Call for Projects, Workshops and Papers: Towards 2040: Creating Classical Music Futures

Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music

Dates: 21–22 April 2021
Digital Symposium

What will classical concerts look like in 20- or 30-years’ time? Will digital concerts become an integral part of the practice? What will the concert hall look like? What aesthetic issues will be important? How will music education contribute to the changing future of musicians? This symposium seeks to engage with the different ways that practitioners are constructing this future, while considering critically the process of ‘futuring’ itself. The aim is not to simply imagine a distant future over which we have no control but to show how imagining the future of classical music informs our work today.

We would again like to invite music practitioners; music educators and students; orchestral musicians, directors and administrators; as well as academic and artistic researchers to present their thoughts and work on futuring in classical music. There will also be consideration of how different established narratives of the future will affect classical music. For example, how will societal developments such as growing social and economic inequality, the call for more diversity and less Eurocentrism, the ubiquity of digital technologies in the cultural domain, and global crises such as the climate emergency change how we work?

The future is of course a work in progress, so the presentation of speculative or as yet unfinished projects is encouraged. The symposium aims to stimulate a supportive and fruitful dialogue in order to better understand what ingredients lead to successful innovation in classical music. It will also be the start of a process that will result in a book on Classical Music Futures, to which symposium presenters and attendees are invited to contribute.

This symposium will be held online with some live events planned for the host city of Maastricht if restrictions allow. Therefore, we would like to invite proposals for single presentations, panels, roundtables and online workshops.

Abstracts (max. 250 words) should be submitted to mcicm-fasos@maastrichtuniversity.nl by 1 February 2021 5pm CET. Please include the name of presenter(s)/author(s), a short biography and organizational or institutional affiliation. Also add what kind of online presentation you envisage for your contribution and if you would like to be considered for the edited collection on Classical Music Futures. The committee will review and select projects based on their relevance to the symposium theme, clarity of the project’s main learning opportunity, and originality. Moreover, the committee seeks to construct a program bringing together perspectives from all levels of experience and expertise.

For queries, please contact mcicm-fasos@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Programme Committee:
Prof Peter Peters, Director Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music, Maastricht University.
Dr Stefan Rosu, Intendant philharmonie zuidnederland.
Dr Ruth Benschop, Professor at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Research centre for Arts, Autonomy and the Public Sphere.
Dr Joachim Junghanss, Artistic Director Conservatorium Maastricht.
Dr Neil T. Smith, Postdoctoral researcher, Maastricht University.
Karoly Molina, MA, Research assistant, Maastricht University.

The Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music (MCICM) aims to study the dynamics of changing classical music practices and their societal contexts, and to actively shape classical music futures. The centre is a collaboration between philharmonie zuidnederland, Conservatorium Maastricht and the Research centre for Arts, Autonomy and the Public Sphere (part of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences), and Maastricht University. We combine academic research on innovation of performance practices with artistic research to renew classical music practices and music education in artistically relevant ways.