MCICM Symposium 2021
Towards 2040: Creating Classical Music Futures, 21 & 22 April 2021
The Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music arose from the need to reflect on and actively shape the future of classical music. This conference sought to engage with the different ways that practitioners are constructing this future, while considering critically the process of ‘futuring’ itself. The aim was not to simply imagine a distant future over which we have no control but to show how imagining the future of classical music informs our work today.
The MCICM symposium offered diverse presentations and casual networking moments to engage in meaningful discussions. Below are some of the sessions from the two-day digital symposium that took place on 21 and 22 April 2021. We would like to thank the speakers, moderators, and participants for coming together in this digital space.
For more information about the event and the sessions, you can see the program here.
Wednesday 21 April 2021
Session 1a Musicians of the Future
Moderator: Joachim Junghanss, Conservatorium Maastricht, the Netherlands
Becoming a classical musician of the future: the effects of training and experience on performer attitudes to innovation
Speakers: Stephanie Pitts, University of Sheffield, UK; Karen Burland, University of Leeds, UK; Tom Spurgin, Manchester Collective, UK; Adam Szabo, Manchester Collective, UK

Session 1b Future Performance formats
Moderator: Denise Petzold, MCICM, the Netherlands
Experiences of live vs online performance
Speaker: Michelle Philips, Royal Northern College of Music, UK
Audience Experience in Film-with-Live-Orchestra Concerts: Towards a Theory of Liveness
Speaker: Sureshkumar P.Sekar, Royal College of Music, UK
Classical Music and Contemporary Visual Art: Innovative Performance and Listening in the Works of the Artist Anri Sala
Speaker: Noga Rachel Chelouche, Tel-Aviv University, Israel

Session 2a Musicians and Professional Development
Moderator: Peter Peters, MCICM, the Netherlands
Orchestrating Positive Change Leaders on (and off) Stage: supporting the best to become even better
Speakers: Jane Booth, Guildhall School, UK; Trudy Wright, Guildhall School, UK
The Rise of the Individual: Leveraging Social Currency and Personal Branding in the Future of Classical Music
Speaker: Jenny Maclay, Brandon University, Canada
Meaningful Music in Healthcare: Classical musicians inside hospital wards
Speaker: Krista de Wit, Prince Claus Conservatoire, Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen, the Netherlands

Session 2b Curation and Concert Formats
What Could Curatorial Practices Mean for the Future of Classical Music?
Speakers: Ed McKeon, Goldsmiths University of London, UK; Brandon Farnsworth, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland; Mirjam Zegers, ArtEZ, the Netherlands; Annemarie Reitsma, ArtEz, the Netherlands

Keynote lecture
Moderator: Stefan Rosu, philharmonie zuid, the Netherlands
Producing futures: how futures matter in the present
Harro van Lente, Maastricht University, the Netherlands

Thursday 22 April 2021
Session 3a The Promise of Technology
Moderator: Ties van de Werff, MCICM, the Netherlands
Artificial Intelligence and the Orchestra
Speaker: Robert Laidlow, Royal Northern College of Music, UK
Gameful Music Performances for Smart, Inclusive, and Sustainable Societies
Speakers: Micha Hamel, Royal Academy of the Arts, the Netherland; Annebeth Erdbrink, Delft University for Technology, the NetherlandsRemote Collaboration: Communication, Creativity, and Latency
Speaker: David Cotter, University of Cambridge, UK

Session 3b Opera Futures
Moderator: Joachim Junghanss, Conservatorium Maastricht, the Netherlands
Händel goes Tinder: Reimagining opera for a 21st-century audience
Speakers: Channa Malkin, OperaBitchesand Stichting Gooisch Klassiek, the Netherlands; Anastasia Kozlova, OperaBitchesand Stichting Gooisch Klassiek, the Netherlands
“Alice in the Pandemic” An opera for the Pandemic and the Promise of New Possibilities
Speakers: Cerise Jacobs, Founder, Creator and Librettist, Producer, White Snake Projects; Jorge Sosa, Composer and Electronic Sound Artist; Tianhui Ng, Conductor and Music Director
The Fish’s Letters: A Facebook-Opera?
Speaker: Maia Sigua, VanoSarajishvili,Tbilisi State Conservatoire, Georgia

Session 4b The Future of the Concert Hall new
Moderator: Neil Smith, MCICM, the Netherlands
Monsieur Croche -Concerts at Eye Level
Speaker: Tal Walker, Royal College of Music, UK
Creating futures: the shifting practice of the Composer-performer in the Lockdown era
Speaker: Josh Spear, Norwegian Academy of Music, Norway
SaffronHall Faces the Future
Speakers: Angela Dixon, CEO Saffron Hall; Barry Ife, Chairman of the Saffron Hall Trust

Session 5b Politics and Inclusion
Moderator: Peter Peters, MCICM, the Netherlands
The Voice Party: Participatory Principles and the Future of Musical Performance
Speaker: Lore Lixenberg, University of York, UK Bringing the political into Western classical music Speaker: Hanna Grześkiewic
Bringing the political into Western classical music
Speaker: Hanna Grześkiewicz, ‘The Hermes Experiment’ and Alternative Classical, Germany
Can performance techniques make the future of classical music more inclusive?
Speaker: Ilona Sie Dhian Ho, Royal Conservatoire, the Netherlands

Keynote lecture
Moderator: Peter Peters, MCICM, the Netherlands
Future challenges: Can art make constructive contributions to solving current civil society challenges and what roles can classical concerts or opera performances play in this?
Helmut Seidenbusch, Director for Cultural Education atStiftung Mercator, Germany

Round table and closing
Moderator: Neil T. Smith, MCICM, the Netherlands
Whose Future?
Speakers:Kirsteen Davidson Kelly, Schottish Chambre Orchestra, UK; George E. Lewis, Columbia University, USA; Maria Hansen, ELIA European Art School Confederation, the Netherlands
Closing remarks by Peter Peters, MCICM, the Netherlands
