor and collaborating author of two books published by Ashgate (U.K.). Recently, Chiasson-Taylor has devoted considerable time to analyzing the issues of equity and inclusion, as well as exploring intersectionality and the contribution of multiple artistic voices to global crises. Since her mid-twenties, she has accumulated deep lived experience of disability and of the challenges inherent in the shared futures of diverse communities.

Meeting ID: 831 8679 1471
Meeting Password: CAMLOPEN24

Contact: katie.lai@mcgill.ca