Katelin Webster, PhD candidate in musicology at Ohio State, presents "We Are Not a Refugee Orchestra: The Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra and its Roots in Cold War Cultural Diplomacy." This lecture is co-sponsored by The Ohio State University Libraries.
In 2015, Syrian bassist Raed Jazbeh founded the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO) in Germany. The orchestra is comprised of Syrian musicians living in the European Union who perform Syrian symphonic music–a style of music that blends elements of Western classical music and Arabic music. Most of the musicians arrived in Europe as refugees; however, the orchestra used the term “expat” instead of “refugee” to encompass the players’ different migration backgrounds and prioritize their identities as professional musicians. Nevertheless, German media often refer to SEPO as a “refugee orchestra” and misinterpret the orchestra’s repertoire as a recent development resulting from the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War. Jazbeh and Syrian composers have pointed out that this representation of SEPO marginalizes their skills and contributions. Furthermore, it obscures a longer history of Syrian-German musical contacts prior to the influx of Syrian refugees in 2015. Through analysis of archival sources and ethnographic enquiry, Katelin Webster connects musical exchanges between the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and Syria beginning in the late 1950s to SEPO’s music-making in Germany today. SEPO highlights their connection to these exchanges by referencing to and performing the works of Syrian musicians Solhi Al-Wadi and Nuri El-Ruheibany, who used Syrian-East German diplomatic relations to develop the genre of Syrian symphonic music that SEPO now performs in Germany. Webster argues that attending to SEPO’s roots in Cold War-era programs reveals the players’ resistance to Germany’s othering of refugees and their desire to be recognized as contributors to Germany’s music culture.
Katelin Webster is a PhD candidate in musicology with a minor in Nonprofit Studies at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include music and forced migration, community music, and race in contemporary Germany. She was awarded the Alvin H. Johnson AMS-50 Dissertation Fellowship by the American Musicological Society for her dissertation titled “Sounding Like Refugees: Intercultural Music-Making and Syrian Refugee Integration in Northern Germany.” Her dissertation illuminates the musical activities of Syrians in northern Germany and examines the effects of social intercultural policies and racial thinking on refugee integration. Her work has been presented at the American Musicological Society’s joint meeting with the Society for Ethnomusicology and Society for Music Theory, the Midwest Chapter Meeting of the American Musicological Society, and the annual conference of the Graduate Association of Musicologists und Theorists at the University of North Texas. Katelin has volunteered for refugee support programs in central Ohio and western Michigan.
Lectures in Musicology is co-sponsored by The Ohio State University Libraries.
Lectures are held Mondays at 4 p.m. in the 18th Avenue Library, 175 W. 18th Ave. (Music/Dance Library, second floor, room 205). These events are free and open to the public. Campus visitors, please use either the Tuttle Park Place Garage or the Ohio Union South Garage. All other garages in the vicinity of the 18th Ave. Library are closed to visitors before 4 p.m.
All events are subject to change.