Talk:
“Cultural Diplomacy Despite the State: Mobility and Agency of State and Amateur Musicians in Turkish Classical Music Choirs”
by
Dr. Audrey M. Wozniak
Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology
Harvard University
& Visiting Researcher
Orient-Institut Istanbul |
scholar@audreywoz.com
Date and Room Info:
Tuesday, November 19, 2024, 12:30 p.m.
H232
Abstract:
The creation of Turkish classical music state-sponsored koro-s (choirs) beginning in 1976 was one of the most significant cultural institutional developments that resulted from the nation-building project undertaken by the Turkish Republic’s ruling elite. These koro-s generated the new concept of “musician as civil servant”: artists socioeconomically empowered by their employment by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism or Turkish National Television and Radio. In parallel, amateur Turkish music koro-s emerged across Türkiye and in tandem with waves of Turkish migration to Europe starting from the 1950s. Nonetheless, as in Türkiye, amateur koro-s abroad frequently face the assumption that they do not give high-quality musical performances.
State musicians would seem to be the obvious agents of cultural diplomacy within and beyond Türkiye; however, I contend that amateur choir musicians, particularly in Türkiye’s diaspora, are often able to exercise much greater agency as cultural diplomats. Although the choir members engage various state and non-state actors and enhance the political visibility of their transnational communities, I suggest that there are nonetheless limits to the extent diasporic amateur choirs can “bridge” political borders. These limitations become increasingly evident as economic and political pressures motivate Turkish musicians seek more permanent (if scarce) opportunities to relocate abroad.
Short Biography
Audrey M. Wozniak is a researcher and violinist who writes about discursive and material constructions of kinship and the state in urban diasporic contexts, particularly those of Türkiye (Turkey) and China. She has been conducting ethnographic and archival fieldwork in Istanbul and Turkish diasporic communities since 2015 and received her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Harvard University in 2024. She also holds a Master’s degree in Politics and Communication from the London School of Economics, a Master’s degree in Music Performance from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music and East Asian Studies from Wellesley College. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright-Hays Grant Program, the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Orient-Institut Istanbul, the British Institute in Ankara, and the Koç University Research Center for Anatolian Civilizations. She has published academic and journalistic writing in the Journal of the Society for American Music, Music & Politics, Urban People, Applied Linguistics Review, Georgetown Journal of Asian Affairs, ABC News, China Dialogue, and Time Out Hong Kong. Additionally, she is an accomplished performer of Western and Turkish classical music as well as an experienced facilitator of cross-cultural artistic programming; for more, please see www.audreywoz.com.