Engaged Publication Talks provide a showcase and celebrate the publication success of faculty committed to community-engaged learning at Cornell. Featuring faculty and staff authors, this series provides opportunities for learning about engaged publication processes and pathways for potential scholarly engagement in this work.

Engaged Publications Talks are part of the Einhorn Center’s Engaged Conversations Series. The series is co-sponsored by the Center for Teaching Innovation.

Community-Engaged Performance Tours

Author and speaker: James Spinazzola, Barbara & Richard T. Silver ’50, MD ’53 Associate Professor, Director of Winds

Community-Engaged Performance Tours addresses the role of performance touring as a form of classroom and community engagement. Performance tours have long been a part of the collegiate and high school music ensemble experience, bringing student bands, choirs and orchestras into connection with a wide variety of audiences, venues and cultural contexts. This book presents a new approach to the performance tour that integrates touring with community engagement and service-learning.

Emphasizing reciprocity, cross-cultural exchange and global awareness, the author addresses how visiting ensembles can work with host communities instead of performing for them. The book includes student and community perspectives and case studies from the author’s experience leading university wind symphony tours in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and provides a practical and hands-on model for ensemble leaders and educators.

About the author: James Spinazzola is an active conductor, ensemble clinician, saxophonist and arranger. In addition to directing the Cornell wind program, James teaches undergraduate courses in conducting, music theory and chamber music, and he serves as faculty adviser to CU Winds, a student-driven organization devoted to the performance and promotion of wind band music.