Upcoming IMS Events

The IMS Study Group “Music and Cultural Studies” and the Friends of Music Society Athens announce an interdisciplinary conference, “Musicology and Music Librarianship in Cultural Context in Honour of Stephanie Merakos.”

Workshop of the IMS Study Group “Auditory History”
This afternoon workshop investigates historical auditory experiences of those with varied degrees of hearing loss in the wide context of hearing as a multisensorial experience. The event will feature a keynote lecture by Rosamund Oates (Manchester) and five presentations by registered active participants, followed by a lengthy discussion.

Reading Group of the IMS Study Group “Auditory History”
The reading group session will focus on the sounds of war, liminality, and transcultural communities formed during periods of conflict. Drawing on a curated selection of recent contributions by multiple authors, we will explore the many facets of listening, hearing, and the multisensorial perception of war sounds, including music and sonic communication.

York St. John University and the IMS Study Group “Music and Media” (MaM) present their annual conference (9–10 June 2025), “Music, Media, and Global Messages.” The abstract submission deadline is 1 April 2025.

Roundtable of the IMS Study Group “Auditory History”
Focusing on the variety of interactions of sound and space—how sound inhabits space, shapes space, and how it creates space—we will discuss this broad topic with a multidisciplinary group of scholars. Iva Grlić Radman (Basel) is an architect interested in contemporary spaces and sound, Eduardo Carrero Santamaria (Barcelona) is an art historian focused on medieval sacred architecture and sound, Illaria Grippaudo (Palermo) is an early modern historical musicologist investigating the interaction of politics, sound, and space, Zorana Đorđević (Barcelona) is an architect and archaeoacoustics scholar specialised in long-distance sonic communication, and Salomé Voegelin (London) is a philosopher of sound and a sound artist focusing on sonic communication.

The IMS in collaboration with the Universitat de València is organizing an Intercongressional IMS Symposium on the topic “Global Mediterranean: Postcolonial Music Histories (16th–20th Centuries)” in Valencia (ES), from 9 to 12 July 2025. Proposals are invited for free papers, roundtables, and study sessions. The abstract submission deadline is 14 March 2025.

The confirmed keynote speakers are David Abulafia (Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge), Anna Maria Busse Berger (UC Davis, Department of Music), and Luisa Cymbron (Universidade Nova de Lisboa).

Proposals are invited for free papers, roundtables, study sessions, and dissertation presentations. Free papers and study sessions can be on any musicological topic, roundtables should focus exclusively on topics related to the theme symposium. Studies of music in the Mediterranean region, both historical and anthropological, are especially welcome. Proposals for interdisciplinary dialogue, especially between historical musicology and ethnomusicology, are particularly encouraged. Contributions that focus on the mutual relations and exchanges between different cultural areas, both within and from the Mediterranean region—for example, along the North-South axes with Sub-Saharan Africa, or East-West with the Middle East and the Americas—are also particularly welcome.

IMS members are entitled to a reduced conference registration fee.

The ninth international conference of the IMS Regional Association for the Study of Music of the Balkans (RASMB), on the topic “Soundscapes in the Balkans: Rethinking Histories, Reflecting Theories and Ideologies,” will be held in Brașov (RO) from 2 to 6 September 2025.

IMS members are entitled to a reduced conference registration fee.

The IMS Study Group “Tablature in Western Music” will hold a meeting in conjunction with the research group E-LAUTE (Electronic Linked Annotated Unified Tablature Edition) specialized in the lute in the German-speaking area, 1450–1550. This event will take place in Basel at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, 10 to 13 September 2025. Information will be published on the study group’s website in due course.

The eighth biennial conference of the IMS Regional Association for East Asia (IMSEA), on the topic “Heritage and Community,” will be held at Yunnan University (CN) from 19 to 21 September 2025. Visit this link to access the call for papers (submission deadline: 31 March 2025).

IMS members are entitled to a reduced conference registration fee.