Call for Papers: MINIMALIST INTERSECTIONS

The Ninth International Conference on Music and Minimalism

Dates: 29–31 May 2024

Location: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia


Organizers:

Society for Minimalist Music

Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA)

Institute of Musicology SASA 

in collaboration with the Belgrade Festivals’ Centre (CEBEF)

Keynote speakers:

Kevin Karnes, Emory University, United States

Author of Sounds Beyond: Arvo Pärt and the 1970s Soviet Underground (University of Chicago Press, 2021) and Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa (Oxford University Press, 2017), http://music.emory.edu/home/people/biography/karnes-kevin-c..html

Christophe Levaux, La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
Author of We Have Always Been Minimalists: The Construction and Triumph of a Musical Style (University of California Press, 2020), https://uniroma.academia.edu/ChristopheLevaux

Elena Dubinets, London Philharmonic Orchestra, United Kingdom
Author of Russian Composers Abroad: How They Left, Stayed, Returned (Indiana University Press, 2021), https://lpo.org.uk/people/elena-dubinets/ 

Deadline for proposals: 15 January 2024

For the first time since its inception, the biennial International Conference on Minimalist Music will take place in southeastern Europe, in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, a Balkan megalopolis situated at the confluence of the rivers Sava and Danube. 

While continuing to engage with the core minimalist repertoire, the goal of the organizers is to stimulate the study of minimalist music (and its various spin-offs such as postminimalism, “new simplicity,” and “holy minimalism”) in the countries outside of the Anglo-American and Western European mainstream—including, but not limited, to the countries of Central, Eastern, Southern, and Northern Europe. 

Aside from expanding the geographical scope of research to embrace both the various global music practices that have predated and influenced the genesis of minimalist music and the development of minimalism in the countries outside of the Anglo-American/West-European core, we also aim to encourage the study of minimalist music in the context of its various intersections with electronic music, ambient music, performance art, sound installations, applied music for film, theatre, television, video games, and commercials, among others. We also welcome contributions addressing the dialectic relationship between minimalism and other 20th- and 21st-century styles, including new complexity and spectralism, for instance.  

We invite submissions on a broad range of topics representing different disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. We welcome all scholars and practitioners including composers, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, music theorists, performers, cultural and art theorists, and other researchers from the humanities to stimulate lively debate about the past and current state of the art in minimalist music and its numerous offshoots.

We especially welcome papers that address the following:

– provide insight into minimalist music and its reception throughout Europe, including the countries of Central, Eastern, Southern, and Northern Europe, as well as its intersections with the local traditions in these regions

– offer new perspectives on the core minimalist repertory and its intersections with other styles

– illuminate the long-ranging impact and influence of minimalist music and its various spin-offs into the 21st century
– study the intersections of minimalism with popular music and culture.

Formats:
(1) individual papers (20 minutes)
(2) themed sessions (3–4 papers, 20 minutes each)
(3) lecture-recitals (30–60 minutes)

Please send abstracts (300 words) to belgrademinimalism2024@gmail.com by 15 January 2024. In your submission, please include your name, any institutional affiliation, and any audiovisual requirements. 

For themed sessions, please submit all abstracts together with an additional proposal describing your session theme (100 words).

The conference committee will review all submissions and inform the participants by 15 February 2024

Conference fee: €80 for affiliated scholars, €60 for independent researchers, €40 for students. The conference fee includes free entry to all concerts and book launches organized during the conference. 

Program Committee

Maarten Beirens, President of the Society for Minimalist Music, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, ex officio

Svetislav Božić, Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA), ex officio

Laura Emmery, Emory University, United States

Ulli Götte, Zentrum für Interkulturelle Musik e. V., Kassel, Germany

Marija Maglov, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Ivana Medić, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia, Chair

Ivana Miladinović Prica, Faculty of Music, University of Arts, Belgrade, Serbia

Ivan Moody, CESEM, Universidade Nova, Lisbon, Portugal

Jelena Novak, CESEM, Universidade Nova, Lisbon, Portugal

Kerry O’Brien, Cornish College of the Arts, United States

John Pymm, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom

Katarina Tomašević, Director of the Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Tara Wilson, Society for Minimalist Music, United Kingdom

Organizing Committee

Miloš Bralović, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Laura Emmery, Emory University, Atlanta, United States

Marija Hauk, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Marija Maglov, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Ivana Medić, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Jelena Novak, CESEM, Universidade Nova, Lisbon, Portugal

Monika Novaković, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Stefan Savić, Institute of Musicology SASA, Belgrade, Serbia

Tara Wilson, Society for Minimalist Music, United Kingdom  

Contact: belgrademinimalism2024@gmail.com