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Events
LCMC hosts in-person and virtual events throughout the year on community music research and practice. All events posted here are open to the general public. Member-specific events are shared via email.
Workshop: Improvisation techniques with refugee youth
Friday January 9, 2026, 1:30 - 3pm EST
Room M2007, Savvas Chamberlain Music Building, WLU
LCMC is thrilled to host Tarek Ghriri and Nour Kadaan who will share music creation strategies they have developed in working with newly arrived refugee children and youth. The session will screen the microdocumentary on their organization Music from Hope, followed by a participatory music workshop and pedagogy debrief. All are welcome and no registration is required. This event is supported in part with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Nour and Tarek are also performing at noon on the same day as Diar Band.
Move with Me: Accompaniment in all kinds of circumstances
Friday January 23, 2026
6 - 8pm
ImprovLab (Room 108), Mackinnon Building
University of Guelph (87 Trent Lane)
All welcome
Featuring Rebecca Barnstaple (Dance Facilitator and Researcher, Guelph)
Louise Campbell (Musician and Teaching Artist, Montreal)
LCMC is partnering with the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation for an evening of blended workshop and discussion focusing on cultivating improvisational skills that contribute to building connection, strength, and adaptability. Through presentation, discussion, and explorations in movement and sound, the workshop will explore what it means to creatively accompany each other through unique and changing experiences. This session is targeted towards community music practitioners, musicians, movement artists, dance and music therapists, and health professionals. People with mobility or cognitive challenges and caregivers are welcome. Participants will explore various tools and perspectives to the idea of journeying together socially and artistically.
Cultivating a Portfolio Career with Participatory Music
Thursday November 20, 2025, 3:30 - 5:00 pm EST
A virtual professional development session for community musicians hosted by the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and the Canadian New Music Network, featuring three Canadian musicians who have built careers in performing, composing, teaching, and/or facilitating in a variety of contexts. Speakers include Louise Campbell (Montreal), Cynthia Kinnunen (Guelph), and Nikola Tosic (Vancouver). The zoom link will be emailed a few days in advance.
Virtual CM Reading Group: LCMC and International Centre for Community Music
The International Centre for Community Music's next ICCM Reading Group seminar, delivered in partnership with the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and hosted by Dr. Ryan Humphrey and WLU PhD candidate, Cynthia Kinnunen, will take place on Thursday, November 6th at 10:00am EST/15:00 GMT). The seminar topic will explore the potential impacts and ethical considerations of AI on Community Music research, asking how we might care for our participants' data, what that might involve across the research process (including consent), and how arts-based and creative research methods may offer affordances.
The Reading Group, developed as an initiative of the ICCM in partnership with the Institute for Cultural Practices (University of Manchester) aims to nurture growth of early-career researchers in Community Music. All are welcome! To attend, get in touch with Ryan Humphrey at ryan.humphrey@manchester.ac.uk who will send the relevant reading and Zoom link for the session. We look forward to the discussion!
Planting Seeds: How to initiate a participatory music project
Thursday September 25, 2025, 3:30 - 5:00 pm EDT
A virtual professional development session for community musicians hosted by the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and the Canadian New Music Network, featuring two Canadian musicians who initiated participatory music projects that have thrived over years Free and open to all. The zoom link will be emailed a few days in advance.
Panel 2: Ghanaian Drum Music in Postsecondary Education: Pedagogies, Strategies, and Teaching Methods
Friday Feb. 28, 2025
This panel discussion aimed at exploring and identifying effective teaching methods for Ghanaian drum music in North American educational contexts. The panel focussed on developing a pedagogical model that adapts the traditional teaching methods of Ghanaian drum music to suit students and educators in North America, while ensuring authenticity and cultural integrity.
Chaired by Dr. Sylvanus Kwashie Kuwor (Visiting Professor, Faculty of Music, Laurier) with panelists:
- Kathy Armstrong, Department of Music and Institute of African Studies (Carleton University)
- Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo, African Music and African Studies (UBC)
- Dr. Habib Chester Iddrisu, Ethnomusicology and Dance (University of Oregon)
Panel 1: Ghanaian Drum Music in Postsecondary Education
Friday, Jan. 24, 2025
We explored the impact of Ghanaian drum music on students’ musical abilities, cultural understanding, and overall learning experience. This virtual panel discussed the effects of integrating Ghanaian drum music into educational experiences of students in university and answered the questions: How do students develop core musical skills? Gain cultural understanding? How might Ghanaian music enhance music learning in postsecondary education?
Chaired by Dr. Sylvanus Kwashie Kuwor (Visiting Professor, Faculty of Music, WLU) with panelists:
- Dr. Curtis Andrews, Ethnomusicologist and Master Drummer (Memorial University)
- Dr. Samuel Elikem Nyamuame, Ethnomusicologist and Master Drummer (Binghamton University)
- Mr. Eric Baffour-Awuah, Music and Dance Anthropologist (University of Alberta)
Temple of Love: The Erroll Starr Story - A Film Screening and Panel Discussion about Fame, Identity, and Legacy in Black pop culture
Thursday, Nov. 15, 2024
We hosted the screening of Temple of Love: The Erroll Starr Story, the story of Canadian R&B icon Erroll Starr’s rise to fame and sudden departure from the spotlight in the 1980’s. Starr's career sheds light on Black Pop Culture and the erasure of those experiences in Canadian media. Temple of Love is also a story about resilience/breaking barriers, family, and healing.
There was a panel discussion featuring the film's producers, Erroll Starr, Laurier faculty, and community members. The film was directed by Kyle Sawyer and produced by Katie Billo and Aaron Francis, founder and curator of Vintage Black Canada, a multidisciplinary archive documenting the transnational modern history of the African Diaspora in Canada. This event was sponsored by the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community and the Office of the Associate Vice President, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.