On the evening of 10 December 2025, the "Listen to the World" experiential music event organised by the HBU-UCLan School of Media, Communication and Creative Industries was warmly held in the C5 Teaching Building. Centred on the core theme of "Notes traversing the world, cultures resonating without boundaries", this concert presented the spiritual warmth and emotional colours of diverse cultures through the multi-dimensional integration of music, creativity, and culture, embarking on a global journey where "music is the voyage, and listening is the arrival".
This performance was led by MA Music Industry and Music Management students from HBU-UCLan, demonstrating distinctive cross-cultural creative and performance characteristics. Through media including piano, percussion, and dance, the performance guided the audience from the rhythms of African drums to Korean folk songs, wandering through Spanish flamenco melodies, experiencing Viennese classical beats, experiencing Russian folk dances, and ultimately resonating with the magnificent movements of the Chinese New Year. Throughout the rehearsal process, Course leader Paul Greene, Isabel Benito Gutiérrez, and Judy Ng from the School provided comprehensive guidance. The performance broke down traditional stage boundaries, allowing the audience to truly travel the world with their ears through walking and immersion, experiencing the emotion of boundless music and interconnected cultures.
The concert unfolded with the audience's immersive participation. It began with Xin Xiaonan leading the Egyptian drum piece "Fanga Alifia". The vibrant African drumbeats not only initiated a soundscape journey across time and space but also fully engaged the audience's emotional rhythm, as everyone responded by drumming along to the beat in joyful harmony.
Subsequently, the choir performance of "Arirang" conducted by Chen Qiqing led everyone into the emotional context of Eastern culture with its deep and melodious melodies. Zhang Ningshan's interpretation of "Rumores de la Caleta" sketched the free atmosphere of the Spanish coast through piano. Liu Huaijie's rendition of "Radetzky March" evoked the joyous memories of the European courtly era with its elegant march rhythm.
In "Danse Russe", Wang Yifei first provided guidance with concise and infectious body movement choreography, gradually leading the live audience to learn and dance along with the rhythm, demonstrating the scene of boundless art and the infiltration of aesthetic education through improvisational and sincere participation.
In the final chapter, all performers jointly presented China's renowned work 春节序曲. The entire audience of teachers and students immersed themselves in the warm atmosphere of the festival, applauding, resonating, and rejoicing in the same beat, truly achieving an immersive scene of "the world in unison, all things in harmony".
"Listening to the world” experiential concert used music as a medium, upholding the concept of "educating through aesthetics and developing through aesthetics". It represents a vivid practice in the high-quality development of aesthetic education in higher education institutions. The concert not only reflected the School's broad vision and innovative exploration in cross-cultural art education but also, through the form of "soundscape roaming", infiltrated aesthetic education within listening, interaction, and emotional resonance, guiding the audience to understand diverse cultures and experience the universal emotional expressions of humanity in the world of sound. As a campus art practice themed "music without boundaries, aesthetic education with resonance", it enriched the aesthetic experiences of teachers and students, promoted cultural mutual appreciation and spiritual communication, and demonstrated the infiltrating power of art education in building consensus and cultivating sentiment.
