To “Move, Surprise, and Thrill”: Thirty Years of Promoting Cultural Diversity in Norwegian School Concerts

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter examines how a politics of cultural diversity was implemented over a 30-year period in a Norwegian school concert program run by Concerts Norway. Departing from a historical overview, the chapter outlines the shifting agendas, values, and visions of diversity that governed this ambitious cultural effort. A central aim is to examine the ideological positions that influenced the program and the political and educational debates surrounding it. The concert program is discussed with respect to cultural diversity and anti-racism, democracy, tradition, hybridity, and the tensions between educational and artwork-based paradigms. Based on theorizations of cultural difference, the chapter shows how promoting music to children has been understood as an important part of shaping societal attitudes and laying the grounds for an anti-oppressive education. Critical issues regarding representation, influence, and power in the staging of music involving immigrant performers are raised. The chapter relates the concert programs to the political frames and ideals of the nation-state by illustrating how international cooperation effectively made the concert programs a part of Norwegian foreign policy. It points out how changing government policies had a profound impact on programs promoting cultural diversity, eventually leading to their termination as a national cultural strategy.