Dialogues: Analysis and Performance is a symposium dedicated to the analysis and performance of contemporary music, highlighting scholarship and artistry that engages with these areas. The symposium aims to encourage greater sensitivity to what the analytical and performance communities can offer one another in the domains of research and practice. The three-day schedule will feature keynote papers, recitals, and workshops delivered by invited guests, and papers and lecture recitals solicited through an international call. These offerings exemplify the variegated nature of research dissemination in music and seek to create an equitable balance between written and non-written scholarship.

The symposium convenes artists and scholars—especially those that focus on contemporary music—in order to spur interdisciplinary dialogue on topics such as structural analysis, criticism, interpretation, technology, performance practice, and embodied knowledge. Through this dialogue, shared strategies can be developed for the analysis, criticism, and performance of music that respects equally the performer, the work, and everything in between. Scholars and artists in any field of music research and performance can expect to benefit from the symposium's activities, regardless of their career status.

Invited guests include Andreas Borregaard (Norwegian Academy of Music), Claire Chase (Harvard University), Russell Hartenberger (University of Toronto), Robert Hasegawa (McGill University), Daphne Leong (University of Colorado Boulder), Ryan McClelland (University of Toronto), and Steven Schick (University of California San Diego).

The symposium will be held in a hybrid format from October 7–9, 2021, at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. Registration and travel information can be found elsewhere on this site.

Conference Organizers: Ben Duinker (SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto) and Aiyun Huang (Associate Professor and Head of Percussion, University of Toronto).