This is a preliminary program, but any changes to it will likely be minimal (session chairs, information about the cultural program, and breakfast and dinner times will be added; some presentations may be omitted if the presenters are unable to attend)
41st ESEM
September 17–22, 2026
Palanga/Kunigiškės, Lithuania
Program
| 17 SEPTEMBER, THURSDAY – ARRIVAL | |
| 18 SEPTEMBER, FRIDAY | |
| 8:30–10:00 | Registration |
| 10:00–10:30 | Opening Ceremony |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| SUSTAINING MUSICAL PRACTICES | |
| 11:00–11:30 | Frank Kouwenhoven (CHIME Foundation, Leiden, The Netherlands) Can Rural Song Cultures in Gansu (NW China) Survive State Politics? Yes! No! |
| 11:30–12:00 | Elnaz Mohammadzadeh Roshtkhari (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria) Improvisation, Transmission, and Musical Sustainability in Eastern Khorasan, Iran |
| 12:00–12:30 | Vaiva Aglinskas (Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Lithuania) “Do You Hear the Rustling?”: Soundtrack of Contention of the Lithuanian Environmental Movement |
| 12:30–14:00 | Lunch |
| THE POLITICS OF MODERNIZATION AND TRANSFORMATION | |
| 14:00–14:30 | Rebecca Huff (University of Limerick, Ireland) State-Made Hybridity: Anatolian Rock and the Politics of Musical Modernization in Turkey |
| 14:30–15:00 | Jannatul Ferdous (University of Chittagong, Bangladesh) Ri Long Poye: Adopting Technology and Modern Trends in the Marma Water Festival of Bangladesh |
| 15:00–15:30 | Parmis Rahmani (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria) The Violin in Persian Classical Music in mid-20th Century: The Role of Individual Performers in Processes of Innovation and Transformation |
| 15:30–16:00 | Coffee break |
| REFLECTING ON MUSIC ANALYSIS | |
| 16:00–16:30 | Kristin Jonzon (Svenskt visarkiv – Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research, Sweden) Dynamic Ways to Account for Tonal and Timbral Emergences in Unaccompanied Traditional Singing |
| 16:30–17:00 | Ansis Ataols Bērziņš (Riga Technical College, Latvia) and Paulis Paulins (University of Latvia, Latvia) Searching for Traditional Samogitian Scale in Fiddle and Saw Playing by Jorgis Okrens |
| FILM SCREENINGS | |
| 17:00–17:30 | Halyna Pshenichkina (Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Lithuania) Ukrainian Collective Singing in Lithuania in Times of Crisis |
| 17:30–18:00 | Ripan Kumar Das (Cinema Gang, Bangladesh) Technology as a Catalyst for Marma Indigenous Resilience: A Dancer’s Survival in the Digital Age |
| 19 SEPTEMBER, SATURDAY | |
| PANEL: POPULAR MUSICKING, MIGRATION, AND URBAN TRANSFORMATION: MUSIC ECOSYSTEMS IN MILAN AND ROME | |
| 9:00–9:30 | Francesca Cireddu (University of Pavia, Italy) MURB. Musical Participation and Urban Transformation: A Deep Mapping of the V Municipality in Rome and NoLo neighbourhood in Milan |
| 9:30–10:00 | Martin Nicastro (University of Pavia, Italy) Between Branding and Mediation: Popular Musicking, Cultural Intermediation, and Urban Transformation in NoLo (Milan) |
| 10:00–10:30 | Sara Antonini (University of Pavia, Italy) Self-Representation and Counterculture: Popular Musicking and Migrant Agency in Pigneto (Rome) |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| ASSESSING IMPACTS | |
| 11:00–11:30 | Chae-Lin Kim (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria) Singing in Sign Language – A Case Study of the Berlin Sign Choir |
| 11:30–12:00 | Clément Baulot-Souckov (Academy of Music, Dance and Fine Arts in Plovdiv, Bulgaria) Can a Bulgarian Spring Folk Dance Really Make You Feel Happy? |
| 12:00–12:30 | Rebecca Draisey-Collishaw and Fay Hield (University of Sheffield, UK) Action, Participation, and Choice Points: Access Folk and Methods for Change |
| 12:30–14:00 | Lunch |
| MIGRATION | |
| 14:00–14:30 | Ayhan Erol (Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey) Ritual Dance, Migration and Translocality: the Alevi Semah |
| 14:30–15:00 | Anja Brunner (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria) Challenges of the Postmigrant in Music: Tales from Vienna |
| 15:00–15:30 | Fulvia Caruso (University of Pavia, Italy) “Altrove è qui”: a Podcast to Give Visibility to Musical Practices in Post-Migratory Italy |
| 15:30–16:00 | Coffee break |
| POPULISM | |
| 16:00–16:30 | Elise Gayraud (independent researcher, Belgium) Dancing Against Populism: Participative Community Cultural Practices Promoting Pan-Europeanism, Inclusivity and Diversity on Dancefloors – A Case Study of the Balfolk Movement |
| 16:30–17:00 | Felix Morgenstern (University of Limerick, Ireland) Popular in the Age of Populism: Translocal Irish Traditional Music Practices in German-Speaking Europe |
| 17:00–17:30 | Coffee break |
| 17:30–19:00 | John Blacking Memorial Lecture |
| 20 SEPTEMBER, SUNDAY | |
| ORGANOLOGY AND MUSICAL TOOLS | |
| 9:00–9:30 | Gertrud Maria Huber (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria). The Zither in Changing Social and Political Landscapes. Reflections On Internal and External Attributions to a Folk Instrument Tradition |
| 9:30–10:00 | Ulrich Morgenstern (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria) Ethno-organology’s Aesopian Language in the (Post)Soviet Space |
| 10:00–10:30 | Oldřich Poděbradský (Charles University Prague, Czechia) Prompting Music into Existence: Authorship and Creativity Among AI Music Tool Users |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND ITS LIMITS | |
| 11:00–11:30 | Britta Sweers (University of Bern, Switzerland) Ethnomusicology and Cultural Appropriation: The Case of Lauwarm |
| 11:30–12:00 | Evrim Hikmet Öğüt (MSGSÜ, Turkey) The Limits of Ethnographic Foresight: Syrian Music in Istanbul Revisited |
| 12:00–12:30 | Marko Kölbl and Faisal Jailani (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria) Responsibilities in the Field. Influencing Social and Political Realities |
| 12:30–14:00 | Lunch |
| ETHNOMUSICOLOGY AND ARCHIVAL WORK | |
| 14:00–14:30 | Matej Kratochvil (Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Czechia) “Should We Put This Online?” Gatekeeping The Digital Archive of Czech Folk Music |
| 14:30–15:00 | Francesca De Nardis (Community Archive of the Municipality of Atena Lucana-Archivio Atena, Italy) Archivio Atena Project as a Sound Heritage Laboratory: Ethnomusicological Research between Top-down and Bottom-up Approaches |
| 15:00–15:30 | Anne K. Rasmussen (William & Mary, USA) The Ethics of Archival Listening, Stewardship, and Intervention through the Restudy and Performance of Comparative Arab Musical Diasporas |
| 15:30–16:00 | Coffee break |
| POSTCOLONIAL CONTEXTS | |
| 16:00–16:30 | Susana Sardo (University of Aveiro, Portugal) Listening to the Post-Empire: The Political Life of Fado de Goa (Índia) |
| 16:30–17:00 | Spandita Das (Indian Institution of Technology Delhi, India) Folk Music and Regional Articulations in Postcolonial India: Case Studies from North and South-West Bengal |
| 17:00–17:30 | Coffee break |
| 17:30–19:30 | General Assembly |
| 21 SEPTEMBER, MONDAY | |
| HERITAGE AND INSTITUTIONS | |
| 9:00–9:30 | Gaila Kirdienė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Lithuania) Ethnomusicologists and the Revival of Traditional Fiddling in Lithuania at the Turn of the 21st Century |
| 9:30–10:00 | Antti-Ville Villén (University of the Arts Helsinki, Finland) Subcultural Heritage |
| 10:00–10:30 | Mikaela Minga (Institute of Anthropology-Albanian Academy of Sciences, Albania) Music Institutions in Albania: Perspectives from the Contemporary |
| 10:30–11:00 | Coffee break |
| SOUND AND CITIZENSHIP | |
| 11:00–11:30 | Paulo Menotti Del Picchia (Universidade Estadual de Campinas – UNICAMP, Brazil) Sonic Conflicts and Urban Citizenship: Funk, Batida do Gueto, and the Politics of Sound in São Paulo and Lisbon |
| 11:30–12:00 | Ilaria Meloni (Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy) “Don’t Ban Us, Hear Us!”: Sound, Space, And Displacement in Jubilee Rome. Redefining Politics of Urban Listenings and Ethnomusicological Engagement |
| 12:00–12:30 | Christopher Ballengee (Institute of Arts, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland) Sounding Citizenship: Tassa Drumming and the Politics of Belonging in Trinidad and Tobago |
| 12:30–13:00 | Coffee break |
| REGION AND NATION | |
| 13:00–13:30 | Rimantas Sliužinskas (Klaipėda University, Lithuania) Local Lutheran Psalms Singing Tradition in Klaipėda Region (Lithuania): Cross-Ethnic Peculiarities |
| 13:30–14:00 | Austė Nakienė (Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Lithuania) Lithuanian Patriotic Songs: Their Authors, Themes, and Performance Contexts |
| 14:00–14:30 | Saulius Stumbra (Klaipėda University, Lithuania) The Tradition of Singing on the Hills of Samogitian Calvary: A Blend of Religious and National Identity |
| 14:30–15:00 | Lunch |
| 15:00–😊 | Excursion; Closing of the conference, the last party…. |
| 22 SEPTEMBER, TUESDAY – DEPARTURE | |