International Symposium: STUDY GROUP ON MULTIPART MUSIC OF THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TRADITIONS OF MUSIC AND DANCE
19–22 August 2026, Gosposka Hall and City Museum Ljubljana
The main themes of this year’s symposium of the Study Group on Multipart Music are Borders, Borderlands, and Cross-Border Traditions and Transmissions of Multipart Music. The aim is to encourage discussion and present the latest research on how cultural and political interpretations shape and influence the ways in which multipart music is transmitted and performed. We are interested in how communities preserve multipart music traditions through heritagisation, innovative methods of transmission, and cultural exchange in the light of contemporary social, demographic, and technological changes and the increasingly rapid overcoming of geographical distances. These questions are becoming increasingly important in contemporary ethnomusicology, particularly because they influence the creation and recreation of multipart music.
One of the important research perspectives of the Study Group on Multipart Music is also the way in which polyphony develops in instrumental music. Various European and global musical traditions include vocal multipart music, but multipart music is also performed instrumentally. In practice, this means that musical instruments and the voice often intertwine to create distinctive forms of vocal-instrumental multipart music, opening up rich creative potential. This type of musical expression is one of the most flexible and at the same time most resilient forms of musical expression, continuously transforming up to the present day through the music-making of folk musicians as well as contemporary music artists. This practice will once again be at the centre of the Study Group symposium.
Symposium organisation
The symposium will take place as part of the regular activities of the Study Group on Multipart Music of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (StG MM ICTMD), with the professional support of the Institute of Ethnomusicology at the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (GNI ZRC SAZU) and in co-organisation with Imago Sloveniae.
The symposium will be held in English and is expected to bring together approximately 35 researchers of multipart singing and music-making from Slovenia, various European countries, and other continents. The symposium programme is overseen by an organising committee consisting of the leadership of the Study Group and representatives of other ethnomusicological institutions. Based on the call for participation, the committee will prepare the symposium programme, in which researchers will present their latest research.
Following the symposium, a peer-reviewed publication is planned, in which participants will publish the research presented at the symposium.
PROGRAMME
Wednesday, 19 August
Venue: Gosposka dvorana, Gosposka ulica 16
13:00–13:30 Registration
13:30–14:00 Welcome and opening remarks
14:00–15:00 Session 1: Transformation and Adaptation of Music Transmission
15:00–15:30 Coffee break
15:30–17:00 Session 2: Pedagogy, Education, and Modes of Transmission
Venue: Atrium of ZRC, Novi trg 2, Ljubljana
17:30–18:30 Workshop on three- and four-part singing, led by Katarina Šetinc
Thursday, 20 August
Venue: City Museum Ljubljana, Gosposka ulica 15
09:00–10:30 Session 3: Research and Impact on Safeguarding and Revival
10:30–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–12:30 Session 4: Spaces for Multipart Music as Intangible Cultural Heritage
12:30–14:30 Lunch break
14:30–16:00 Session 5: Pathways of Transmission
Friday, 21 August
Venue: City Museum Ljubljana, Gosposka ulica 15
09:00–11:00 Session 6: Borders and Regions
11:00–11:30 Coffee break
11:30–12:30 Session 7: Problems of Authenticity and Identity
12:30–14:30 Lunch break
14:30–15:30 Session 8: Cross-Border and Diaspora Transmission
15:30–16:30 Study Group Business Meeting
20:00–23:00 Nights in Ljubljana Old Town International Festival
Saturday, 22 August
Venue: City Museum Ljubljana, Gosposka ulica 15
09:00–10:00 Session 9: Analytical Aspects and Approaches to Multipart Music 1
10:00–10:30 Coffee break
10:30–11:30 Session 10: Analytical Aspects and Approaches to Multipart Music 2
11:30 Closing Remarks
19:30–23:00 Nights in Ljubljana Old Town International Festival
About the organisers
The Study Group on Multipart Music was established in 2010, when researchers and scholars studying the multipart music of different peoples of Europe and the world, all members of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD), brought together their research interests within a single specialised research association. The group regularly meets at international symposia every two years (with the exception of the pandemic period) and forms part of ICTMD, the largest international organisation for ethnomusicology, active since 1947.
The Institute of Ethnomusicology (founded in 1934) is today a modern research and archival institution dedicated to the study of folk songs, music, and dance, and is part of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Organising Committee
Yannick Wey, Bern University of Applied Sciences
Giovanni Cestino, University of Milan
Alma Bejtullahu, University of Würzburg / University of Ljubljana
Mojca Kovačič, GNI ZRC SAZU
Jan Kern, Imago Sloveniae
Nino Razmadze, Tbilisi State Conservatoire
Free admission.
In collaboration with: ICTMD, ZRC SAZU, Department of Musicology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, KED Folk Slovenija
The symposium is co-organized and co-funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) within the framework of the national research programme Folklore and Ethnological Research on Slovenian Folk Spiritual Culture (P6-0111) and the research project Romani Musicians in Slovenia: Social Position, Cultural Practices, Interactions (J6-50204).
