UC Riverside has been selected to host Belgian audio producer and educator Frank Duchêne next spring as a Fulbright scholar in residence.
“This is a great recognition of the teaching and research happening in the UCR Music Department,” said Liz Przybylski, a professor of music at UCR, who led the effort to bring Duchêne to campus through the U.S. Department of State’s Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Program. “It’s also a tremendous opportunity for our students, who will get to learn from an internationally recognized music industry practitioner and scholar. I’m excited to collaborate with Frank on his research here on campus.”
A lecturer in music at PXL University of Applied Sciences and Arts, in Belgium, Duchêne will co-teach a course with Przybylski on the advanced theory and practice of manipulating digital sound.
“Supporting intercultural learning is at the heart of this exchange,” Przybylski said. “We anticipate expanding the way audio engineering is taught to include not just technical skills, but also to help participants understand that the way we listen is shaped by culture.”
Duchêne also will engage in off-campus collaborations with local K-12 educators, Przybylski said. He plans to continue developing his “sound education” research, assessing the use of audio technologies for teaching about science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
Belgium has an outsize impact in the global popular music economy, Przybylski said, with prominent companies headquartered in the country and dedicated to lucrative aspects of the pop music industry, including live concerts, touring, and musical gear. PXL-Music, where Duchêne teaches, has transformed training through partnerships with some of these companies. Hence, a PXL scholar is a valuable guide for U.S. students interested in this discipline and career path, Przybylski said.
Przybylski is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in Canadian and American hip-hop practices as well as gender in the music industry. They are the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Fellowship and a Fulbright Fellowship. Their most recent book, “Sonic Sovereignty: Hip Hop Indigeneity, and Shifting Popular Music Mainstreams” (NYU Press, 2023), considers how contemporary Indigenous musicians champion self-determination through musical expression.