Music is often heralded as a universal language that transcends cultural, political, and social divides. Yet, such claims obscure the diversity of musical practices and the complexity of the contexts in which music operates. This panel examines music’s potential to function both in dialogue—augmenting verbal processes of peacebuilding, empathy, and cooperation—and as dialogue—a communicative mode in its own right that embodies interaction, contestation, and co-creation. Bringing together scholars and practitioners working across contexts of war, incarceration, migration, racial injustice, and post-conflict reconciliation, the panel interrogates the affordances and limitations of music as a dialogic practice in our fractured world.In deeply divided societies, dialogue is indispensable to peace and justice. Yet contemporary polarisation, xenophobia, and ideological tribalism make dialogue more elusive than ever (Carothers & O’Donohue, 2019). Building on Paulo Freire’s concept of naming the world (2000/1970) and Appadurai’s theorisation of the social imaginary (1996), we argue that music has under-theorised potential to cultivate the dialogic capacities necessary for transformative social change. These capacities include storying and re-storying (the re-narration of histories and identities), voice (literal and metaphorical expression of agency), deep listening (as discipline, healing practice, and political commitment), and imagining (envisioning new futures rooted in shared experience).An emerging body of scholarship in community music, music education, applied ethnomusicology, and cognate interdisciplinary fields (e.g. Becker, 2017; Gottesman, 2016, 2018; Hess, 2018; Jordanger & Eriksen, 2007; Marsh, 2019) demonstrates how collaborative music-making can confront histories of violence and mistrust, nurture empathy, and spark shared imaginaries. Yet such processes also reveal risks—to what extent are the music-making dynamics equipped to grapple with asymmetries of power? How are the agonistic dimensions of dialogue—where conflict is intentionally engaged rather than avoided—enabled in contexts where conflict avoidance is a modus operandi? Music initiatives described as ‘dialogue’ or ‘dialogic’ often lack clarity about what is taking place musically or communicatively that moves the practice into this heightened terrain, a gap that our panel will address.Through illustrations from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and the US, this panel addresses three persistent issues in scholarship and practice:· The agonistic capacity of musical dialogue - How can music engage conflict constructively, rather than smoothing over tensions or fostering superficial coexistence?· The interplay of sounds and words - At what points in dialogue processes does music augment, interrupt, or replace verbal communication?· Creative practices for dialogue - Which pedagogies and methods (e.g., improvisation, collective songwriting, participatory performance) support transformative shifts, and how do they differ from hierarchical models such as large conducted ensembles?By foregrounding these questions, the panel reframes music not as a panacea or “universal language,” but as a contingent, context-sensitive practice capable of opening dialogic space.The panel convenes authors of a forthcoming edited volume on Music and Dialogue. Each presentation engages one or more of the four dialogic capacities—storying, voice, deep listening, and imagining—through case study and theoretical framing. Together, the panelists will chart the terrain of music-dialogue scholarship, from war-affected communities to prison choirs and intercultural collaborations, illuminating the conditions under which music fosters genuine dialogue and transformative imaginaries.SignificanceIn an era of intensifying polarisation and crisis globally, the panel offers a critical, interdisciplinary interrogation of music’s role in peacebuilding, formal and informal education, and community collaboration. By unsettling romanticised axioms and articulating a grounded framework, this session will equip scholars, educators, and practitioners with conceptual tools for understanding music as a dialogic practice in ways that are critically reflexive and have the potential to be socially transformative.