The “Bitter Sweetness” of Hybridity: Being a Bicultural Greek Australian Musician

Authors

Renee Georgoulas, Monash University
Jane E. Southcott, Monash UniversityFollow

Abstract

“Calista” is a bilingual, bicultural Greek-Australian musician in Melbourne, Victoria who explores and enacts her bicultural identity by musicking (making music). This single case study explores the formation and development of hybridized identity which is a complex lifelong process that may generate tensions for an individual that changes across the lifespan. There are strengths and challenges for those traversing different cultures. This study focuses on a bicultural identity formed by personal, musical and cultural contexts. Calista enacts her bimusicality in different musical genres and in different modes of musical engagement. Data were collected by semi-structured interview and by reference to published materials. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The findings are reported under three themes that reflect different stages in Calista’s life: Becoming a Greek-Australian musician; Mature musicking; and Teaching and community work.

Keywords

Greek-Australian Identity, Bicultural Identity, Bilingual Identity, Greek-Australian Singer Songwriter, Musical Identity

Author Bio(s)

Dr. Renee Georgoulas is a Greek-Australian musician and music educator.

Dr. Jane Southcott is an Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia. Jane researches community engagement with music and cultural identity. Jane supervises many postgraduate research students. She is President of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Research in Music Education and on the editorial boards of international refereed journals. Correspondence regarding this article can also be addressed directly to: jane.southcott@monash.edu.

Acknowledgements

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Publication Date

6-5-2017

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2789

Recommended APA Citation

Georgoulas, R., & Southcott, J. E. (2017). The “Bitter Sweetness” of Hybridity: Being a Bicultural Greek Australian Musician. The Qualitative Report, 22(6), 1511-1524. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2017.2789