International Women and/in Musical Leadership Conference

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Venue: The Institute of Musical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London
Price: to be confirmed

Musical leadership remains ones of the most male-dominated musical areas. As late as 2013, female conductors achieved a significant first, when Marin Alsop became the first woman to direct the Last Night of the Proms. Although female composers, songwriters, and performers have attracted significant scholarly attention, the issue of women's musical leadership remains intriguingly under researched. This conference - timed to coincide with International Women's Day 2019 - seeks both to redress this by focusing upon the participation of women in musical leadership (understood in the broadest possible sense) and to promote academic-practitioner dialogue.

In addition to a keynote address by leading practitioner Jenni Roditi, the conference will also feature a roundtable debate, and two evening performances at London's Club Inégales. Club Inégales have, since 2011, presented some 100 gigs with artists from around world music-traditions collaborating with resident band Notes Inégales, who draw players from across genre. The first evening will be hosted by club director and composer Peter Wiegold, who usually uses a mixture of score, conduction and improvisation. This evening, along with working with new scores by female composers, former Academy Inégales female graduates will be invited to lead the band. The second evening performance will be from Tic, Roditi's professional improvisers' choir, led by Roditi.

Proposal Submissions
We invite contributions on any aspect of women and/in musical leadership. Particular topics which papers might cover include, but are not restricted to:

• women conductors and/or impresarios (contemporary or historical);
• all-woman orchestras or choirs;
• all-woman entertainment orchestras/jazz bands/swing bands/dance bands;
• women leading music for worship (embracing all sacred or spiritual practices);
• women leading amateur musical ensembles;
• women leading ensembles and other practical music-making activities within music educational settings;
• women leading improvisation/soundpainting.

Contributions are invited from both scholars and practitioners.

Proposals are invited in the following formats:

• individual/co-authored papers (20 minutes with 10 minutes for discussion);
• themed sessions (of three or four papers, 20 minutes each with 10 minutes each for discussion)
• practice-based sessions (40 minutes with 20 minutes for discussion);
• poster presentations;
• pecha kucha.

We particularly invite contributions from Early Career Researchers, who might particularly like to consider poster presentations or pecha kucha.

Proposals for individual/co-authored papers, practice-based sessions, poster presentations, and pecha kucha should be a maximum of 250 words long. Proposals for themed sessions should be accompanied by a 250-word overview of the session, along with 250-word proposals for each individual paper.

Please send proposals as an anonymous Word document to Laura Hamer by 30 November 2018. Please ensure that you name and institutional affiliation (where appropriate) are included in the body of your email, rather than the proposal itself.

Bursaries:
A limited number of bursaries are available for students and scholars lacking access to alternative sources of funding. If you would like to be considered for a bursary, please indicate this in the email accompanying your (anonymous) proposal. Please also include a brief CV (no more than two A4 pages).
Receiving a bursary is conditional upon presenting at the conference.

Programme Committee:
Rebecca Berkley (University of Reading);
Enya Doyle (Durham University);
Laura Hamer (Open University, Co-Chair);
Nuppu Koivisto (University of Helsinki);
Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University, Co-Chair).

The Programme Committee acknowledge generous support from the IMR and the Open University.

Find out more

For further information about this event:

Contact: Helen Minors
Email: H.Minors@kingston.ac.uk