Call for Papers: Music, Migration, and the Exchange of Knowledge: The Baltics in Global Perspective Deadline: 1 May 2027 Vilnius, 22–23 November 2027, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre New York, 19–20 April 2028, The Barry S. Brook Center of Music Research and Documentation, CUNY New York, In 2027 and 2028, The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation will host a bicontinental symposium, coorganized in partnership with the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. The central question of this symposium is how the migration of peoples as well as their ideas, practices, and cultural artifacts has shaped the epistemic systems through which musical knowledge is produced, transmitted, and understood across different territories. The symposium specifically focuses on the migration of musical knowledge to and from Baltic countries—Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania—from the late nineteenth century onward. Drawing on theoretical discourses of migration in music and culture, the symposium considers how large-scale movements of peoples profoundly transformed musical life during the twentieth century. Migration from the Baltics was often shaped by political upheavals, particularly during and after the First and Second World Wars, when musicians, scholars, and cultural agents sought refuge from wars, totalitarian regimes, and occupations. In their new host countries, these individuals encountered musical environments and traditions that contributed to processes of cultural exchange, internationalization, and the transformation of musical knowledge. Scholars from all disciplines whose work engages with music in specific and broader cultural contexts are invited to submit proposals addressing the following topics: Musical and musicological knowledge created in the context of displacement and exile Historical transformations in the exchange of musical knowledge The role of intellectual and scholarly networks in the creation, dissemination, and circulation of musicological knowledge across geographical areas The impact of the migration on institutional collaborations and networks, including the relationship between institutional and individual exchanges The role of women, Indigenous peoples, and other often underrepresented groups in the production and transmission of musical knowledge The influence of migration and exile experience on academic, popular, pedagogical, and other forms of musical thought We hope to receive proposals that seek to examine diverse forms of musical knowledge exchange, including academic, popular, pedagogical, and religious aspects. This is the second edition of the bicontinental symposium by The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, following its first event on musical exchanges between Spain and the Americas, organized in cooperation with the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (Barcelona) in 2024/2025. Convenors & Coordination: Tina Frühauf (The CUNY Graduate Center / RILM, New York, USA) Rima Povilionienė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania) Scientific Committee: Tina Frühauf (The CUNY Graduate Center / RILM, New York, USA) Rima Povilionienė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania) Stefan Keym (Institute of Musicology of the Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany) Jolanta Guzy-Pasiak (Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland) Rūta Stanevičiūtė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania) Janis Kudinš (Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, Riga, Latvia) Brigitta Davidjants (Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn, Estonia) The bicontinental symposium will take place in person in Vilnius and New York: Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA) Gedimino pr. 42 10001 Vilnius, Lithuania www.lmta.lt The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3108 New York, NY 10016-4309 https://brookcenter.gc.cuny.edu/ We welcome proposals for individual papers and whole panels in English. For individual papers, please submit abstracts of ca. 250 words. For the panel proposal, please submit a panel abstract of 200 words along with abstracts for individual papers. The abstract should be accompanied by a short biography, including affiliation (max. 80 words). Proposals should be submitted through the following form https://forms.gle/kHGemRJJLCtBUbMG7 by 15 March 2027. Participants must indicate whether they want to participate in the Vilnius symposium in 2027 or in the New York symposium in 2028. All applicants will be notified by 1 May 2027. There is no conference registration fee. The selected papers will be invited for publication. Please direct any questions to cmrd@gc.cuny.edu The conference organizers look forward to receiving your submissions!
Brook Center project director, Antoni Pizà, takes on role as guest editor for Volume 11, Issue 1 of Diagonal: An Ibero-American Music Review The peer-reviewed, open-access journal DIAGONAL journal has published a new special issue dedicated to the legacy of Paco de Lucía, a defining figure in flamenco and global music history. Published through the University of California eScholarship, DIAGONAL focuses on Iberian and Latin American music scholarship. Guest edited by Antoni Pizà and K. Meira Goldberg, the issue brings together a selection of papers originally presented at the conference Paco de Lucía and the Americas, held at the CUNY Graduate Center on March 7, 2023. The collection reflects the conference’s interdisciplinary scope, examining de Lucía’s influence across musical, cultural, and transatlantic contexts. Readers can explore the full issue here: https://escholarship.org/uc/diagonal To revisit highlights from the conference, watch the event recording below:
Voicing Innocence | 7–8 April 2026 | In-person & Streaming Live Voicing Innocence is an international public conference that explores how music and sound give voice to trauma, vulnerability, and ethical responsibility in contemporary culture. It brings together scholars, composers, performers, and cultural thinkers for lectures, panel discussions, and performances designed for both specialist and general audiences. The conference takes its point of departure from the Metropolitan Opera’s premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Innocence on 6 April. Building on the artistic and ethical concerns raised by this landmark work, Voicing Innocence expands the conversation to broader historical, social, and aesthetic contexts. Themes include childhood and loss, collective trauma, justice, memory, and the ways music mediates moral experience. Central to the conference is the participation of Scandinavian artists and scholars, whose work has been instrumental in shaping contemporary discourse around these themes. Participants will contribute perspectives rooted in composition, performance, musicology, and cultural analysis, situating Kaia Saariaho’s artistic work within an international framework of exchange. As a public project, Voicing Innocence emphasizes accessibility and engagement beyond the academy. All events will be open to the public and documented through recordings and digital materials for wider dissemination. PDF PROGRAM AVAILABLE | Voicing Innocence: Trauma, Memory, and Contemporary Opera in the Work of Kaija Saariaho Voicing Innocence Program Book (1)-compressed (1)Download SCHEDULE | Voicing Innocence: Trauma, Memory, and Contemporary Opera in the Work of Kaija Saariaho Voicing Innocence Trauma, Memory, and Contemporary Opera in the Work of Kaija Saariaho (1)Download CALL FOR PAPERS | Voicing Innocence: Trauma, Memory, and Contemporary Opera in the Work of Kaija Saariaho A Conference Convened by The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation The Graduate Center, City University of New York In Conjunction with the Metropolitan Opera’s 2026 Staging of Innocence Location: The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY) Dates: April 7–8, 2026 Proposal Deadline: January 5, 2026 The Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation invites proposals for a conference inspired by the 2026 Metropolitan Opera premiere of Innocence (2021), the final opera by the late Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. The conference coincides with the Metropolitan Opera’s presentation of Simon Stone’s original production that premiered at Aix-en-Provence in 2021. This momentous staging provides an opportunity to engage with Saariaho’s innovative compositional voice and the complex thematic landscape of Innocence, an opera that confronts trauma, cultural memory, multilingualism, and the limits of forgiveness. Topics: We welcome proposals that examine Innocence and adjacent topics across the fields of musicology, opera studies, trauma studies, cultural theory, performance studies, and beyond. Saariaho’s Operatic Vision – Analytical, aesthetic, and dramaturgical readings of Innocence – Innocence in the context of Saariaho’s complete operatic output – Saariaho’s musical language and its evolution: Saariaho’s musical language and its evolution: spectralism, electronics, and orchestration – Collaboration with librettists Sofi Oksanen and Aleksi Barrière, and transdisciplinary practice – The intersection of Finnish and international opera traditions Trauma, Silence, and Voice in Contemporary Opera – Representations of violence, terrorism, and collective trauma – Memory, testimony, and witnessing in operatic narrative – Ethical considerations in staging real-world violence – Opera as memorial or commemorative practice Musical and Dramatic Innovation – Extended vocal techniques and vocal diversity in contemporary opera – Multilingual opera and linguistic multiplicity – Non-linear narrative structures and temporal manipulation – The role of folk traditions in art music contexts Production and Reception – Staging trauma: ethics and audience reception – Simon Stone’s production design and directorial approach – Critical reception and audience responses across productions – Posthumous premieres and the politics of legacy Broader Contexts – Gender, authorship, and the legacy of women in 21st-century opera – Comparative approaches: Innocence alongside operas by Thomas Adès, George Benjamin, Missy Mazzoli, etc. – Finnish cultural identity and global operatic networks – Contemporary opera and social justice- Opera after catastrophe: 21st-century opera and global crisis We encourage proposals from scholars at all career stages and welcome interdisciplinary submissions from practitioners, composers, directors, and artists whose work intersects with the themes of the conference. Submission Guidelines: Please submit the following as a single PDF: – Title of paper or presentation – Abstract (300–350 words) – Short bio (150 words) – Institutional affiliation – Contact information Submissions should be sent to cmrd@gc.cuny.edu with the subject line: Innocence Conference Proposal. Deadline for submissions: January 5, 2026 Notification of acceptance: January 30, 2026 Conference Format: The event envisions academic panels, roundtables, and artist talks. Select sessions will be scheduled in coordination with the Metropolitan Opera’s performances of Innocence. Further details will follow in early 2026.
The 2026 Barry and Claire Brook Award Established in April 2018 by the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation (The Graduate Center of The City University of New York), the BROOK AWARD honors an exceptional single-author or co-authored monograph, dissertation, or edited collection. From 2024 onwards, the prize is awarded to publications on global music history. The award honors an exceptional single-author or co-authored monograph, dissertation, or edited collection on global music history. The prize seeks to recognize publications that contribute to the evolving discourse on global music history and help map its parameters by emphasizing interconnected relationships between diverse musical traditions, rather than presenting them in isolation. We are looking for publications that consider migration, mobility, and the circulation of music across cultures. These publications should explore the synthesis and transculturation of musical traditions, examining how different musical practices have been shaped through global cultural exchange and interaction. Central to this approach is the understanding that music is a cultural practice, shaped by the historical and social contexts it emerges from, and a critical perspective that challenges Western-centric ideas of progress and exceptionalism in music historiography. Whether written individually or collaboratively, we consider publications that prioritize cultural relationships (and joint authorship), as opposed to edited volumes that compile different regional perspectives. The author(s) of the work will receive a certificate and an optional invitation to deliver a public lecture on the topic of the awarded publication at The CUNY Graduate Center. Dissertations have the opportunity to be published in Brepols series Acta Brookiana. Beginning in 2024, the awards committee will consist of three distinguished scholars in the field of global music history who will serve overlapping three-year terms. The previous year’s winner will be invited to join the following year’s committee. The director of the Brook Center serves as an ex officio member of the committee. The committee may appoint one or more ad hoc members to review nominated works written in languages outside their area of expertise. Committee members are: Benjamin Barson, Bucknell UniversityNicholas Cook, University of CambridgeDaniela Fugellie, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile Publication nominations will be accepted by the award committee from any individual or organization. Nominated works may be published in any country and language. Works nominated for the 2026 award must have a copyright date of 2025. Nominations should be submitted to the Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, or by email to Dr. Tina Frühauf, cmrd@gc.cuny.edu. The nominating individual/organization must arrange with the publisher to provide each member of the awards committee with a hard copy or electronic copy of the publication. Nominated publications must be received by committee members by 1 September 2026. Awards will be announced in December 2026. For further information, please contact Dr. Tina Frühauf, cmrd@gc.cuny.edu. Past winners of the Brook Award.
Past Foundation for Iberian Music Composer’s Commission awardee wins the 2025 Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize The Foundation for Iberian Music is proud to announce that Benet Casablancas (Sabadell, 1956) is the winner of the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize (Premio SGAE de la Música Iberoamericana Tomás Luis de Victoria). Awarded by the SGAE Foundation (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores), it is Spain’s top honor for living composers from Ibero-America, recognizing their significant contributions to music and their impactful career in contemporary music and the arts. The prize celebrates living composers who enrich Ibero-American musical life and is considered the highest public recognition for composers in this field, it includes a monetary prize of €30,000. An international jury, including The Foundation for Iberian Music, selects the winner from nominated candidates. In 2023, Tania León (Havanna, 1943) also obtained the prize. Both Casablancas and León have been commissioned compositions by the Foundation. Check out Casablancas’ 2012 Composer’s Commission https://brookcenter.gc.cuny.edu/2012/06/26/homage-to-catalonia-in-celebration-of-the-centenary-of-xavier-montsalvatge/ Check out León’s 2011 Composer’s Commission https://brookcenter.gc.cuny.edu/2011/03/29/composers-comission-2012-distinguished-professor-tania-leon/ Casablancas and León have also collaborated in numerous projects including Casablancas Composer’s Portrait at Columbia University’s Miller Theater, curated by Antoni Pizà and a monographic concert at The Morgan Library, also curated by Pizà. This award highlights the enduring legacy of the Renaissance master Tomás Luis de Victoria (c. 1548–1611) by honoring modern creators in the Spanish-speaking world. Read la Fundación SGAE’s full award announcement and an interview with Casablancas https://fundacionsgae.org/actualidad/benet-casablancas-xx-premio-sgae-de-la-musica-iberoamericana-tomas-luis-de-victoria-2025/
Forging an American Musical Identity Conference Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation project Music in Gotham: The New York Scene 1862–1875 co-hosts a groundbreaking event alongside it’s neighbor the Music Department at the CUNY Graduate Center, and the New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Music and Recorded Sound Division and the Neely Bruce Music Foundation. With support from the Society for American Music (SAM) The kickoff event for the exploration of our country’s rich musical heritage will be Forging an American Musical Identity in the Long Nineteenth Century, a diverse and exciting multidisciplinary conference in New York City (28–30 January 2026). It will culminate with a concert at Carnegie Hall by the American Symphony Orchestra (Leon Botstein, conducting), including the modern premiere of George Frederick Bristow’s Symphony No. 5. Niagara. For more information, see the flyer below: Final Conference Program: fami-conference-program-revised-15-january-finalDownload
2025 Barry and Claire Brook Award Announcement The Barry S. Brook Center is pleased to announce that the 2025 Barry and Claire Brook Award has been awarded to Benjamin Barson for Brassroots Democracy: Maroon Ecologies and the Jazz Commons. The selection committee reached this decision unanimously after reviewing an exceptionally strong and diverse shortlist. Barson’s study stood out for its profound reimagining of jazz history and its exemplary embodiment of the award’s mission. Brassroots Democracy reframes jazz not as a narrowly defined national tradition but as a hemispheric, African diasporic creation shaped by the Maroon communities formed by escaped enslaved people across the American South, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Through the interwoven concepts of maroon ecologies and the jazz commons, Barson illuminates jazz as a practice rooted in resistance, collective creativity, and sustainable cultural exchange. His argument powerfully challenges Western-centric narratives of musical progress, genius, and ownership. The committee was especially impressed by the book’s methodological innovation and narrative force. Barson combines critical theory, archival depth, and compelling biographical storytelling to reveal how musical traditions emerge through global networks of circulation and intercultural encounters. This work not only contributes to current scholarship—it offers a new paradigm for understanding the development of music in a global context. In awarding the 2025 Brook Award to Brassroots Democracy, the committee affirms that Barson’s study most fully realizes the award’s aims: to honor scholarship that foregrounds global circulation, transculturation, ecological and social entanglements, and the dismantling of hegemonic narratives in music history. We congratulate Benjamin Barson on this outstanding achievement and celebrate the transformative contribution his work makes to global music historiography.
Rocio Marquez in Concert A concert with the one and only Rocio Marquez Wednesday, February 25, 7 p.m.Elebash Recital Hall CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), NYC gc.cuny.edu/public-programs Co-sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center’s Office of Public Programs and the Foundation for Iberian Music at the Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation. Made possible by the Elebash Global Voices Fund.
Electric Bohemian: Flamenco and the Arts in Greenwich Village (1950s-1970s) Electric Bohemian: Flamenco and the Arts in Greenwich Village (1950s-1970s) Meira Goldberg and Elijah Wald in Conversation Wednesday, February 25, 5 p.m.Skylight Room CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street), NYC Free; reservations suggested gc.cuny.edu/public-programs Flamenco scholar K. Meira Goldberg and cultural historian Elijah Wald (author of Dylan Goes Electric!) explore how “the Village” became a hub of artistic experimentation — the birthplace of the Beat Generation, the 1960s counterculture, and various avant-garde movements. They discuss its rich tapestry of urban bohemia, where small presses, art galleries, and theater and music venues flourished, giving rise to an alternative culture including the queer movement and a thriving flamenco scene, which developed alongside the more famous folk scene. Goldberg is a flamenco performer, choreographer, teacher, and author of Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco. Wald is a musician and writer whose book about Bob Dylan served as the inspiration for the film A Complete Unknown. Followed by Rocío Márquez in concert at 7 p.m. in Elebash Recital Hall Co-sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center’s Office of Public Programs and the Foundation for Iberian Music at the Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation. Made possible by the Elebash Global Voices Fund.