Music, Communities, Sustainability, edited thoughtfully by Huib Schippers and Anthony Seeger, traces the genesis, implementation, and development of the influential 2003 UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and its impact on music practices around the world. With insights from established and emerging scholars who have been there from the early beginnings to those who work with it in communities today, this book tells a riveting story that celebrates the rise in awareness that approaching music as Intangible Cultural Heritage has brought. At the same time, it critiques the discrepancies between ideologies and realities as they emerged across the globe in its first twenty years, and provides perspectives for sound futures for the planet. Gathering such varied perspectives, this essential volume tells a crucial history and expands our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of interventions in music sustainability on a global scale.

About the Author:
Huib Schippers has a thirty-year history of leadership positions in music performance, community engagement, sustainability, education and training across cultures, including the Amsterdam World Music School (1990-1996); the World Music & Dance Centre in Rotterdam (2001-2006), Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University (2003-2015), and Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (2016-2020). His innovative work in culturally diverse music education and music sustainability culminated in dozens of journal articles and major publications with Oxford University Press, including Facing the Music: Shaping Music Education from a Global Perspective (2010); and Sustainable Futures for Music Cultures: An Ecological Perspective (2016). Recently returned to his native Amsterdam, he now divides his time between writing, lecturing, mentoring and consulting with academic and arts organizations.

Anthony Seeger is an anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, audiovisual archivist, record producer, and musician. He is author of three books on the Kîsêdjê/Suyá Indigenous people in Brazil, four edited volumes, and over 130 shorter publications on ethnomusicology, audiovisual archiving, music ownership, intangible cultural heritage and other topics. He has taught at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro (1975-1982), the Brazilian Conservatory of Music (1980-1982), Indiana University (1982-1988), and UCLA (2000-2012). He served as director of the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music (1982-1988), was founding curator and director of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (1988-2000), and Distinguished Professor of Ethnomusicology at UCLA (2000-2012).