François de Médicis is a professor at the Université de Montreal. His research interests centre on French and Russian music from the first third of the twentieth century (Debussy, Milhaud, Scriabin and Stravinsky). He is a member of the editorial committee for the critical edition of the works of Saint-Saëns with Bärenreiter, French editor of Intersections (2006–2009), he has co-edited the bookMusique et modernité en France, 1900 à 1945 (2006), published articles in Acta Musicologica, Music & Letters, Il Saggiatore musicale, Intersections, STM-Online, l'Enciclopedia della musica(Einaudi), and in collections of articles published by Vrin, the Sorbonne, l'Harmattan, and Presses de l'Université de Montréal.

Today, no society – not even the most traditional ones – can in any real sense escape the impact of the worldwide circulation of cultural products or that of the tourism industry, which is growing rapidly in many countries. General attitudes toward these trends are ambivalent: on the one hand, there is hope that they will contribute to a mutual enrichment of cultures and an appreciation of their intrinsic values; on the other, there is concern that the trends may lead to the gradual erosion and homogenization of cultural heritages. The key questions raised in this context involve the balance of cultural exchange and the dynamic potential that each culture can harness to develop and renew itself.

Professor Fernando’s research program revolves around three themes, which must be approached from a transversal perspective and will require the application of concepts and methods drawn from two disciplines – ethnomusicology and anthropology.

The three themes are (1) globalization phenomena, (2) the integration of musical heritage in tourism, and (3) the categorization of musical forms. The basic goal is to identify the processes at play in each phenomenon, analyse their changing characteristics and provide keys for interpreting how they function, identify and explain the contexts in which they operate, assess their impact within and outside a given culture, and bring out the underlying issues.