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Successful MCICM symposium ‘Rethinking Relevance’ at Opus 9

On 15 and 16 April 2026, MCICM hosted the symposium ‘Rethinking Relevance: Breaking the Classical Frame’ at Opus 9, the offices and rehearsal space for Philzuid in Maastricht. The event featured two keynote addresses: one by Stephanie Pitts from Sheffield University and the second by Axel Petri-Preis from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In addition, the event featured two panel discussions and a roundtable. The panel ‘Practices of Engagement: From Experiment to Connection’ moderated by Veerle Spronck opened the stage to community and co-creating projects headed by Ties van de Werff, Krista de Wit, Linnea Semmerling and Eric Clarke. The panel ‘Unlearning Education’ moderated by Felix Havenith reflected on what learning and unlearning can look like at conservatoires with input from Marloes de Nul, Jutta Toelle, Fabiola Camuti and Suzan Overmeer. The roundtable ‘Elephants in the Concert Hall’ moderated by Denise Petzold gave the floor to Jorge Lozano, Alfian Emir Adytia, Sjaron Minailo and Eliz Gökdere on their experiences with classical music and coloniality. 

In addition to these plenary sessions, the symposium included poster presentations by a variety of speakers where they shared in 5 minutes a specific project or research. We also had three very unique workshops hosted by Jorge Lozano, Ruth Benschop and Neil T. Smith. Current and former students from Conservatorium Maastricht took the stage for the evening program. 

The symposium closed with the director’s farewell lecture at the Aula of Maastricht University. In his lecture ‘New Variations: on innovating classical music,’ Peter Peters gave us a glimpse into his academic career as well as the 8 years he has chaired the Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music. 

We would like to thank all the speakers and participants for two enriching days that left us enthusiastic of the work to come. We would also like to thank our partners Zuyd University of Applied Sciences (the research centre What Art Knows and Conservatorium Maastricht), the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Maastricht University, and Philzuid for their work and support for this event. Furthermore, we would like to thank those companies involved in catering, security, technology and audio for being the backbone of this successful event. Finally, we would like to give an extra thank you to Philzuid and their staff for opening up their space to us and making us feel at home. 

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