The conference, organized by Jose S. Buenconsejo, reflects on the fundamental question of how various idioms of Southeast Asian musical expressions have played important roles in shaping Southeast Asian societies through time.  Different scholars of Southeast Asian music offer a multidisciplinary perspective e by presenting research-based papers on a wide range of topics, such as the crucial role that music has played in cultural exchanges in the region, the collective memory of place, national identity construction, structuring of social relations, the sustenance of local, translocal, and cosmopolitan cultural sensibilities, and in drastic historical moments in the region that reconfigured ways of building societies. The Prince Claus Fund supports return air tickets of six participants: Edi Sedyawati (Indonesia), Jarenchai Chonpairot (Thailand), Manop Wissutipat (Thailand), Mohd Anis Md Nor (Malaysia), Yii Kah Hoe (Malaysia) and Arsenio Nicolas (Thailand). Read more about the Prince Claus Fund programme:The Applications Department of the Prince Claus Fund deals with the requests for funding of artistic productions, exchange activities and publications. The objective of the Prince Claus Fund is to increase cultural awareness and to promote exchange between culture and development. The Fund regards the interaction between culture and development as the confirmation of culture’s integral role in development processes. The Prince Claus Fund contributes its expertise and interesting network, and also collaborates as financial partner. The positive effects that activities will have within a wider social and cultural context are always taken into consideration by the Fund