Conference Agenda

This study examines processes involved in creating a podcast series through the use of creative storytelling. The study aims to highlight research conducted on archival material preserved at the Library of the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, supplemented by additional public and private local archives. The research focused on the lives of four musicians who taught at the conservatory during the first half of the 20th century: Alexandros Kazantzis, the institution’s first principal, along with Vasileios Theofanous, Georgios Vakalopoulos, and Epameinondas Floros. A microhistorical approach was employed, making it possible to uncover evidence that might otherwise remain overlooked, and thus revealing connections to the social and cultural environment surrounding the subject of the research. The dissemination of the study’s findings aims to connect the people of Thessaloniki with the city’s musical history and cultural life. As a result, the project is intended not only for academic audiences but also for the general public. Since art is a powerful means of communication, the study sought artistic research practices that would help share the findings more effectively and maximize their impact. Dramatic interpretive narration was chosen, as the use of theatrical techniques has emerged over the past few decades as a highly effective educational tool for showcasing both tangible and intangible cultural heritage—often raising social issues that encourage reflection and critical thinking. The project also utilized digital technologies, which offer new, interdisciplinary ways to process and enrich informational material, as well as easy and immediate access for broad audiences.

Music streaming platforms emerged with the promise of endless exploration of music catalogues from around the world from the convenience of an internet-enabled device. However, their utopian promises are far from the Western-centric infrastructures and management that underpin the music products such as playlists currently delivered by these services (Campos Valverde 2025). Leaving aside the media industries’ co-opted considerations of equality manifested via representation and visibility (Saha 2021), how can we rekindle scholarship interest in questions of cultural imperialism and global flows of music in the software-dependent streaming era? In this paper, I will mobilise Dylan Robinson’s (2020) framework of inclusionary structures of music culture and apply it to music streaming services, proposing the concept of ‘inclusionary discovery’. While Robinson’s framework of ‘hungry listening’ analyses the extractive trend of incorporating indigenous or minority musics to Western classical live performance and recording, here I will propose a broader understanding of this principle as the underlying ideology that underpins the exploration and discovery of music libraries in the streaming industry for all racialised musics as a whole. Using material collected from interface analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and industry documents, I will demonstrate how the music libraries that form the basis of recommender products, and marketing copy and PR statements emphasise the idea of discovery of music from a perceived ‘other’ in terms of geography, race, and location, which is always situated outside the Western mainstream ‘centre’. The talk will conclude suggesting alternative forms of music curation and consumption.

Maria Luiza Kfouri (1954–2023) was a Brazilian journalist and musicologist. She served as musical coordinator of Rádio Gazeta FM (1988) and as director of Rádio Cultura AM in São Paulo (1989-1995), during which time she produced several programs dedicated to Brazilian popular music. In 2005, Kfouri launched the website Discos do Brasil (Discs from Brazil) through which she made available technical information on recordings of Brazilian music. She emphasized that the website does not present the discography of Brazil, but rather a Brazilian discography shaped by a personal curatorial perspective. Initially comprising approximately 4,000 titles, the website features a sophisticated search system that allows users to locate information such as album titles, arrangers, songs, and performers, among other data. In its most recent update, in 2020, the database included 7,482 albums, and 56,017 songs. In 2023, shortly before her death, she donated her entire record collection to the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). In a posthumous note published on the website, musician Arthur de Faria stated that Discos do Brasil will remain online but will no longer be updated, as, being a personal discography, it would not be appropriate to include recordings that might not align with the author’s curatorial choices. This study presents the Discos do Brasil website, highlighting its functionality and resources for researchers. It then offers a reflection on the role of collecting in the preservation and dissemination of musical heritage, engaging with perspectives from the fields of memory studies, history, and musicology.