6th-8th January 2026, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK
Website: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire/research/rsc2026
Email: rsc2026birmingham@bcu.ac.uk
Call for proposals
The British Forum for Ethnomusicology (BFE) and Royal Musical Association (RMA) Research Students’ Conference will be hosted by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC, part of Birmingham City University), on 6th–8th January 2026. This will be an in-person event to allow networking and social interaction to take place, and to foster connections across a variety of music sub-disciplines.
The conference will take place in RBC’s bespoke building in the centre of Birmingham, featuring two concert halls, a jazz club, organ studio and the Lab (a black box performance area), as well as workshop spaces. We look forward to welcoming you to our central location for what promises to be a vibrant, supportive and diverse conference.
Presentations, workshops and events
The Research Students’ Conference is an excellent opportunity for students to gain valuable experience presenting their work, whether compositions (both acoustic and electroacoustic), research-led performances or standard conference papers, in a friendly and welcoming environment amongst peers, established academics and publishers. Being hosted in a conservatoire environment allows for an additional focus on performance, as well as input from our staff’s broad range of musicological expertise.
The conference caters for all areas of music research, including (although not limited to) performance, composition, ethnomusicology, electroacoustic music, historical musicology, jazz and popular music, music analysis and critical editing.
Alongside presentations, the conference will feature a number of events catering to a diverse range of disciplines, including but not limited to: training workshops for postgraduate students wishing to pursue careers within and outwith academia, roundtable discussions, poster exhibitions, practice-based opportunities and composition talks. Delegates will have opportunities to engage with RBC’s extensive performance facilities, including historical instruments, with live and social musicmaking featuring as part of the schedule.
The winner of the Jerome Roche Prize, Giles Masters, and recipient of the Tippett Medal, Timothy Cooper, will be giving keynote addresses at the conference and also contributing to workshop sessions.
Call for proposals
Proposals are welcome from postgraduate research students (e.g. PhD, MPhil, MRes) in any area of Music, including musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music, music psychology, composition, audiovisual media, performance, and/or other creative practices, and research that cuts across disciplinary boundaries. For Poster and Audio-Poster Presentations, proposals are also invited from students enrolled on postgraduate taught programmes (e.g. MA, MSt, MMus) as well as research degrees.
All proposals must be submitted by Thursday 18th September 2025 via the conference submission form:
- Academic Papers
Papers should be of no more than 20 minutes’ duration. The proposal should include a title and abstract of no more than 250 words.
- Lecture-Recitals
Lecture-recitals should last no longer than 30 minutes. The proposal should include a title and abstract of no more than 250 words as well as the name of participants, the repertoire to be performed and a sample recording (of no more than 5 minutes).
- Themed Panel Sessions
Proposals for themed panel sessions of 90 minutes are invited, to include at least 30 minutes of discussion. There is no restriction on the number of contributors, but panel organisers will be expected to ensure that the overall length of the session does not exceed the allotted time, and that space is left for discussion. The proposal should include a title and abstract of no more than 250 words for each speaker, and an indication of the length of each contribution. An additional 200-word rationale is required that makes clear the purpose of the panel, its theme, and the ways in which the individual contributions relate to each other. Please also indicate whether an independent chair will be required.
- Poster and Audio-Poster Presentations
Proposals are invited from students enrolled on postgraduate taught programmes (e.g. MA, MMus) as well as research degrees for a poster or audio-poster on their original research. Audio-posters should comprise a maximum of 10 minutes of audio (this could be original audio production, composition or field recording done by the researcher, a piece of music representative of the researchers’ work, or a short mixtape of tracks) along with a 300-word explanation. The proposal should include a title and abstract of no more than 250 words.
Please note that it will be the delegates’ responsibility to print their own posters. The local organising committee will assist with the display of posters and, as far as possible, with technical support for audio-posters.
- Compositions
Student composers are invited to submit scores for our ensemble in residence formed of advanced RBC students, the instrumentation consisting of piano, trombone or trumpet, and a woodwind instrument.
This is an exciting opportunity to have your composition performed by conservatoire students and receive valuable feedback on your composition. The score may be a full piece, a movement from a larger work or a section of a movement up to 5 minutes in duration when performed.
Proposals should be submitted with a commentary of no more than 250 words outlining the work, including its research content. The score should be submitted in PDF format. Please ensure that the title of the work matches that given on the proposal form.
Please note that composers whose work are selected will be responsible for producing performing materials at their own expense. All parts and, if required, a revised version of the score, must be submitted in good time ahead of the conference. Further details to follow in due course.
- Electroacoustic Composition
Proposals should be submitted with a commentary of no more than 250 words outlining the work, including its research content and technical aspects, and should also include a link to the composition file (Dropbox, Google Drive etc.). If the proposed work is incomplete, include a link to a sample of the work or similar work to allow the selection committee to assess its merits.
Proposals may be for electroacoustic fixed media, live electronics, or a combination of live and fixed elements. However, the conference cannot provide performers for electroacoustic works. Diffusion and performance are the responsibility of the composer. The workshop space (the Lab at RBC) includes a Meyer PA system, a 10.2 surround sound system consisting of main left and right including subs over the stage plus eight discrete speaker channels positioned around the perimeter of the hall for multi-channel surround sound, and an SSL L300 sound desk.
- Jazz
In addition to standard papers covering all areas of jazz research, we welcome jazz practitioners to present their work in our bespoke Eastside Jazz Club. We are also keen to facilitate interactions between jazz researchers, both theory and practice-based, that build on BCU’s jazz research cluster and The National Jazz Archive Satellite Collection. Please email if this is of interest: rsc2026birmingham@bcu.ac.uk.
Bursaries
The intention is to make available a limited number of bursaries for those presenting who are not eligible to apply for institutional support. Please indicate when submitting your proposal if you would like to be informed about bursaries.
RMA/Musici Trust Prize for a paper on music before 1600
Speakers at the 2026 BFE-RMA Research Students’ Conference will be invited to submit their papers to the RMA/Musici Trust prize for a student paper on music before 1600. The winner will receive a £300 prize, be offered mentorship and also be invited to present their work at the RMA Annual Conference.
RMARC Student Paper Prize
Speakers at the 2026 BFE-RMA Research Students’ Conference will be invited to submit their papers to the Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle (RMARC) student-paper prize. Participation will be open to all speakers. The winner will receive a £100 book token from Cambridge University Press, as well as mentorship from the editors of RMARC to develop and expand their submission for publication in RMARC.
Papers should fall under the remit of RMARC – i.e. to publish submissions from all areas of music research that make extensive use of primary sources widely conceived, such as recordings, digital-borne files, results of ethnographic work, and/or archival materials.
For any queries, please contact t.alexander@gold.ac.uk.
For all enquiries about the conference, please email rsc2026birmingham@bcu.ac.uk.
Organisers
Co-chairs (Royal Birmingham Conservatoire): Carrie Churnside and Juliane Deil
Conference committee: Michelle Assay (RMA Flagship Conferences Coordinator), Christopher Dingle (RBC), Joy Ellis (RBC), Chang Ge (RBC), Stina Homer (BFE Conference Liaison Officer), Edmund Hunt (RBC), Yihan Jin (RMA), Luigi Monteanni (BFE Student Liaison), Maya Morris (RMA) and Paloma Trigas Payne (RBC)