Research conferences and symposia
Many of the international conferences and symposia we host in the Music department at Manchester are linked closely to our researchers' own projects, or form part of their large-scale funded projects.
As part of our practice-based research, we hold large biannual festivals of music and sound using new technology and media, hosted by Manchester Theatre in Sound (MANTIS).
We are also regular co-hosts of the biennial New Music Northwest annual festival of contemporary composition, held in conjunction with the Royal Northern College of Music. This provides an important platform for the performance of new works by our composition staff and research students.
Recent events
Manchester Music Analysis Conference 2025 (McrMAC)
The Society for Music Analysis's annual international conference was hosted by the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, University of Manchester, and the Royal Northern College of Music from 14 to 16 July 2025. The conference was preceded by a Student Study Day organised by the Formal Theory Study Group with workshops run by the conference keynote speakers and a Formal Dialogues Panel on Sibelius's Sixth Symphony.
Find out more about this event.
Director: Professor Barry Cooper
This informal research group is based at The University of Manchester, England, and is devoted to the exploration of the life and works of Beethoven, where possible throwing new light on the subject. The group meets for symposia four or five times per year, normally on a Friday, to examine a specific topic associated with Beethoven. Meetings usually start at 3pm UK time, to enable visitors from both the United States and China to join us by Zoom, but occasionally they are held in person at the University.
A different topic is chosen for each symposium. Recent ones have included: Beethoven’s finances; Beethoven’s tempos; Beethoven’s earliest ideas for new works, Beethoven in 1825; Ornamentation in Beethoven. At the symposia, speakers representing up to seven different countries, which have included China, Germany, Portugal, United States, Bangladesh and the Netherlands, present a paper on a specific aspect of the chosen topic. Each aspect is then opened up to wider discussion by those present.
Many of the speakers are current or former PhD students in the Music Department at Manchester, but other speakers have ranged from first-year undergraduates to the director of the Beethoven-Archiv in Bonn.
The symposia generally last around three to four hours, with a refreshment break in the middle, and are open to all Beethoven enthusiasts, whether or not they wish to present a paper or contribute to the discussion. Anyone wishing to attend or participate is invited to email barry.cooper@manchester.ac.uk for details of the next symposium in the series.
Find out more about past International Manchester Beethoven Research Symposia.
MANTIS festival, 30 October–1 November 2020
A three-day online edition of MANTIS's regular series, featuring guest artist and composer Leah Barclay live from Australia, a concert of winning works from Canada's 2020 JTTP (Jeu de Temps/Times Play) and work by composers at Novars Research Centre.
MANTIS festival, 29 February–1 March 2020
Three concerts, plus a workshop and seminar exploring Digital Overlays in the context of Sound, Space and Interactive Art, with special guests including composer Sam Salem, violinist Linda Jankowska and urban anthropologist Jessica Symons from Visioning Lab.
MANTIS festival, 26–17 October 2019
A two-day event of acousmatic, interactive and audiovisual performances, featuring Anna Mahtani, an electroacoustic composer, sound artist and performer working and living in Birmingham (UK).
MANTIS festival, 2–3 March 2019
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music.
This festival included works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students, and featured guest artist violinist Darragh Morgan.
MANTIS festival, 27–28 October 2018
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music.
This festival included works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students, and featured guest artists the BEER Ensemble (University of Birmingham), Seed Studios Trafford, Brona Martin and Danny Saul.
MANTIS festival, 3–4 March 2018
A two-day festival and sonification symposium with keynote speaker/s, presentations on current artistic data sonification research, fixed media concerts, sound installations and live performances.
This festival explored the methodologies and results emerging at the intersection of science and music.
MANTIS festival, 28–29 October 2017
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music.
This festival featured the music of guest artist Jonty Harrison, and included works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students.
MANTIS festival, 4–5 March 2017
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music, including works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students.
This festival featured guest artists bass clarinettist Marij van Gorkom, Robert Mackay and Manuella Blackburn.
MANTIS festival, 29–30 October 2016
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music, including works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students. This festival featured guest artists Junya Oikawa and Nikos Stavropoulos.
RMA 2nd Practice as Research Symposium, 8 September 2016
This was the second of two events focusing on the challenges of documenting and explaining composition and other forms of practice-based research within the framework of research in UK higher education.
MANTIS festival, 5–6 March 2016
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music, including works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students.
This festival featured guest artists Terri Hron (recorder), Monty Adkins, Mark Pilkington, Manoli Moriaty and Manuella Blackburn.
MANTIS festival, 17–18 October 2015
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music.
This festival included works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students, and featured guest artists Kees Tazelaar and Metanast.
MANTIS festival, 28 February to 1 March 2015
A two-day event with multiple concerts celebrating the latest creative research in electroacoustic music.
This festival included works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students, and featured guest artists Darren Copeland, NAISA, Metanast and Steve Symons of the Owl Project.
Salford sonic fusion festival, 3–4 April 2014
MANTIS performances at Media City UK, Salford, were held as part of the Sonic Fusion festival, featuring works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students.
MANTIS festival, 1–2 March 2014
A two-day event celebrating the tenth anniversary of MANTIS, with multiple concerts.
It included works for fixed and mixed media by Manchester staff and postgraduate students, and featured guest artists Francis Dhomont, Trevor Wishart and alumni of the NOVARS research centre.
Intercultural musicking: Ensemble performance, (inter)cultural encounters, and personal/professional transformations
We invite you to join us for a free one-day online event on Thursday, 15 April 2021, 2.00–6.00pm, exploring the world of intercultural musicking with researcher-practitioners Caroline Bithell, Robert Szymanek, Richard Fay and Dan Mawson, together with student members of the University's gamelan and klezmer ensembles. These ensembles serve as living laboratories for investigating the dynamics of encountering new cultural and musical worlds through learning to perform with others in unfamiliar styles and/or on 'new' instruments. Under the umbrella of the Intercultural Musicking group hosted by the department, we share insights into these particular musical adventures within the broader framework of research into the pedagogy, politics and aesthetics of intercultural music-making.
The event is divided into two complementary parts:
- Show-and-Tell: Encounters and Transformations (2–4pm)
- Research Forum: Themes, Issues and Explorations (4.30–6pm)
- Full details and Zoom link (PDF, 50KB)
Beyond the avant-garde? Rethinking the vanguard in British music since 1970
A one-day online symposium investigating different perspectives on how the history and historiography of 'vanguard music' in the UK since 1970 can be traced, documented and rethought will be jointly hosted by the University of Manchester Music Department's States of Flux Research Group and by Goldsmiths, University of London on 25 June 2021.
Shakespeare and music conference: 10–11 December 2020
The inaugural conference of the Shakespeare and Music Study Group was jointly hosted by the Universities of Manchester and Huddersfield in an online event aiming to foster research on music in Shakespeare's time, and music inspired by his works. It featured keynote addresses by Professor Ross Duffin (Case Western Reserve University) and by Claire van Kampen (composer and director for the Globe Theatre) as well as the premiere of John Casken's The Shackled King, a 'music drama' derived from Shakespeare's King Lear, with Sir John Tomlinson CBE in the title role and Rozanna Madylus (mezzo-soprano) as Cordelia, Goneril, Regan and The Fool.
Mieczyslaw Weinberg: East and West, 24–27 January 2019
A major international conference celebrating the beginning of Weinberg's centenary year. It brought together scholars and practitioners from Russia, Belarus, Poland, Sweden, Germany, France, Australia, the UK and the US, and featured Gidon Kremer as Guest of Honour.
The Quatuor Danel gave seven concerts as part of the symposium, with a further two concerts also incorporated into the event. The conference was co-sponsored by the British Academy and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Warsaw.
EASTN-DC, 25–30 June 2018
A week of concerts and events exploring digital creativity as part of the European Art – Science –Technology Network for Digital Creativity funded by the Culture Program of the European Union.
New music north west, 13–18 November 2017
The 2017 NMNW festival comprised six days of concerts co-organised with the RNCM, and hosted in the Martin Harris Centre and around Manchester. It featured the music of invited composer Mark Anthony Turnage alongside Manchester composers, performed by Manchester ensembles.
The festival included concerts by MANTIS, Trio Atem, Psappha, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ebonit Saxophone Quartet and student ensembles from the University and the RNCM.
It included pieces by University composers David Berezan, Philip Grange, Kevin Malone, Camden Reeves, Richard Whalley and Nina Whiteman, as well as the some of the University's most promising student composers.
RMA research students' study day: Music and Space, 28 October 2017
A study day designed to bring together composers, musicologists and performers with a shared interest in exploring the concept of space in music. It was hosted alongside the MANTIS festival.
Sines and squares festival, 18–20 November 2016
This was the second three-day celebration of the recent resurgence of analogue and modular synthesisers. It featured some of the most renowned UK and international performers, composers, lecturers and designers working with analogue and modular systems.
It mixed live and fixed-media concerts featuring the MANTIS system with conference papers and keynotes, plus theoretical 'Patchbay' sessions (combining formal papers with performances), and workshops.
Michael Finnissy: Dialogues, 17 November 2016
A one-day symposium co-hosted by the Universities of Huddersfield and Manchester, held at Heritage Quay, Huddersfield. The event focused on the music of Michael Finnissy, as viewed through the lens of performance and collaboration.
In addition to presentations from six invited speakers, it included a lunchtime recital and a display of concert programmes from the British Music Collection.
New music north west, 22–29 January 2016
This was an eight-day multi-event festival co-hosted with the RNCM. The 2016 festival featured invited composer Harrison Birtwistle alongside Manchester composers.
Concerts were performed by Manchester ensembles including the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Psappha, MANTIS, Trio Atem, the Vonnegut Collective, Distractfold, and student ensembles from the University, the RNCM and Chetham's School of Music.
It included the world premiere of Kevin Malone's opera Mysterious 44. There were also compositions by university composers Philip Grange, Gavin Osborn, Camden Reeves and Nina Whiteman, together with some of the University's most promising student composers.
RMA practice as research symposium, 24 June 2015
This event aimed to bring together composers and practice-based researchers to discuss the issues facing those working in these areas in higher education in the modern context of research funding and research assessment.
RMA and British Forum for Ethnomusicology study day: Music, circulation and the public sphere, 11 April 2014
This study day brought together researchers to engage in interdisciplinary discussions about the relationship between music, circulation, and the public sphere.
It was a jointly hosted forum and included contributions by invited speakers Byron Dueck (Open University) and Estelle Joubert (Dalhousie University and University of Oxford).