‘You’re the voice’ :intergenerational peacebuilding through musicking. A Lederachian analysis of voice, emotion, and audience participation in the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland’s Peace Proms

Much of the research to date has been based on short-term projects with a lack of evidence of music’s efficacy beyond the bounds of the project. Moreover, scholars across a range of disciplines have shown that music has as much potential to cause violence as it does to create peace.

Based on twelve months of ethnographic research with the Cross Border Orchestra of Ireland and their Peace Proms show, this thesis explores intergenerational peacebuilding through musicking during live performances. Using the framework of John Paul Lederach’s ‘moral imagination’ theory, it investigates the Peace Prom's pedagogical approach of foregrounding courage in musical training so that young people can find their ‘voice’, which in Lederachian terms holds the broader meaning of vocation.