A WARM WELCOME
Welcome from John Habron-James
On behalf of the Scientific Committee, welcome to this website and to the ICDS community!
For the 6th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies (ICDS6), we move for the first time to the United States of America and are delighted that our host is Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a place with a century-long tradition of Dalcroze training. The ICDS6 Organizing Committee is led by Dr Stephen Neely, Director of the university’s Marta Sanchez Dalcroze Training Center, School of Music Pre-College Programs, and member of the Scientific Committee.
I am thrilled that this conference will allow delegates to meet in person once again, after the major disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. I am equally excited that we are experimenting with a level of hybridity, following the highly successful online conference (ICDS5) in October 2021. This innovation not only reflects one of our key values – sustainability – but also echoes the theme of our sixth conference: Ecologies of practice in music and movement.
Taking this theme as our inspiration, ICDS6 will explore the different meanings of ecology as they relate to Dalcroze and related practices. By sharing our knowledge and experiences, our research, pedagogy and artistry, we hope to arrive at new understandings of our practices on the individual, communal, societal and systemic levels and how these levels interrelate. In so doing, we would also like to formulate proposals for how we can cultivate strong, enduring and care-filled relationships between ourselves, music, movement and the planet that is our home.
The Scientific Committee is made up of leading experts in a variety of fields, all of which have relevance to Dalcroze and related practices. We also have Dalcroze teachers on the committee, who themselves undertake and supervise research. I am very proud to work alongside all of them and am grateful for their ongoing support and advice.
ICDS6 will mark 10 years since the first conference and we hope you will join us in Pittsburgh to celebrate this important milestone. It will also be my sixth and last conference as Chair of the Scientific Committee and so I look forward to sharing in some memorable moments that will help to round off a very special decade in my life.
I warmly invite you to submit proposals and encourage anyone who is interested to attend and join this vibrant and flourishing international community, united by an intellectual passion for music and movement.
I look forward to meeting you at ICDS6.
Dr John Habron-James
Chair of the Scientific Committee, 6th International Conference of Dalcroze Studies
