A portion of this book is a narrative about the World Music Ensemble Program at the Florida State University from 1973 to 2008, the time period of my employment at FSU. While admittedly this narrative history is somewhat of a memoir, my major goal with this book is to provide philosophical bases and even practical instructional strategies for creating world music ensembles in public places where such participatory musical groups can be educational and constructive vehicles for creating cross-cultural communication, good will, understanding, community well-being, healing, and, perhaps, world peace. Not limited to institutions of higher learning, the instructional strategies presented in this book can apply to other public places, such as public and private primary and secondary schools, after-school programs, churches, community or junior colleges, community recreation and learning centers, autism and mental health centers, detention centers, public libraries, retirement homes and rehabilitation facilities, and other organizations interested in learning about diversity through musical participation in world music ensembles. Why are world music ensembles important? What are their roles in education and elsewhere? Who teaches them? Who funds them? Who performs in them? How can they be developed, supported, and assured of success? This book, From the Sound Up: Building World Music Ensembles in Public Places, seeks to answer these and other questions. What I call the "world music ensemble concept" is built on the premise that we all have the capability to play musics from cultures other than that (or those) we have been born into. To seriously learn to play musics from different cultures by participating in world music ensembles, regardless of how accomplished one becomes as a performer, will help to create cross-cultural understanding. At every moment of the day, as our world becomes more and more complex, cross-cultural understanding becomes more vital to our very existence. The world's survival, in fact, depends on such cross-cultural awareness, sensitivity, and acceptance.
Author Biography:
Dale A. Olsen, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus at Florida State University in Tallahassee, where he taught ethnomusicology for 35 years (1973-2008) establishing one of the largest and finest ethnomusicology/world music programs in the United States. He was also the director of the Center for Music of the Americas. He received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Historical Musicology and Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota (1964 and 1966) and the Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA (1973). Dr. Olsen is a recipient of numerous awards and grants, including a Japan Foundation Grant, Fulbright-Hays Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, and many others. Olsen has over 100 publications, including these books: Music of the Warao of Venezuela: Song People of the Rain Forest; Music of El Dorado: The Ethnomusicology of Ancient South American Cultures; The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory, and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora; Popular Music of Vietnam: The Politics of Remembering, The Economics of Forgetting; and World Flutelore: Folktales, Myths, and Other Stories of Magical Flute Power. He is coeditor of The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 2 and The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music. Dr. Olsen has served as Board Member and First Vice President of the Society for Ethnomusicology; Board Member for Ethnomusicology/World Music of the College and President of The College Music Society; as President of the Florida Folklore Society; and he was the co-founder and first President of the Southeast/Caribbean Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Dale Olsen and his wife were Peace Corps Volunteers in Santiago, Chile (1966-68), where Dale performed in the Philharmonic Orchestra of Chile as principal flutist. He also conducted fieldwork in the north and central regions of Chile, recorded and transcribed Chilean folk music for the Chilean Institute of Culture, and collected and learned how to play various Andean musical instruments. As an ethnomusicologist he studied Japanese shakuhachi and received a shihan (master diploma) from iemoto Iwami Baikyoko. With the professional name Olsen-Bai-O he has performed shakuhachi concerts in the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Japan, Paraguay, and Peru. Dr. Olsen has lived, traveled, lectured, or researched in over 60 countries where he collected hundreds of musical instruments and learned how to play most of them.
