If Colors Could Be Heard: Narratives about Racial Identity in Music Education

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Christopher Cayari (Purdue University, USA) Jason D. Thompson (Independent researcher)

If Colors Could Be Heard

Narratives about Racial Identity in Music Education

Christopher Cayari (Purdue University, USA), Jason D. Thompson (Independent researcher), Rekha S. Rajan (Columbia College Chicago)

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Hardback

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English

Intellect Books
28 October 2025

Techniques of music & music tutorials; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Education

Series: Contemporary Music Making and Learning

A deeply personal and scholarly exploration of how race and ethnicity shape the ways we learn, teach, and experience music.

If Colors Could Be Heard: Narratives About Racial Identity in Music Education is a groundbreaking collection of firsthand accounts by music educators, artists, activists, and students from the Global Majority. These deeply personal narratives explore how race and ethnicity shape experiences in music learning, making, and teaching.

From stories of childhood discovery to reflections on navigating racial identity in the classroom, these voices paint a complex and vivid portrait of music education in the United States. Going beyond a collection of research studies, this book embraces self-reflective storytelling as a legitimate and essential method of inquiry, offering a scholarly mosaic of lived experience.

By centering voices often marginalized in academia, If Colors Could Be Heard challenges dominant narratives and reimagines music education through a lens of equity, identity, and belonging. A must-read for students, educators, and researchers committed to fostering an inclusive and just musical future.

Edited by: Christopher Cayari (Purdue University USA), Jason D. Thompson (Independent researcher), Rekha S. Rajan (Columbia College Chicago)
Imprint: Intellect Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 244mm, Width: 170mm, Spine: 19mm
Weight: 689g
ISBN: 9781835951675
ISBN 10: 1835951678
Series: Contemporary Music Making and Learning
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 28 October 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christopher Cayari is an associate professor of music at Purdue University West Lafayette-Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Their research interests include popular music, musical theater, race & ethnicity, gender & sexuality, and identity scholarship. Jason D. Thompson is an an inaugural faculty member at the nation’s first Black Honors College at California State University, Sacramento, USA. His research interests include socially engaged arts practices, music participation as civic engagement, and the ways culture shapes musical experiences. Rekha S. Rajan is an award-winning classically trained singer who has performed in musicals, operas and operettas across the U.S. Her bestselling children's literature books encourage young readers to explore the world around them through the arts.