School of Music, Theatre and Art

CPMPC 2026 – Contemporary Perspectives on Music Performance and Creation

The Contemporary Perspectives on Music Performance and Creation (CPMPC) symposium will take place on 24–25 September 2026 at Örebro University, Sweden. Bringing together musicians, artistic researchers, musicologists, and philosophers, the symposium offers a platform to explore current issues in contemporary music creation and performance.

With musical practice as a shared point of departure, the symposium provides a space in which diverse disciplines and perspectives can converge, challenge each other, and generate new insights. Through panel discussions, lecture-recitals, and musical performances, participants engage in dialogue and reflection on musical processes—from embodied experience and creative interaction to interpretation, communication, and context.

At its core is the understanding that musical knowledge is multidimensional, encompassing not only sonic outcomes but also the processes through which music is created, experienced, and understood. These dimensions are explored through the interplay of artistic practice, theoretical reflection, and collegial dialogue. The format reflects this, combining academic presentations with artistic contributions and in-depth discussions.

Musical (Re-)Negotiation in Action

This year’s overarching theme, “Musical (Re-)Negotiation in Action,” highlights how creation and interpretation are shaped through ongoing negotiation in practice. Themes include:

  • Tradition in motion

    – renegotiating musical heritage

  • Practices in transformation
    – emerging working methods and processes

  • Improvisation, interpretation, and composition as sites of negotiation

  • Metaphor, language, and understanding in musical practice

  • Meaning-making and interpretation in musical action

The symposium aims both to foster in-depth knowledge exchange and critical reflection within the field of music, and to inspire new research ideas and collaborations. These may lead to research projects, publications, artistic initiatives, and developing international networks.

  • Session 1: Notation as Provocation: Presence as Ontology

    Presentation: Alfred Jimenez Romanenko and Duo Signal.

  • Session 2: Narrativity, Embodiment and Voice in Actors' Meaning-Making Practices

    Presentation: Maria Johansson Josephsson.

  • Session 3: Presence, High-hanging Fruit, and the Singing Self: Developing a Musical Language in Improvisation

    Presentation: Joakim Milder.

Panelists and moderators to be announced. The day concludes with an evening concert featuring Duo Signal, Birgitta Flick, Peter Knudsen, Joakim Milder, and Maria Johansson Josephsson.