Exploring Power in Music, Spirituality and Well-Being

This volume explores how negotiating power between different cultures, as well as within educational contexts, can shape personal growth, empowerment, and well-being in musicking practices. It examines the interface between individuals engaged in musicking and the institutions and societies that exercise power over them. The chapters investigate strategies of resistance and survival used by musicians who challenge or reject institutionalised ways of knowing. In doing so, they often draw on traditionally marginalised domains of musical experience-such as expression, affect, and values. In some contributions, these domains form the central argument, while in others they are integrated with more conventional concerns of musical materials and construction. Together, these perspectives raise important questions about the role of spirituality in the lives of musicians, offering fresh insights into how musicking can contribute to spiritual flourishing and emotional well-being even under conditions of constraint.

Liesl van der Merwe is a professor at North-West University, South Africa, in the School of Creative Industries and Performing Arts, and in the research entity Research and Creative Outputs in Visual Arts and Music (ViAMUS). June Boyce-Tillman, MBE, is Professor Emerita of Applied Music at the University of Winchester and an extraordinary Professor at North-West University, South Africa. Petra Jerling (PhD, M.Mus. Music Therapy; MA Positive Psychology) is an extraordinary researcher at NWU and a registered music psychotherapist in South Africa. Laetitia Orlandi, former Assistant Dean (Teaching & Learning) in the Faculty of Arts & Design at TUT, is a collaborative pianist and Integral Coach®. Debra Joubert is an extraordinary researcher in the research entity Research and Creative Outputs in Visual Arts and Music (ViAMUS), at North-West University.