David G. Hebert

Hebert has worked for universities on five continents: Sibelius Academy, Boston University College of Fine Arts, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, University of Southern Mississippi, Tokyo Gakugei University and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies. From 2012, he has also frequently lectured in Beijing for postgraduate seminars at China Conservatory, and in 2015 was a visiting professor in Brazil with the music PhD program at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.[3] Across recent years Hebert has given keynote speeches for music conferences worldwide: Poland, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, China, Tanzania, and Uzbekistan.[4] Hebert also serves on editorial boards of several scholarly journals, led the Historical Ethnomusicology group of the Society for Ethnomusicology (of which he is a Life member) in 2009–2011, and was editor of the 25th anniversary proceedings of the Nordic Association for Japanese and Korean Studies.[5] He has also been active in development of innovative postgraduate programs: In northern Europe, he collaborated in development of the Master of Global Music program,[6][7] in China he has contributed to development of the Open Global Music Academy,[8] and from 2021 he is in a project funded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation to develop PhD programs in Uganda.[9][10] Hebert teaches intensive courses in the fields of arts policy and international higher education for an international PhD summer school in Norway[11] and arts policy in Beijing for law students at China University of Political Science and Law.[12] He also teaches a PhD course in Non-Western Educational Philosophy.[13][14] He holds the PhD and MA degrees from University of Washington, and a BA degree from Pacific University.[15]

Hebert's research is published in several scholarly books[16] and 35 different professional journals.[17]

Hebert claims that postmodernist discourse no longer offers an adequate explanation for contemporary musical practices, and that most music philosophy suffers from an ethnocentric orientation. Rather, he advocates a global-historical perspective: that humanity has recently exited a period of "digital prehistory" to enter a phase of "data saturation" through ubiquitous mass surveillance,[70] causing conditions he describes as "glocalimbodied,"[71] meaning that local and global forces converge to "stamp" the identities of individual actors suspended within a social structure shaped by participatory media. Hebert also argues that music, now most commonly consumed in digital form, may be understood as "content" in a "selfie-stick society".[38] In his view, this new context results in music creation and consumption increasingly transcending earlier connections to space and time, engendering both a blurring and reactionary institutionalization of local genres and historical styles. Consequently, Hebert contends that music education policies and practices should be re-envisioned to emphasize individual originality and empowerment via a musicianship of "flexibility",[72] with inclusion of marginalized traditions, cultivation of both acoustic and digital competencies, and rejection of any ties to "aesthetic fundamentalism", techno-utopianism,[62] militarism and nationalism.[73] Music scholars have noted that Hebert "believes music education will become more relevant and effective when it attends more completely to 'creative agency via technology and musical hybridity'," and that "Music learned in school should have some connection to the music the student engages with outside of school and that musicianship should be understood as an ‘embodied practice situated in sociocultural contexts’."[74] An advocate for increased contemporary music, music technology, and popular music in schools, Hebert nevertheless warns that these should not be seen as panacea for poor teaching or inadequate funding and facilities, and that historical traditions – including the heritage of "classical" art music – still legitimately require ample space in school education.[75] He also developed an Ensemble Ethos Model to explain how conductors and ensemble directors can nurture a culture of musical achievement.[76] Overall, Hebert's work especially promotes the value of internationalism in teacher education,[77] and emphasizes the importance of an international-comparative perspective[78] for developing globally responsible[79] and sustainable[80] educational policies and practices.

Criticism. While largely accepted, some of Hebert's conclusions have faced opposition from other scholars. His research in Japan controversially suggests that some important aspects of music history are inaccurately "remembered", and he has argued that similar issues may be found in common music history textbooks in the US and elsewhere.[70] Hebert asserts that music contests can have not only positive, but also negative consequences for participants and the musical traditions they display, and require careful design for desirable outcomes. Some music educators defend traditional pedagogies that Hebert and others claim need to be redeveloped or supplemented with new approaches.[81] Robert Walker and Roger Scruton would disagree with Hebert's position regarding the value of popular music pedagogy.[82] Vincent Bates has argued that a "cosmopolitan" perspective may already receive excessive emphasis in the field of music education,[83] while Thomas Adam Regelski has suggested that "culture" – a concept emphasized in much of Hebert's writings – is too imprecise to be useful to music teachers.[84]

Primarily employed as a professor, Hebert continues to perform as a professional musician in various genres,[85][86] and teaches a course in songwriting.[87] A jazz trumpeter and classical bass baritone singer, in 2013–2015 he had occasional work as a professional chorus member (Edvard Grieg Kor)[88] with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen National Opera, and Berlin Philharmonic.[89] In the 1990s, Hebert performed as singer-songwriter with Portland, Oregon-based alternative rock band Post Impression, which shared stages with The Posies, Heatmiser and Everclear. He later played as a member of Zimbabwean band Maichi Maraire and Kubatana, Seattle-based Cuban salsa band Son de Cinco a Siete, and his own jazz groups. Moving to Tokyo, he performed as trumpeter and vocalist in the duo Jazz de Iitomo with Johnny Todd,[90] jazz pianist/arranger and former bandleader for Don Ho. Together with Todd, he recorded an album for vocalist Midori Takamura and had a few appearances with Mika Todd from hit J-Pop group Minimoni. In 2003, he also developed an original opera in Japan in collaboration with Belgian artist Eric Van Hove and electronic musician Kenji Williams.[91] In New Zealand, he performed as a trumpeter with Auckland Symphony Orchestra and Manukau Symphony Orchestra, and in Russia he recorded with the experimental free improvisation group Moscow Conservatory Pan-Asian Ensemble.[92]

• Hebert, David (2005). Music competition, cooperation, and community: An ethnography of a Japanese school band (Ph.D. thesis). University of Washington. OCLC 60823152.
• Hebert, David (2012). Wind Bands and Cultural Identity in Japanese Schools. Landscapes: The Arts, Aesthetics, and Education. New York: Springer. ISBN 9789400721777. ISBN 9400721773
• McCollum, Jonathan; Hebert, David (2014). Theory and Method in Historical Ethnomusicology. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield). ISBN 978-1-4985-0086-9.
• Hebert, David; Kertz-Welzel, Alexandra (2016). Patriotism and Nationalism in Music Education. New York: Ashgate/Routledge. ISBN 978-1-4094-3080-3.
• Hebert, David (2018). International Perspectives on Translation, Education, and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies. New York: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-68432-1. ISBN 9783319684321
• Hebert, David; Rykowski, Mikolaj (2018). Music Glocalization: Heritage and Innovation in a Digital Age. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars. ISBN 9781527503939
• Hebert, David; Hauge, Torunn Bakken (2019). Advancing Music Education in Northern Europe. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781138486263
• Coppola, William; Hebert, David; Campbell, Patricia Shehan (2020). Teaching World Music in Higher Education (World Music Pedagogy, vol. VII). New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780367231736
• Hebert, David; McCollum, Jonathan (2022). Ethnomusicology and Cultural Diplomacy. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books (Rowman & Littlefield). ISBN 9781793642912
• Hebert, David (2023). Hebert, David G. (ed.). Comparative and Decolonial Studies in Philosophy of Education. New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-99-0139-5. ISBN 978-9819901388. S2CID 257585276.
• Ostersjo, Stefan; Nguyen, Thanh Thuy; Hebert, David; Frisk, Henrik (2023). Shared Listenings: Methods for Transcultural Musicianship and Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). ISBN 9781009272575.