Fwd: Invitation to Music, Mental Health, and Human Flourishing symposium

Dear colleagues,

With apologies for cross-posting, we are delighted to invite you to attend Music, Mental Health, and Human Flourishing, a joint symposium hosted by the University of York's Centre for Music Education and Human Flourishing (CeMEHF) and the Institute for Mental Health Research in York (IMRY)

The symposium will take place on Friday 26 June 2026 (11:00–15:00 BST) at the Ron Cooke Hub, University of York, and will be available in a hybrid format (in-person and online). The event brings together three internationally recognised scholars:

• Professor Kira Vibe Jespersen (Aarhus University, Denmark)

• Professor Liesl van der Merwe (North-West University, South Africa)

• Professor Kelly Jakubowski (Durham University, UK)

The symposium is free to attend. It will explore how music can support mental health, wellbeing, and social connection across diverse contexts and stages of life. 

Programme

• 10:30–11:00 – In-person arrivals and refreshments

• 11:00–11:45 – Talk: Professor Kira Vibe Jespersen

• 11:45–12:30 – Talk: Professor Liesl van der Merwe

• 12:30–13:15 – Lunch (provided for in-person attendees)

• 13:15–14:00 – Talk: Professor Kelly Jakubowski

• 14:00–15:00 – Roundtable discussion with all guest speakers and audience contributions

The event is open to researchers, practitioners, students, and anyone with an interest in music, mental health, wellbeing, and human flourishing.

Registration (free): https://tftv.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873687739

We would be very grateful if you could share this invitation with colleagues, students, and relevant networks!

With best wishes,
Andrea, Caroline, and Pete

--

Dr Andrea Schiavio (he/him/his) 

Senior Lecturer 

Co-Director of the Centre for Music Education and Human Flourishing - CeMEHF

Principal Investigator of ERC Synergy Project 101167101 - REM@KE

Past President of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music - ESCOM

School of Arts and Creative Technologies - Office: RCH 224

University of York, UK

Staff Profile | Personal Website | Google Scholar 

Fwd: Teaching Fellow in Music Psychology at Durham University

We have a part-time, 1-year post for a Teaching Fellow in Music Psychology available at Durham University, UK (to start in mid-September 2026). 

The job is advertised here: https://durham.taleo.net/careersection/du_ext/jobdetail.ftl?job=26000735&tz=GMT%2B01%3A00&tzname=Europe%2FLondon

I'd be happy to speak to any prospective applicants who have questions about the teaching content and/or Music Psychology research at Durham (kelly.jakubowski@durham.ac.uk). 

All the best,
Kelly Jakubowski

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Professor Kelly Jakubowski (she/her)

Co-Director of Centre for Research into Inner Experience

Co-Leader of Music Psychology Lab

Department of Music 

Durham University

Fwd: Share Request

Sonic Illuminations

Event Type: Music and Immersive Projection

 

Sonic Illuminations is a project by violinist Hannah Perowne and live visual artist Marian Saunders creating immersive, unique and site specific performances which captivate and inspire audiences.

 

For this bespoke performance, the musical centrepiece is the monumental Partita no.2 by J.S.Bach with its mighty ‘Chaconne’.

Bach’s music moves like a cell at work – intricate, self-contained, and quietly alive. Tiny motifs repeat and reshape themselves into ever richer patterns. Each melodic line threads through the others with purpose, distinct yet inseparable. What begins as something small and simple grows into a complete, breathing form – an architecture of sound where order feels organic, and complexity blooms from the smallest seeds.

 

Marian adopts an improvised, experimental approach to creating abstract visual interactions that respond directly to Hannah’s music. Her hand-crafted imagery draws inspiration from cellular structures, patterns, rhythms, and organic forms. Echoing the metamorphosis of a living environment, the visuals continuously transform and evolve over time.

 

Recommended for 14+

 

When: 12^th June, 6.00pm or 7.30pm

Where: Centre of the Cell, Blizard Institute, 4 Newark Street, Whitechapel, London, E1 2AT

Cost: £4/£5

More information:  June - Sonic Illuminations - Centre of the Cell

 

 

 

Richard

 

Richard Davies (he/him)

Operations Manager

 

Centre of the Cell

Queen Mary University of London

Blizard Institute, Newark Street, London, E1 2AT

Tel: +44(0)20 7882 2562

Email: rdavies@qmul.ac.uk 

www.centreofthecell.org

 

            

 

Blizard Institute EDI Professional Services Representative

 

Building a Sustainable Future for Music, Making and Coding in Schools

On 14 May 2026, the UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education (CCCSE) and the Science Education Special Interest Group hosted a joint seminar showcasing eight years of interdisciplinary research at the intersection of music, engineering, and sustainability. Dr Alison Kitson, CCCSE Programme Director, opened the session by introducing the Centre's Teaching for Sustainable Futures CPD modules, including "Where to Start in Primary Music" (developed with Hazel Baxter), which explores soundwalks, music inspired by nature, and instruments made from natural and upcycled materials. A secondary music module follows in September. The main presentation, "Let's Play! Music, Making, Engineering and Sustainability in Schools," was delivered by the core research team: Dr Nicolas Gold (UCL Computer Science), Dr Ross Purves and Prof Evangelos Himonides (both UCL IOE, Department of Culture, Communication and Media). Drawing on constructionism, "hard fun" and computational thinking, the trio traced their project from a 2018 LEGO guitar prototype through school workshops with pupils aged 11–14, where children built acoustic and digital instruments programmed in Python. Responding to increasingly pressing environmental and cost factors, the team has now developed a more sustainable platform: a recycled cardboard block construction system, paired with open-hardware BBC Micro:bits and Raspberry Pi. Recent primary-school field testing proved the platform to be robust and engaging, with further secondary-school trials planned for July 2026. Supported by a HEIF grant, the team is now exploring social-enterprise routes to make the platform accessible to educators and the wider public.

Fwd: Singing in balance convention - call for contributions until 11 May

Singing in Balance Convention: 

A two day exchange on increasing the accessibility and inclusivity of group singing practices

9th-10th September 2026

The Priory Street Centre, 15 Priory Street, York YO1 6ET

Call for contributions open until 11th May.

About the Convention

The Singing in Balance Convention (SiBCon) will bring together group singing practitioners and researchers to change the face of accessible and inclusive singing by sharing research and practice. It is an opportunity to spark conversations, learn from each other and develop connections through our shared interest in accessible singing practice and research. 

The two-day convention will consist of workshops, flash talks, themed sessions, demonstrations and discussions with opportunities for networking throughout. The convention will include leaders in the field representing practice and research. 

Call for Contributions

We’re welcoming contributions from practitioners and researchers showcasing and analysing accessibility and inclusivity in group singing. We are keen to hear from representatives of choirs and singing groups, conservatoires, universities and associated organisations in other environments such as healthcare. Contributions are invited which relate to the broad theme of accessibility and inclusion of group singing practices. We are keen to amplify the voices of specific groups, such as those with mental and physical health challenges, diverse cultural and singing backgrounds, LGBTQ+ singers, and a range of lived experiences. 

Online presentation and contributions will be supported where possible, although this may not suit all aspects of the convention. We will be actively seeking to initiate collaboration between contributors for session delivery and will be designing the convention programme to reflect this. See the website of the convention for further details. 

Website: https://sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/singing-in-balance/the-convention

Email: singinginbalance@gmail.com

Facebook: Singing in Balance Facebook

Instagram: Singing in Balance Instagram

The convention is organised by members of the Singing in Balance WRoCAH PhD network

PhD researchers: Dana Greaves, Bruna Martins, Emily Cooper 

Academic staff: Helena Daffern, Freya Bailes & Renee Timmers 

Practitioners: Kate Wareham, Emma Baylin, Mir Jansen

Fwd: [DMRN-LIST] [Call for Papers] TISMIR Special Collection on Language-Centric Music Information Retrieval

Dear colleagues,

[Sorry for cross-list notification.]

We are pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a new Special Collection in the Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (TISMIR) titled: "Language-Centric Music Information Retrieval".

This special collection focuses on Music Information Retrieval (MIR) research informed by language-centered modeling. We invite contributions that explore how concepts and methods from Natural Language Processing (NLP) and large-scale language models can support the analysis, representation, retrieval, and generation of music.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

- Tokenization and representations for symbolic music and audio

- NLP for music-related text (lyrics, metadata, reviews, etc.)

- Language-informed tagging, classification, and semantic understanding

- Retrieval and recommendation, including query-by-description and conversational search

- Music generation and co-creation, including text-conditioned generation and iterative editing workflows

- Language-guided audio and music production, such as mixing, mastering, and sound design

- Knowledge resources for MIR, including ontologies, knowledge graphs, and entity linking

- Evaluation and human factors, including quality assessment, human feedback, creativity, bias, and cultural representation

- Trust, ethics, and transparency, including synthetic content detection and copyright-related considerations

- Long-context modeling of musical structure and form

- Multimodal methods involving text, symbolic music, and audio (as relevant to the collection’s focus)

Guest Editors:

- Anna Kruspe (Lead Editor), Munich University of Applied Sciences

- SeungHeon Doh, KAIST

- Elena Epure, Idiap Research Institute

- Yinghao Ma, Queen Mary University of London

- Arthur Flexer, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz

- Li Su, Institute of Information Science

- Ruibin Yuan, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Submission Guidelines:

- Submission Link: https://transactions.ismir.net

- Note: Please specify in your cover letter that the submission is for the Special Collection "Language-Centric Music Information Retrieval".

- Word Limit: Maximum 8,000 words.

- Pre-notification: If you plan to submit, please let us know via email at anna.kruspe@hm.edu to assist our planning.

For detailed formatting guidelines and information regarding extensions of previously published workshop research, please refer to the TISMIR website. We look forward to receiving your innovative contributions!

Best regards,

On behalf of the Guest Editors

Fwd: [DMRN-LIST] Music and the Extended Mind: A Conference on Musical Intelligence in the 21st Century - Call for Papers

Music and the Extended Mind: A Conference on Musical Intelligence in the 21st Century

Call for Papers

Submission Deadline: July 7, 2026

For submissions and inquiries, email: Music-21CMP@fsu.edu

Hosted by Florida State University – May 5-6, 2027

Florida State University’s College of Music and the 21st Century Music Practice network (C21MP) invites submissions that explore the radical developments in musical thinking and activity emerging in our contemporary landscape. Under the overarching theme of Musical Intelligence, we examine what music can reveal about intelligence itself, and conversely, how understanding music as intelligent activity rather than mere artifact transforms our engagement with musical practice.

Conference Format: Pre-Recorded Papers with Live Panel Discussion

This conference uses a “flipped” presentation model designed to maximize discussion time. Accepted presenters will pre-record 20-minute presentations, uploaded to our website prior to the conference. Papers are organized into themed panels of three, with a moderator facilitating discussion. During live sessions, each presenter gets 2 minutes to introduce their work before engaging in extended panel discussion, followed by audience Q&A. All panelists are expected to have viewed the pre-recorded presentations and come prepared with questions.

See example from our previous conference: CLICK HERE

Conference Themes

We are seeking submissions that explore any of the following themes:

New Approaches to Music Research

How do performance, composition, and production qualify as research?  Contributors are encouraged to explore the intersection of artistic creativity and scholarly inquiry, particularly addressing knowledge communication and transferability.

Instruments and Technology as Extended Mind

Musical technologies simultaneously focus attention and open creative possibilities—a tension often unspoken in design decisions. How do new technologies act as extensions of the musical mind, embodying cultural rules while enabling transcendence of traditional boundaries?  Participants will explore how this dual nature of constraint and liberation shapes contemporary musical practice.

New Modes of Music Making and Creative Practice

How are contemporary technologies enabling new forms of musical expression?  Contributors will address innovative performance practices, creative abuse of technology, computer-assisted composition, algorithmic processes, and “digital serendipity” in generative systems.

Technologies of Sound Past and Future: Recurring Patterns in Musical Thought

Musical tools have always extended the mind outward, reshaping composition, performance, listening, and memory. Participants will consider historical and cross-cultural perspectives on how musical traditions have responded to technological shifts, examining patterns that might inform contemporary ethical and artistic questions.

Generative Technology and Musical Agency

Given that machine learning systems learn from existing material, how does this relate to creativity and authorship? Participants will examine the philosophical and practical dimensions of human and generative collaboration in musical contexts.

Redefining Ownership: Music Business and Entrepreneurship in the Digital Age

AI-generated content challenges traditional authorship while new distribution models concentrate profits among platform intermediaries. Are we witnessing music-making’s transformation into a hobby for all but the highest achievers, or are emerging business models creating sustainable pathways for professional creativity? Submitters are encouraged to focus on tensions between technological innovation and creative sustainability.

Pedagogy and Technology: AI as Educational Partner

How can artificial intelligence serve as a meaningful tool in music education? Participants will explore AI-driven composition software, intelligent theory tutors, real-time performance feedback systems, and automated analysis, emphasizing practical applications and the evolving relationship between technology and musicianship.

Technology and New Audiences

How are musicians using technology to reach and engage new audiences?  Contributors are encouraged to present case studies and theoretical frameworks that examine how technological mediation transforms listener engagement and democratizes access to diverse musical practices.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome diverse approaches and encourage traditional academic research

,

 practice-based investigations

, and live performances

. The conference committee will organize accepted submissions into thematically coherent panels designed to maximize productive exchange between complementary perspectives.

Submission Types:

• Traditional research papers
• Practice-based research presentations
• Research challenge proposals: Proposals for collaborative research sessions where participants work together to explore specific musical problems or tasks related to the conference themes. These sessions create new knowledge through collective investigation and reflection.
• Performance proposals: Submit up to 5 minutes of audio or video of representative recordings of the performer (this need not be the proposed performance—it’s to gauge the performer’s ability), as well as a description of the piece being performed at the conference. Pieces should be no longer than 10 minutes.

Abstract Requirements:

• 300 to 500 words
• Clear articulation of your contribution to one or more conference themes
• Brief methodology or approach statement
• Technical requirements (if applicable for practice-based work)
• For research challenge proposals: outline of the specific problem or task, expected outcomes, and facilitation approach

Submission Deadline: July 7, 2026

See also: https://music.fsu.edu/c21mp/

Being Seen, Being Heard, Feeling Connected: Launch Webinar

https://www.singupfoundation.org/event-details/being-seen-being-heard-feeling-connected-launch-webinar

What can singing really do for children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing? We’ve been talking to practitioners, researchers and young people, and what we’re finding is full of possibility.

Join the Sing Up Foundation as we launch our new publication, Being Seen, Being Heard, Feeling Connected. We’ll be presenting the publication’s key themes, followed by a panel discussion exploring what we’re learning, what practitioners need, and where we go from here.

Panel:

• Baz Chapman, Joint Head of the Sing Up Foundation and lead author of the publication

• Professor Graham Welch, Chair of Music Education at UCL Institute of Education, one of the world’s leading researchers on singing and child development

• Ben Turner, Teach First Ambassador and founder of Rap Club, whose work uses rap, beatboxing and creative vocals to build connection and confidence with young people

Fwd: [DMRN-LIST] Wed, 22nd Apr 2026, 3:00PM, STRAND BLDG S2.30 : Jacob Harrison (Nordoff & Robbins) on Designing Accessible Digital Musical Instruments in Clinical and Community Settings

KCL Music and Acoustics Research Centre Seminars

Wednesday 22nd April 2026, 3:00PM, STRAND BLDG S2.30  (Strand Campus), King’s College London

Calendar hold for the seminar : https://calget.com/wzskxugx

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Title: Designing accessible digital musical instruments in clinical and community settings

Abstract: Digital technologies can open up opportunities to make music in many different ways. In some cases, thoughtful design of new technologies can be leveraged to address the access barriers that disabled people can face when making music. In this talk, Jacob Harrison will give an overview of Accessible Digital Musical Instrument (ADMI) design. We will focus on the design and use of the ReHarp, an accessible musical instrument designed to support music-making in neuro-rehabilitation settings. The ReHarp was originally designed in consultation with patients and staff on a stroke ward, and is now being trialled in a range of settings as part of Jacob's role as researcher at the music therapy charity Nordoff & Robbins. The talk will discuss issues relating to digital musical instrument design, accessibility, and the challenges of balancing the support of musical creativity and exploration with meeting clinical goals.

Jacob Harrison is a researcher at the charity Nordoff & Robbins, where he carries out qualitative research on topics relating to music therapy, including the use of inclusive music technology. Prior to this, he completed a PhD at Queen Mary University of London on the topic of musical instrument design, disability and technology. He also plays bass guitar and uses a range of music technology in his work as a facilitator in inclusive recording studio sessions.

 

The event will take place in Strand Building (S2.30) (Strand Campus, Strand, London WC2R 2LS) between 3:00PM-4:00PM Wednesday, 22nd April 2026.

The talk is a hybrid event and part of the MARC Seminar series. 

 

Online attendance

If you are unable to attend in person, you may use the following MS Teams link to attend the event virtually: MARC Seminar - Jacob Harrison | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

External guests –  Anyone outside of KCL, please fill out your details here to be allowed into the building External Guests - Harrison seminar.xlsx

When you arrive at the Strand reception say that you are here for the MARC talk to be admitted into the building. Your name must be on the External Guests to be allowed in.

 

Best regards,

Natalia Cotic

PhD Student | Department of Cardiovascular Imaging & Biomedical Computing 

King’s College London | School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences

5th Floor, Becket House, 1 Lambeth Palace Rd, SE1 7EU

Fwd: ob Announcement - 3D animation and motion capture for ERC-SOS

The ERC SPAIN ON STAGE. Dance and the Imagination of National Identity project (ERC-2023-COG: 101125179; https://investigacionendanza.csic.es/erc-spain-on-stage/ ) is currently seeking a specialist in 3D animation and motion capture. The recruitment process is now open. Further information can be found in: https://www.instagram.com/p/DUsfoPrDL1V/?igsh=aXBjeXl5c3JqcTUx

Best regards,

CSIC Danza Team
Instituto de Historia, Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales (IH-CCHS)
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Calle Albasanz, 26-28 (28037) Madrid. Despacho 2C31
danza@csic.es
ERC SPAIN ON STAGE. Dance and the Imagination of National Identity (ERC-2023-COG: 101125179)
https://investigacionendanza.csic.es/erc-spain-on-stage/