Conferences

Opera and the Spanish empire. Genres, encounters and translations between 1600 and 1900

The UCD School of Music is pleased to announce the Call For Papers of the Conference ‘Opera and the Spanish empire. Genres, encounters and translations between 1600 and 1900’ organised by our IRC postdoctoral fellow Francesco Milella which will be held at UCD between 1-3 July 2025.

The conference brings musicologists and historians together for a new interdisciplinary discussion about the role that opera played in the history of the Spanish empire, from its origins until its collapse and even after, through the many legacies it left worldwide: opera as a narrative and performative space for imperial dynamics, opera as a social and political tool for the construction and questioning of the Spanish hegemony, but also opera as a permeable space of coexistence of different forms and languages throughout the centuries from Spain to Latin America, Asia, Africa and the rest of Europe.

Keynote Speaker

(opens in a new window)Christopher Webber, theatre professional and dramatist Christopher Webber is one of the leading scholars in the field of zarzuela and Spanish opera more broadly. 

Conference Programme

The conference programme is (opens in a new window)available to view here.

Conference Registration Link

Register via (opens in a new window)Eventbrite.

Concert-Lecture 'Oh, guerrieri della Patria – Early Chilean Operas (1898–1909)', Wednesday 2nd July

Join us for a unique concert-lecture showcasing the early development of Chilean opera at the turn of the 20th century. This first-ever performance in Dublin of works by Eliodoro Ortiz de Zárate, Raoul Hügel, and Remijio Acevedo Gajardo reveals a fascinating chapter of Latin American musical history, full of ambition, conflict, and beauty. Featuring members of the Colectivo Ópera Nacional de Chile, this performance brings rarely heard repertoire to life, offering a compelling blend of scholarship and artistry.

(opens in a new window)Register here for this concert performance. 

Conference website

For more information visit the website (opens in a new window)www.operaspem.com. 

The 23rd Annual Plenary Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland/Aontas Ceoleolaíochta na hÉireann will be hosted by the School of Music, University College Dublin, from 19–21 June 2025.

We are delighted to announce that Professor Esteban Buch (Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) will deliver the keynote address.

Download the Conference Schedule here.

A Symposium in Honour of Harry White

18 June 2025

On 1 September 2025, Professor Harry White will retire from University College Dublin, following forty years as a Faculty Member, and thirty-two years as Professor and Chair of Music. 

To mark this occasion, his colleagues in the UCD School of Music have organized a one-day symposium on 18 June 2025 devoted to his research and its wide-ranging influence on the development of musicology in Ireland and abroad. 

The symposium will comprise four panel sessions, all of which respectively derive their thematic content from four of Professor White’s most significant publications.

More details on the symposium can be found here.

Music, Musicology and Academic Responsibilities in the 21st Century

1-3 July 2024

This conference engages with recent epistemic, ethical and methodological issues in music and musicology.

Among the topics the conference is focusing on are polarisation, truth and relativism, ethical considerations, intersectionality, objectivity, and the relationship of musical practice and musicology.

Visit the conference webpage for the Conference Schedule, linked here.

(In)visible Publics: Performing (Non)Belonging

Friday 13 September 2024

Online conference on the entanglements between creative practices, performing (in)visibility, and reinforcing senses of (non-)belonging.

More details on the conference can be found here. 

Routes Beyond Roots: Indian Performing Arts and Virtual Culture(s)

Thursday, 13 June - Friday, 14 June 2024 

More details on the conference can be found here. 

Conference details

Recognising these mediations on digital dancing bodies and the scope of such largely unexplored digital interventions in Indian classical dance, we call for an in-person symposium to contribute to a growing body of dance research. This two-day symposium to be held on the 13th and 14th of June 2024 and hosted by University College Dublin, aims to bring scholar-practitioners, artists, and researchers working with Indian dance together to explore these recent transformations. Dr Prarthana Purkayastha (Royal Holloway University, London), whose work revolves around the intersections of Indian dance studies and transnationalism, identity, diaspora, and decoloniality, will deliver the keynote address.

Music and Pleasure before the Law International Conference

Wednesday, 28 June 2023 - Thursday, 29 June 2023
Humanities Institute

Conference Details

Today, scholars interested in expanding and diversifying the way we think music and sex together are faced with a rift between intellectual and political landscapes. On the one hand, such inquiry has been legitimized by more than thirty years of scholarship that has celebrated music’s capacity to represent myriad sexual experiences and identities, as well as its ability to engender radical, destabilizing forms of sonic pleasure. On the other, recent successful political and legal efforts to curtail sexual rights in the name of moral or religious objection are unwinding gains made from identity-based political action. To better navigate this climate, we seek to step back from the traditional focus on how musicians or musical works represent specific sexual desires and identities to interrogate the larger institutional, administrative, and discursive forces that conterminously shape the history of music and sexuality.

Intentionally returning to Foucault’s interest in the emergence and productivity of disciplinary practices, this conference aims to examine moments where music and pleasure have been brought together before the law or, more generally, any authoritative discourse which purports to regulate human behavior. Inviting scholars to share diverse historical and cultural situations, we intend to collectively and investigate the following questions:  To what extent have legal or doctrinal discourses considered music and sexuality as analogous issues? What are the shared tactics used to regulate or manage musical and sexual behaviors? What actions have been taken by marginalized individuals or groups to undercut, evade, or reform discourses that limited musical and sexual freedom? What methodological, theoretical, or conceptual resources are needed to tackle such issues? Responding to these questions, we hope to consider how our reactions to contemporary sexual politics can draw from those who have previously encountered the varied, but historically persistent forces that attempt to bring order to the unruly world of sexual and musical experience.

Joint SMI/ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference

Friday, 20 January 2023 - Saturday, 21 January 2023
UCD School of Music
Belfield, Newman Building, Room J307

More details on the conference are found here

Conference Details

The joint annual Postgraduate Conference of the Society for Musicology in Ireland and the Irish National Committee of the International Council for Traditional Music took place on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 January 2023. This was the first campus-based SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference since January 2020. Both societies are renowned for their collegiality, and were delighted to welcome participants in-person once again to take advantage of all that the conference has to offer.

Highlights of the programme included the presentation of the biennial Harry White Doctoral Prize, inaugurated in 2020, the Careers Forum and a dedicated session featuring prize-winners of the annual CHMHE competition for undergraduate dissertations.

The keynote address was delivered by (opens in a new window)Dr Tim Summers (Royal Holloway, University of London), entitled “Awkward Questions for Musicologists or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Video Game Music”.

Event Archive

• Joint SMI and ICTM-IE Postgraduate Conference
• SMI/ICTM-IE Conference Booklet