2027 CMS International Conference

2027 CMS International Conference
Reykjavík, Iceland
June 6-12, 2027

Dear CMS Members,

I am excited to announce calls for participation in the CMS International Conference held in Iceland, from June 6-12, 2027. The conference will be held at the Listaháskóli Íslands (Iceland Academy of the Arts) (LHÍ) in Reykjavík. On behalf of the 2027 CMS International Conference Program Committee, I invite you to submit a proposal for participation. 

Theme:
Engaging Creative Pathways:
Dialogues, Connections, and Crossings in Music

The 2027 CMS International Conference aims to explore connection in all its forms. As we convene in Iceland, a country whose location on the planet makes it a connector between two oceans (the Atlantic and the Arctic) and two tectonic plates (the North American and Eurasian Plates), we have an opportunity to lean into the complexities of remoteness and the advantages of interaction. In the spirit of the 2026-2027 Common Topic Collaborate!, we invite submissions that highlight current practices, innovations, and contributions in the following key areas:

• CONNECTION: across geographies, cultures, domains, and ideologies; in performance; between musicians and their instruments; between musicians and other musicians; between musicians and audiences 
• EXCHANGE: of ideas; cultural exchange; collaboration in creative practices; reciprocity 
• INCLUSIVITY and ACCESS: pushing on the historical boundaries of what music, or whose music “counts” in music performance, research, and creation in academic spaces; how our work can invite engagement and contribute to the sustainability of our field of music; engendering and encouraging efforts to unify scholarship and performance-based practices
• TECHNOLOGY: using technology to shorten the distance between people, ideas, and other fields of inquiry, pedagogical tools which foster connection in all its forms

The Program Committee encourages colleagues from across our profession – from independent musicians and scholars to students, and members from all areas of the music industry and academia – to submit proposals and join us for this conference. Proposals may relate to the general interests of music in higher education, or to specific disciplines and areas of interest—administration, career issues, composition, cultural inclusion, ethnomusicology, music business/industry, music education/teacher training, music in general studies, music theory, musicology, community engagement, performance, and pedagogy. In the spirit of Iceland’s multi-genre and multidisciplinary recognition worldwide (from Björk to Sigur Ròs to Laufey to Ólafur Arnalds to Kaleo to Anna Þorvaldsdóttir), we further invite proposals on topics which are not historically represented in academic conferences, such as jazz, avant-garde, or  improvisatory performers and repertoire analysis, multi-medium or cross-disciplinary work, non-classical composition styles, and work from researchers pursuing public-facing scholarship. 

More details about specific proposal submission formats, as well as the full conference description, can be found by clicking on the “Calls for Program Participation” link in the upper left-hand corner of this page. For this conference, we are offering two special opportunities: 

• CMS Iceland Ensemble-in-Residence: Call for a pre-formed ensemble to give a standalone concert which features a combination of their existing repertoire and submitted works from CMS and LHÍ composers. 
• CMS Iceland Site-Specific Events: In the spirit of connection, we are creating opportunities for CMS to engage more substantively with the people and place of Iceland while we are there. A supplemental call for these events will follow in Summer 2026, inviting scholars, pedagogues, performers, and composers to contribute. Compositions and performances accepted in the initial calls will be eligible for the Site-Specific Events.

More information about all proposal submission formats, as well as the full conference description, can be found on this website. All proposals are due no later than 11:59pm Mountain Time on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

I do hope you will join us in Iceland for an exciting week of collaboration, exploration, learning, and adventure! Iceland has an incredibly rich natural and cultural history, and is a place like no other. The conference team is hard at work crafting an experience that couldn’t happen anywhere else. I look forward to reading and hearing your proposals, and seeing you in June 2027! 

Best, 

Kate Pukinskis
Program Chair