Diplomacy through music

Antoine Gilliéron - in conversation with Xavier Bouvier, specialist in interculturality and diplomacy and coordinator of the ethnomusicology course at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.

Xavier Bouvier, how do you view the international aid that the HEMs of our country have been able to provide in the past, provide today and could provide in the future?

The internationalization of higher music education in Switzerland is the culmination of a long evolution, which began in the first decades of the 20th century - one thinks of the reception, in our Conservatories, of refugees from the Russian revolution. After the 1970s, the reception of students from other continents - East Asia, but also South America - developed considerably.

The integration of HEM into the European Higher Education Area has marked a significant step. Initiated since the Bologna Declaration, this area, inaugurated in 2010, extends far beyond the frontiers of Europe as a whole, as it includes countries such as Russia, Armenia and Kazakhstan. The HEM have greatly benefited from the academic exchanges within this area - even if the fact that Switzerland has left full participation in the ERASMUS+ programs has freed up our inclusion in certain programs: one thinks of the thematic networks initiated by our colleagues from major European musical institutions.

In the field of assistance, the Association Européenne des Conservatoires (AEC) has supported the integration of the institutions of Eastern Europe throughout this construction period. These efforts have been remarkably fruitful, and the exchanges have multiplied. But one can consider, rétrospectively, that the enlarging and consolidation of Europe has coincided with a relative fencing-off with the rest of the world: a frontier has been created, politically, but also culturally.

In fact, the countries of Eastern Europe, including Russia, are far from being périphériques in the great European classical tradition. They were, and still are, centers of vitality. A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the city of Kharkiv, dramatically affected by the current war: its monuments of eclectic architecture remain very European-centric.

All the others are the cultural situations of the Middle East, of India, or of Eastern and South-Eastern Asia. We are faced with other musical traditions, millennial ones, which could well have something to teach us. Unless we remain on a Eurocentric position, the notion of help loses its meaning: it is a dialogue that must take place. Rare have been the initiatives taken by European conservatoires in this dialogue, even though we have seen some remarkable achievements, especially from our colleagues in the Nordic countries, such as the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.

Is it true that the solidarity expressed in the context of the war in Ukraine (for example, welcoming Ukrainian students and professors, concerts of support, position-taking and the provision of instruments) seems to you to be emblematic of what they are capable of doing, or could they possibly be more proactive in their actions?

Of course, it would be unwise not to engage in solidarity with those who are suffering from the conflict, and it would be logical to direct this solidarity towards music schools, musicians and music students. But what seems most striking to me is that the Swiss music schools wanted to and have created a sanctuary for their students, regardless of their origin - Russian or Ukrainian. The messages of solidarity between students have been many - for example, one of our Russian students volunteered to give language lessons to Ukrainian refugees right from the start of the conflict. We have also been able to sanctuarize the repertoire - resistant to very specific pressures to deprogram pieces of the Russian grand repertoire. The big debate is about whether music, or art in general, is in line with politics. Opinions diverge, but my experience is that our musical institutions must remain spaces for exchange and dialogue, places where relationships are created.

More broadly, what can you tell us about diplomacy through music and its realization in the HEMs of Switzerland?

Switzerland enjoys a very special position thanks to its neutrality and its tradition of good offices. The city of Geneva is the symbolic center, the venue for major meetings on international issues. As early as 1920, an extraordinary dialogue between cultures was established within the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation of the Society of Nations. As the researcher Christiane Sibille has pointed out, music did not take part in this movement: Belà Bartók took part in the work, and many international musical institutions saw the light of day.

According to you, what good practices beyond our borders in this regard could be successful in our institutions?

With regard to the diplomacy of music, initiatives are being taken by Swiss music schools, and we are on the verge of becoming aware of the richness that exchanges with other music schools can bring to us. More fundamentally, it is perhaps simply a realization that our repertoire is already the fruit of these exchanges: the last century has never ceased to be the moment of such encounters, from the gamelans for Debussy to the polyphonies and polyrythmies pygmées for Ligeti.

For our institutions, a 2006 UNESCO text, Guidelines on intercultural education, provides an excellent reference of good practices. The basic idea is very simple: our schools and our students can benefit from the knowledge of other musical cultures, ancient, complex, refined, expressive and expressive. D'autres conceptions musicales y sont à l'œuvre, et permettent de décentrer notre point de vue. But the realization of such a programme is difficult: the institutions and the performers are not easily malléables. Among the hundreds of millions of Syrian refugees in Europe were the masters of the great Arab classical tradition: have we created a space to fully benefit from their cultural capital? The signs of an evolution are there, however, and major conservatories around the world are taking the lead on these issues. The Swiss music schools have a role to play in this field; an opportunity is waiting to be seized.