WLU Press, Laurier’s Faculty of Music celebrate Community Music at the Boundaries with book launch event

April 26, 2021
For Immediate Release

Waterloo – WLU Press and Wilfrid Laurier University’s Faculty of Music will host a book launch to celebrate the publication of Community Music at the Boundaries, a collection of articles and essays about community music written by scholars, researchers, practitioners and administrators.

Lee Willingham, a professor in the Faculty of Music, director of the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and editor of Community Music at the Boundaries, will be joined by many of the book’s contributors, including Laurier professors and international scholars, for a discussion about a variety of topics the book addresses, including music and wellness, education, social change and cultural identity.

The book launch will take place May 7 at 1 p.m. via Zoom. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

“If publications are indicative of a discipline coming of age, community music has arrived,” said Willingham. “Community Music at the Boundaries explores the place of music in the lives of people in diverse and often marginalized contexts. It is rich in content and challenges the hegemonic traditions of music through inclusive perspectives that illustrate how music engagement can enhance lives.”

Traditionally, the study of music in schools and post-secondary institutions has focused on Western European classical music. Community music puts the focus instead on music in community settings, such as schools, choirs, places of worship and seniors centres.

The book launch will begin with opening remarks by Willingham; Siobhan McMenemy, the senior editor at WLU Press; Lee Higgins, a professor at York St. John University in the UK, the director of the International Centre for Community Music and the author of the book’s postscript; and Roger Mantie, an associate professor in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the University of Toronto Scarborough and the author of the book’s foreword.

Six of the book’s contributors will speak about topics they write about. Speakers include:

• Elizabeth Mitchell, assistant professor of Music Therapy at Laurier
• Gerard Yun, assistant professor of Community Music at Laurier
• Kathleen Turner, lecturer and course director for the Master of Arts in Community Music program at the University of Limerick, Ireland
• Don Coffman, professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Miami
• Glenn Marais (MA ’17), singer-songwriter and alumnus of Laurier’s Master of Community Music program
• Kirstin Anderson, lecturer with the School of Education and Social Sciences at the University of West Scotland in Glasgow

About WLU Press

Founded in 1974, WLU Press has established a reputation for excellence in scholarly publishing in the areas of literature, life writing, music, history, sociology and social work, environmental humanities, film and media studies, Indigenous studies, women’s studies and religious studies. WLU Press publishes 20 to 25 titles each year, has more than 900 titles in print, and has an active scholarly communications research program.