Symposium: Musical Exile, Migration and Cultural Mobility

When musicians become migrants, they often exert a profound influence on their new environment: transforming concert life, creating or reshaping music institutions, and contributing to music education. This symposium considers the significance of migration for music-making, examining themes such as identity and belonging; the transfer of repertoire and skills; stylistic hybridity and multicultural music-making; and music’s relationship to nationalism, xenophobia and protectionism.

The symposium builds on the work of two recent projects: The Research Initiative Music and Migration at Salzburg University/Mozarteum, which aimed to advance theory and methodologies in research about music and migration and produced the recently published Routledge Handbook of Music and Migration; and the recent AHRC-funded interdisciplinary project Music, Migration and Mobility at the Royal College of Music in London, which investigated the legacies of migrant musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain and developed sheet music editions, performances and recordings. Hosted at the Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia, the symposium also aims to build on growing scholarship on the contributions of displaced persons, refugees, and other postwar migrants to the musical life of postwar Australia.

Featuring a keynote by Prof Nils Grosch (Salzburg University), “Music and Mobility: Outlining a New Field of Research” on Friday 15 August at 9:30am and a performance by tenor Norbert Meyn with pianist Kevin Tamanini, Émigré Cabaret Recital at 7:30pm.

The symposium coincides with the 80th anniversary of Musica Viva, one of Australia’s leading presenters of chamber music, founded by the Viennese émigré Richard Goldner in 1945. Musica Viva will be hosting a celebratory concert with the specially commissioned ‘Sonnet of an Emigrant’ by Cathy Milliken, performed by the Takács Quartet and Angie Milliken, at the Melbourne Recital Centre the evening before the symposium.

Join us at this engaging symposium about the profound impact of musician migration on culture and society, and featuring expert keynotes, compelling research by international scholars, and a special evening recital.

Conveners: Nils Grosch, Salzburg University; Norbert Meyn, Royal College of Music; Nicholas Tochka, University of Melbourne University; Peter Tregear, University of Melbourne.

Schedule

Friday 15 August: Symposium Day 1 and Concert
8.30AM - Registration
9AM-5.45PM - Symposium Day 1
7.30PM - Concert with short post performance reception

Saturday 16 August: Symposium Day 2
9AM-1PM - Symposium Day 2

Preliminary schedule, June 2025

Émigré Cabaret Recital - Friday 15 August 7.30PM

From 1920s Berlin cabaret and Viennese concert halls to London’s spirit of the Blitz and postwar optimism.

Norbert Meyn, tenor (London)
Kevin Tamanini, piano (Melbourne)

Supported by the Austrian Embassy Canberra

This cabaret recital presents songs in English and German by composers who fled the Nazis in Austria and Germany and found a new home in Britain. Explored and re-discovered during recent research at the Royal College of Music in London, the songs by Hans Gál, Mátyás Seiber, Eric Sanders, Karl Rankl and others encompass dark and hilarious humour, nostalgia, a spirit of protest and defiance as well as an internationalist perspective through choices of poetry and modernist musical styles.

Artist Biographies

Norbert Meyn is a versatile and creative singer based in London. In recent years he has made a name for himself through his unique concert programmes and recording projects with a sense of story-telling and discovery. Trained in Germany and at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Norbert has appeared in concerts at the Barbican Hall, the South Bank Centre, St. John’s Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Halle International Handel Festival, the Utrecht Festival, with the Salzburg Bach Choir and the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Howard Arman, Simon Halsey, Phillip Pickett and Sir John Eliot Gardiner. His operatic roles include Don Ottavio (Mozart, Don Giovanni), Almaviva (Rossini, Il Barbiere di Sevilla), Podesta (Mozart, La Finta Giadiniera), Don Giovanni (Gazzaniga, title role), Damon (Handel, Acis and Galathea) and Magnus (Maxwell-Davies, The Martyrdom of St. Magnus). With London Voices he recorded many film soundtracks for blockbuster productions including Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. CD recordings include Bach cantatas for Soli Deo Gloria, Engel Lund’s Book of Folk Songs for Nimbus Records, Schubert Lieder for SFZ Musi, Spiritual Songs by C.P.E. Bach for Toccata Classics and Lieder by Robert Kahn with Christopher Gould for Rubicon. Norbert teaches German Lieder at the Royal College of Music in London, where he is also involved in research. He is a sought-after vocal coach and specialist for German diction in singing and works as a consultant in the UK several European countries.

Pianist Kevin Tamanini studied at the Music Universities of Lübeck and Saarbrücken (Germany), earning a Master of music in piano performance in 2009. Kevin fluently speaks nine languages and has a keen interest in literature which led him to work mainly with singers. He has participated in festivals and concerts throughout Europe and Australia, collaborating with renowned artists such as Cécile Bonnet, Marianne Dellacasagrande, Rolando Villazon and Yuja Wang. Appointed repetiteur for numerous masterclasses (Jennifer Larmore, Francois Le Roux and Thomas Brandis and others), Kevin is a laureate of the Saarbourg International Competition for Young Pianists (1997). His eclectic repertoire spans various composers from Rameau to Lachenmann. Since his arrival in Australia in 2022, Kevin Tamanini has worked with different companies such as Opera Australia, Melbourne Opera, BK Opera, the Melbourne Composer’s League and Ringwood Eisteddfod.

ACCESSIBILITY

All venues at the Southbank campus are wheelchair accessible. To read more about access services available at our venues, please visit:  https://finearts-music.unimelb.edu.au/access-our-events.  

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

• Please stay home if you feel unwell, even with mild symptoms. Face masks are welcome in all settings for community and personal safety.  

• In order to account for drop-off in attendance, we overbook a select number of free events at the Faculty. If you have not arrived by the start of the performance, your ticket may be released to any waiting patrons at the door. Please arrive at the venue at least 15 minutes before the performance to secure your seat.  

• Admission to any of our concerts and events is strictly at the discretion of Front of House. We have zero tolerance for any disrespectful behaviour. 

Banner L-R: Portrait of Norbert Meyn (Image by Art Lewy). Portrait of Kevin Tamanini.