• Performances & Sessions
African, African American, Appalachian, Asian, Austrailian, Cajun, Latin, Malaysian, Middle Eastern, & Scottish music and dance

• A visit to the Museum of Appalachia

• Folk Dancing & Storytelling

The School of Music at the University of Tennessee and MENC: the National Association for Music Educators will sponsor the seventh biennial National Symposium on Multicultural Music, October 8-11, 2008 at the University of Tennessee Conference Center, Knoxville, TN and the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee. Dr. Marvelene C. Moore professor of music education is founder and chair.

The Symposium will consist of workshop, research and performance sessions on music from a variety of cultures. Music cultures that will be featured are African, African American, Appalachian, Australian, Cajun, Chinese, Korean, Latin, Malaysian, Middle Eastern and Scottish. Folk dancing and storytelling will also be a part of the conference. The symposium will also feature presentations by Knox County students on steel drums.

The conference will bring together international and national leaders who are specialists in multicultural music. Research sessions will be chaired by Nasser Al-Taee and will emphasize the role of music in culture within its historical context. The researchers will reflect the diversity of our field and highlight the new innovations in the study of music.

Marvelene Moore, founder of the Symposium has studied in Austria, Canary Islands, Hungary, Korea, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, and many areas of the United States. She views the Symposium as a vehicle for preparing music educators to meet the challenge of teaching in culturally diverse settings in the 21st century. She states: “It is possible that music of all the arts, is more conducive to understanding culture.”