Conference Agenda

Serving as a mentor can be an effective and rewarding strategy to grow as a professional and to foster a personalized praxis. Mentors can share their experience, identify tailored ways to support their colleagues, and recognize new areas for their own development. Understanding the needs of today’s mentees can represent a challenge for new mentors—with the shift of much of our work and interaction to the online space, new professionals entering the field post-pandemic may face unprecedented difficulties in connecting with and learning from colleagues and experts. Furthermore, a high number of pandemic related retirements of experienced colleagues has created an imbalance between those interested in receiving mentorship and those who feel qualified and ready to offer it. This shift in the population of confidently prepared mentors, coupled with the altered expectations of a post-COVID work landscape, demands an evolution of mentoring practices and relationships.

In this poster, the presenters explore challenges and opportunities unique to mid-career mentors as they balance providing support for today’s emerging professional mentees while respecting their own needs and capacity. We present a new mentoring tool designed to help both mentors and mentees to reflect on today’s shifting professional norms and practices and to collaboratively identify personalized solutions. The presenters also highlight the ways in which mentoring dyads can shift to a circular model that balances priorities of well-being and shared learning for both the mentor and the mentee.

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This case study examines a primary archival music source preserved in the Lin Erh Archive at the Digital Archive Center for Music, NTNU. The archive is the 1965 computer music concert programme “An Evening with ILLIAC II” at the University of Illinois, given by Erh Lin, a composer from Taiwan. Using this programme as a point of departure, the study returns to the performance setting of an early human–machine ensemble and asks how the computer was conceptualised and presented as one of the “performers” in this experimental event.

The programme is designed not as a conventional list of pieces but as a logic flowchart that presents the concert in terms of an “input–processing–output” structure. It links musical inputs—namely the styles of J. S. Bach, J. Brahms, and Lejaren Hiller (Lin’s teacher)—with the "MUSIC PREPARATION" program and the ILLIAC II computer, leading to an output in which a human string quartet performs with the machine. Humorous decision paths such as “Sleepy? → Human Failure; Execution Terminated” write audience response and human–machine interaction into the design of the event, making performance roles and listening logics visually explicit.

Adopting an archival research approach, the study analyses how ILLIAC II is positioned between “instrument”, “system” and “performer”, how the form of early human–machine ensembles shapes listeners’ understanding, and considers how this programme might be catalogued. As a musical source, it merits further attention, offering valuable clues and room for further reflection and research on the early development of computer music.

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Aware of the growing impact of artificial intelligence in academic and research contexts, the Commission of Libraries of Conservatories and Higher Music Education Centres of AEDOM —the Asociación Española de Documentación Musical— has decided to undertake a study to analyse how students in Spain’s higher music education institutions integrate these tools into their learning and everyday academic practice.

Through a structured questionnaire, the study will examine aspects such as the frequency and purpose of generative AI use, levels of trust, ethical concerns, ease of integration into educational practice, and expectations regarding institutional support. Its aim is to explore students’ actual habits, perceptions and concerns, and to establish an empirical foundation for the design of future training initiatives.

This initiative is grounded in the conviction that the libraries of these institutions, due to their dual role as specialised centres and as services supporting higher education, must take on an active role as spaces for technological mediation, critical reflection, and information and digital literacy. Beyond their traditional function of providing access to resources, libraries are envisioned as strategic actors in the development of responsible, ethical and pedagogically grounded digital competences.

Based on the results obtained, the Commission aims to develop guidelines and resources that will enable specialised libraries to effectively support a critical, responsible and creative use of artificial intelligence within the field of higher music education.

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As part of the bibliographic database of the Musicology Library of the Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, a thematic subset focusing on concert criticism and related forms of music journalism is gradually being developed. In the past, records of the music criticism activities of prominent Czech musicologists were also incorporated into the database through the conversion of printed bibliographies. These items now form the basis of a systematically constructed thematic area covering concert reviews, critiques, reports, and programs. The poster will present the current state of this sub-database and the possibilities for its further development, particularly in relation to the planned database of Czech concert life in the first half of the 20th century.

Dans le cadre de la base de données bibliographiques de la Bibliothèque de musicologie de l’Institut d’histoire de l’art de l’Académie tchèque des sciences, un sous-ensemble thématique consacré à la critique de concert et aux formes connexes de journalisme musical est progressivement mis en place. Par le passé, les archives relatives aux activités de critique musicale d’éminents musicologues tchèques ont également été intégrées à la base de données grâce à la numérisation de bibliographies imprimées. Ces documents constituent désormais le fondement d’un domaine thématique structuré de manière systématique, couvrant les comptes rendus de concerts, les critiques, les reportages et les programmes. L'affiche présentera l'état actuel de cette sous-base de données et les possibilités de son développement futur, notamment en lien avec la base de données prévue sur la vie musicale tchèque de la première moitié du XXe siècle.

Als Teil der bibliografischen Datenbank der Musikwissenschaftlichen Bibliothek des Instituts für Kunstgeschichte der Tschechischen Akademie der Wissenschaften wird schrittweise ein thematischer Teilbestand aufgebaut, der sich auf Konzertkritik und verwandte Formen des Musikjournalismus konzentriert. In der Vergangenheit wurden durch die Digitalisierung gedruckter Bibliografien auch Aufzeichnungen über die musikkritische Tätigkeit bedeutender tschechischer Musikwissenschaftler in die Datenbank aufgenommen. Diese Einträge bilden nun die Grundlage für einen systematisch aufgebauten Themenbereich, der Konzertrezensionen, Kritiken, Berichte und Programme umfasst. Das Poster stellt den aktuellen Stand dieser Teildatenbank sowie die Möglichkeiten für ihre weitere Entwicklung vor, insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit der geplanten Datenbank zum tschechischen Konzertleben in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts.

After the remarkable opera works that brought him wide fame—someone considered him Puccini’s heir—the Italian composer Riccardo Zandonai (‘Francesca da Rimini’ was his most famous opera) experienced a period of silence before turning, in the 1930s, to film music, following the example of his former teacher Mascagni. Although deeply attached to the theatre and to its audience and committed to balance tradition and modernism, he declared an increasing sense of estrangement from the theatrical world, because he felt that “art was disappearing”. He contributed to the production of six films, either independently or in collaboration with major figures such as R. Rossellini (‘Princess Tarakanova’). He was enthusiastic about the wide circulation that cinema offered his music, free from the demanding logistics of concert tours; he could even join the audience in their applause.

Beyond the human narrative, however, arises a technical issue: how should documents related to works as different as opera and film soundtracks be catalogued? Distinct approaches are required. According to conceptual models, an opera constitutes an autonomous Work, whereas a soundtrack—despite its musical integrity—is created to serve a filmic Work. It may be fragmented, reordered, or mixed in ways that diverge from the composer’s intentions, and numerous Persons are responsible for the film, with the composer being only one of them. Establishing accurate relationships between the music and the Entities involved in a film’s realization is therefore essential.

Without wise cataloguing criteria, a soundtrack risks generating duplications or conflicting entries.

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In 2025, a research project was initiated, focusing on Giampaolo Coral (Trieste, 1944-2011), an Italian composer whose primary archives are housed at the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. The project, conducted within a PNRR-funded Ph.D. program in Musicology at the Free University of Bolzano, supervised by Prof. Paolo Somigli and in collaboration with the Conservatory of Lugano, aims to revise the existing catalogue of Coral’s works and compile a reliable inventory suitable for submission to bibliographic repertoires such as RISM and for updating entries in music dictionaries. Furthermore, the project intends to promote Coral’s legacy through live performances of select compositions, leveraging the Conservatory’s role as a higher music education (HME) institution involving music students in dedicated activities.

A qualitative investigation into the educational experiences of participants, students, and teachers will be conducted, involving semi-structured interviews to capture interpretive strategies and perceptions of Coral’s role within the broader 20th-century art music landscape. The investigation addresses the following questions: what specificities, challenges, and difficulties arise in studying these works? How likely are they to become part of the standard repertoire, and why? Did participants know Coral’s music before this project? How much did the project contribute to their musical knowledge, and why?

The project highlights the distinctive value of preserving this archival collection within a higher education institution and the pivotal role of engaging with teaching and learning practices in promoting it. This contribution provides insight into initial findings and discusses challenges and opportunities connected with this innovative approach.

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Watermarks have become an integral part of research on medieval manuscripts. The Austrian Academy of Sciences hosts a platform for codices in Austrian collections. As a special feature of this platform manuscripta.at is, that it presents images of watermarks and their metadata for approximately 2,000 paper manuscripts at the moment. These manuscripts naturally also include music manuscripts, too.

For example, Klosterneuburg Abbey, Cod. 69, which is written on paper showing watermarks of the motifs snake and eagle. Modern watermark databases, especially WZMA and WZIS, provide more information on these paper marks, e.g. which other manuscripts or documents were made from the same paper. In this case, for example, a manuscript with sacred songs in Munich State Library or with Magnificat compositions in Graz University Library. Can we find more common ground among these sources? Besides the usual dating and locating by watermarks? Let’s go on a journey through collections of Klosterneuburg, Graz, Munich and other places in search of commonalities between sources based on this paper. And beside learn some about using WZMA - Watermarks of the Middle Ages and WZIS - Watermark Information System.

https://manuscripta.at; https://www.wzma.at; https://www.wasserzeichen-online.de

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Lleida has historically lacked suitable venues for the performance of dramatic music. During the second half of the 19th century, the city had only two theatres: the Teatre Principal, active in the winter seasons (1842-1876) and the Teatre dels Camps Elisis, used in the summer seasons (1883-1902), both offering limited and often inadequate conditions for staging opera. Moreover, the local bourgeoisie, largely made up of artisans and merchants, did not embrace opera as a cultural marker in the way the Barcelona bourgeoisie did. Consequently, operatic activity in Lleida was scarce and, in many seasons, entirely absent from public stages.

The recent cataloguing of the musical collection of Lleida Cathedral, however, offers new perspectives on this scenario. Within the legacy of Magí Pontí i Ferrer, chapelmaster and organist, a significant number of operatic scores have been identified. This suggests that operatic repertoire circulated in private settings or in small public venues such as cafés and social clubs. The aim of this study is therefore to determine what operatic works were consumed in these private or semi-public contexts, thereby broadening our understanding of Lleida’s musical life beyond its formal theatres.

By analysing these materials alongside the theatrical programming compiled by Herrera-Llop (1998), it becomes possible to compare the repertoire performed outside institutional venues. This study is part of my ongoing PhD thesis, whose aim is to reveal the relationships between people, spaces and institutions that music built in this growing city located in a crossroads between Catalonia and the rest of Spain.

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Dans l’archivistique contemporaine (M.Schaeverbeke, J.-M.Dureau, O.Krakovitch, M.Hamon), le marketing et la notion de lieu de mémoire convergent autour de l’idée d’une actualisation de l’information, notamment lorsque celle-ci faisait partie du projet initial de l’archive, lié à la préservation d’une identité socioculturelle, ce qui détermine la constitution des collections selon un critère de valeur historique et l’existence d’un lien émotionnel entre le contenu de l’archive et ses conservateurs.

Notre objectif est de spécifier les algorithmes de marketing activés par ces caractéristiques en tant qu’outils de « gestion de la mémoire » (E.I.Murguia), à partir du cas des archives du Conservatoire Rachmaninoff de Paris, conçues dès l’origine par les émigrés comme un moyen de diffusion et de maintien de la tradition musicale russe hors de Russie, et pensées comme des archives historiques destinées à représenter ce patrimoine dans le contexte culturel français (Statuts de La Société musicale russe à l’étranger, 1931, art.II).

+Storytelling (Crafting Narratives, M.Note) : a)monomythe (l’archive-acteur, dont l’histoire traverse le XXᵉ siècle – pertes (Vichy), sauvegardes (A.Kourakine), redécouverte (A.Frilley) ; b)Petal Structure (les photographies, autographes, partitions dédicacées forment la mémoire musicale en pétales) ; c)Framing and Converging Ideas (l’archive-témoignage du destin russo-français du XXᵉ siècle ; faisceau d’idées : dialogue des cultures, vie publique de la diaspora).

+Content Creation : une typologie des produits générateurs de ressources et des stratégies de leur mise en œuvre : a)le contenu éducatif, intégré au processus pédagogique ; b)les événements culturels (concerts, expositions, rencontres) comme des outils de médiation et de valorisation du patrimoine.

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This poster visualises aspects of ongoing research into a corpus of around 600 picture postcards sent, received, or collected by Edward Elgar and his family in the 1890s-1910s. Elgar’s lifetime saw the invention, rise in popularity, and ‘golden age’ of the picture postcard, and the composer keenly adopted and interacted with the medium, annotating pictures to mark places he visited and readily deploying the postcard’s classic trope: ‘wish you were here!’. Aided by images and transcriptions made available by Elgar Works, I share some linguistic and geospatial findings that speak to the particularities of Elgar’s use of the postcard. I point to some complexities of postcards as sources, with the Elgar collection split between correspondence volumes, scrapbooks, and a dedicated postcard album, where they variously function as objects of correspondence and/or souvenir. I also point towards postcards from places that inspired works with ‘distinct “picture-postcard” elements’ (Riley 2007), asking how sometimes complex impressions of travel, place, and feeling split across such postcards’ recto and verso may nuance understandings of Elgar’s music.

Cette affiche présente certains aspects des recherches en cours sur un corpus d’environ 600 cartes postales envoyées, reçues ou collectionnées par Edward Elgar et sa famille entre les années 1890 et 1910. La vie d’Elgar a coïncidé avec l’invention, l’essor et « l’âge d’or » de la carte postale illustrée, et le compositeur a adopté avec enthousiasme ce support et interagi avec lui, annotant les images pour marquer les lieux qu’il avait visités et utilisant volontiers la formule classique de la carte postale : « J’aimerais que tu sois là ! ». À l’aide d’images et de transcriptions mises à disposition par Elgar Works, je partage quelques observations linguistiques et géospatiales qui mettent en lumière les particularités de l’utilisation de la carte postale par Elgar. Je souligne certaines complexités des cartes postales en tant que sources, la collection Elgar étant répartie entre des volumes de correspondance, des albums de coupures de presse et un album dédié aux cartes postales, où celles-ci jouent diversement le rôle d’objets de correspondance et/ou de souvenirs. Je m’intéresse également aux cartes postales provenant de lieux qui ont inspiré des œuvres comportant des « éléments distincts de “carte postale” » (Riley 2007), en me demandant comment les impressions parfois complexes du voyage, du lieu et des sentiments, réparties entre le recto et le verso de ces cartes, peuvent nuancer la compréhension de la musique d’Elgar.

Dieses Poster veranschaulicht Aspekte der laufenden Forschung zu einem Korpus von rund 600 Ansichtskarten, die Edward Elgar und seine Familie in den 1890er- bis 1910er-Jahren verschickt, erhalten oder gesammelt haben. Elgars Lebenszeit umfasste die Erfindung, den Aufstieg und das „goldene Zeitalter“ der Ansichtskarte, und der Komponist nahm dieses Medium begeistert an und interagierte mit ihm, indem er Bilder mit Anmerkungen versah, um Orte zu markieren, die er besucht hatte, und bereitwillig den klassischen Spruch der Ansichtskarte verwendete: „Wünschte, du wärst hier!“. Unterstützt durch Bilder und Transkriptionen, die von Elgar Works zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, teile ich einige sprachliche und georäumliche Erkenntnisse, die Aufschluss über die Besonderheiten von Elgars Postkartennutzung geben. Ich weise auf einige Komplexitäten von Postkarten als Quellen hin, wobei die Elgar-Sammlung auf Korrespondenzbände, Sammelalben und ein spezielles Postkartenalbum verteilt ist, wo sie unterschiedlich als Objekte der Korrespondenz und/oder als Souvenirs fungieren. Ich verweise auch auf Postkarten von Orten, die Werke mit „deutlichen ‚Postkartenelementen‘“ (Riley 2007) inspirierten, und frage, wie die manchmal komplexen Eindrücke von Reisen, Orten und Gefühlen, die sich auf der Vorder- und Rückseite solcher Postkarten verteilen, das Verständnis von Elgars Musik nuancieren können.