We are delighted that Prof. Johann Buis from Wheaton College, IL, will be here for the duration of the 2021/22 academic year as a Schulich Distinguished Visiting Chair in Music. The Dean’s Chairs have a broad impact on the School, help the School progress in directions that have been identified as important, and interact with the community — and Prof. Buis is sure to do just that.
Prof. Buis holds degrees and diplomas from Ball State University, the University of Cape Town, the Orff Institute of the Mozarteum University of Salzburg, and the University of the Western Cape, among others. He was a post-doctoral Rockefeller Research Fellow during 1995–96 at the Center for Black Music Research (CBMR) Columbia College, Chicago and held a Fulbright Fellowship in 1982–83.
With scholarship ranging from performance history of early music to the aesthetics and reception history of Black music between the United States and urban centres in Africa, Prof. Buis is a notable and exciting guest joining us this academic year. Both his Fall seminar, “Music, Social Justice, and Black Perspectives,” and Winter seminar, “Musical Citizenship and Diverse Ethnic Voices,” aim to bridge the gap between the academy and society in the context of questions pertinent to contemporary generations.
The public will be able to engage with Prof. Buis and his areas of expertise — musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural theory, and social justice — throughout the year. Mark your calendars for Words and Music with musicians Alpha Thiam, Nathalie Cora, Ira Coleman, and guest Chérif Keïta (October 2021); Social Justice and the Concert Stage: Case South Africa (November 2021); and Music Citizenship Montreal: Hidden Musicians and the Academy (February 2022). The Schulich events calendar will share details as we near the dates.
At present, Prof. Buis is in his twenty-third season as a pre-concert lecturer with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has also held numerous professional development seminars in the United States, the Caribbean, Germany, and South Africa. With experience in exploring new pathways in American and Africanist scholarship, he is sought after for his fresh perspective on music scholarship. We are fortunate to count him as one of our remarkable guests.
In advance of the coming semester, we connected with Prof. Buis over e-mail to find out how the past year has impacted his work, what he’s looking forward to at Schulich, and what elements are important to his teaching philosophy.
What are you most looking forward to when classes start?
Inspiring young persons to become well-informed performers, scholars, and music enthusiasts, in order to become world citizens. Montreal, a city affirming bilingualism, and Schulich, a performing and learning community in the midst of this vigorous bilingual environment, has much to teach the world about cosmopolitanism without sacrificing local pride.
What would a goal of yours be for this year?
As a Public Musicologist raised in the Majority World, I hope to stimulate the intellectual curiosity of those I encounter, to broaden their perspectives of Music (capital “M”), and to grow their understanding of human dignity in its rich variety of musical expressions.
What should every student leave your seminars knowing?
First, I would hope that students will extend their encounter and embrace of all humanity beyond the seminar. We are privileged to use music as the medium through which we encounter and embrace others who agree and those who disagree with our views. The humanity of all persons is expressed in creativity through the arts. In the same way that bilingualism enables us to supplement our dominant language with a secondary language so, too, does our intellectual curiosity compel us to examine musical vocabularies beyond our dominant musical preference. The goal is not to become equally proficient in diverse musical expressions, but rather to embrace the humanity of persons who value a musical creativity unfamiliar to us.
Second, students should leave my seminars understanding that after the tragedy of societal disruption and a pandemic, we emerge courageously to find post-traumatic growth through the disruption as we grapple with new questions that arise. Engaging in Music teaches us to be problem-solvers, collaborators, leaders, and followers, persons who lament and triumph, persons who at times have to assert themselves and at other times have to show grace and empathy to others.
How has the past year impacted the work you do?
The past year brought us societal disruption and a pandemic. People lost their lives. Many interpreted these social upheavals differently from one another Often the lack of self-reflection and empathy lies at the core of these opposing perspectives. Reflecting on this past year, I have strengthened insights in public musicology infused with ethnomusicology to grapple with music, social justice, diverse ethnic perspectives, and the historical, structural, and societal inequities that manifest themselves in our diverse societies today.
What are some elements that are important to your teaching philosophy?
To me, it is important to create a collaborative learning community to model the ideal society we envisage. That means: student-centred deliberation, discussion of readings, application of theoretical insights to real-world contexts, re-imagination of future solutions that are innovative, and, most important, to develop the strategies for empathetic thinking.
