Towards 2040: Creating Classical Music Futures

The Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music (MCICM) will offer a symposium on 21 - 22 April 2021. The seminar will be held online with live events planned for the host city of Maastricht if restrictions allow. The conference is intended for music practitioners, educators, students, orchestral musicians, administrators and artistic researchers and aims to stimulate a dialogue where the different factors of a successful innovation in classical music are discussed.

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, ELIA Member Conservatorium Maastricht and the Research centre for Arts, Autonomy and the Public Sphere (part of Zuyd University of Applied Sciences), and Maastricht University. They will combine academic research on innovation of performance practices with artistic research to renew classical music practices and music education in artistically relevant ways.

During the symposium presentation in various formats will take place. In the keynote lectures, Harro van Lente, professor of Science and Technology Studies at Maastricht University, and Helmut Seidenbusch, Director for Cultural Education at Stiftung Mercator in Germany, will cover themes such as the classical music futures, their ‘production’ and the challenges they bring.

At the parallel sessions, speakers will explore topics such as professional development for future musicians, technology, future performance formats, curation, the future of the concert hall, and politics and inclusion. The conference will also include discussion tables and a closing roundtable titled ‘Whose Future?’ (including ELIA Executive Director Maria Hansen as speaker) where participants will be able to exchange thoughts and opinions.

The conference 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.

For further information

There is small fee to join the event.