URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Winter_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

Making Mus i c & Uni ty in Mo zamb i que

by Amy Dunkle and Vanessa Quainoo

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” Plato Mark Conley, professor of music and director of choral activities at the University of Rhode Island (URI), lives every day with the transformational power of music and the ability of song to bring people together. In addition to teaching classes and administrative responsibilities, he instructs the Concert Choir and the smaller select choir Lively Experiment, and oversees two graduate choral conducting students and five private voice students. A few years ago, Conley, long intrigued by the idea of sharing his life calling through service, attended the Eastern Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association, which focused on choral music and human rights. Featured directors talked about their efforts with prisoners and special needs singers.

comprises numerous ethnic and indigenous groups. The requirements of the position called for Conley to be in good physical shape so he could handle the travel—hiking from village to village. As he spent weeks considering music to bring with him and learning the language, Conley laced up his hiking boots, walking nearly every day for six weeks, logging eight or nine miles on the weekends. His blog, Intrepid Conductor— intrepidconductor.weebly.com, shares his thoughts throughout the experience. Early on, Conley’s reflections make it clear that he would be as much a student on this trip as the teacher. He arrived in the first village May 12, 2013 after hiking across mountainous terrain. The trip to Ngofi, the northernmost village of the region, would pass through three townships and take about three to four hours, not including visits with people along the way. By day’s end, Conley arrived at his destination: “I crawled into my tent. There were no pads to put under our

“Music—singing in particular—is a basic human right,” Conley says. “It is something that even oppressive regimes cannot take from an individual.” These experiences of musical ownership and empowerment are universal, notes Conley, and the trivialization of music solely as entertainment only takes place when a society feels no threat and can afford to forget its heritage. After the choral directors’ conference, Conley discovered an opportunity in Mozambique’s Manda Wilderness, an impoverished, remote region tucked in the country’s northwest corner, where villages of indigenous people suffered the brutality of civil war for decades. The Manda Wilderness Community Trust, part of the Manda Wilderness Project, was looking for a guest choral director to lead an annual festival. The festival marks an ongoing effort by the Manda Trust to foster a sense of unity among the villagers and, in turn, connect the villagers to mainstream Mozambique. One of the goals is to give the people a stronger voice in the country, which

The University of Rhode Island { momentum: Research & Innovation }

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