27^e année, 18 mai 2026.

Women in Music: Narrating and Resounding (Auto) Biographies

14–16 April 2027, Vilnius

International Conference

Vilnius, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre

Submission deadline: 1 October 2026

Organized by Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, University of the Arts Helsinki, Research Association Suoni, IMS Study Group “Music and Cultural Studies”

The Performing Arts Research Centre (PARC) of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre is pleased to announce a conference on women’s (auto)biographies in music studies and sound art. The conference is organized in collaboration with the University of the Arts Helsinki, the Suoni research association, and the IMS study group “Music and Cultural Studies” as part of a series of ongoing symposiums bringing together groups of researchers from Northern, Baltic, and Central Europe working on related topics.

(Auto)Biography is constructed under the influence of rhetorical strategies, determined by contemporary ideology and politics, providing wide possibilities for recognizing, investigating, and defining it in the context of scholarly discourses (Tatjana Marković 2010, Christopher Wiley 2019). Established as an individual genre in the eighteenth century, music biography as well as autobiography were often marginalized within the discipline of musicology. Challenging the traditional great composer and musician narrative by examining how biographies (and the ideologies behind them) influence musical canons and historical understanding, recent music studies focus on various factors—social, political, cultural, and economic—that shape musical (auto)biography (Melanie Unseld 2014, Leah Broad 2023, Samantha Ege 2024).

(Auto)biography as musicological discourse refers to the scholarly study of how musicians’ life stories, both written and embedded in their music, construct identity, influence reception, and serve as cultural texts, and how music itself becomes (auto)biographical for both artist and listener. Aiming to move away from romanticized life stories toward critical analyses of the writing or resounding biography, this conference seeks to push the boundaries of the field by interrogating the intersections of gender with the materiality of the archive, the ‘sonic’ performativity of the self, and the relational networks of creative life. This approach treats the performing body and physical objects as biographical sites, while foregrounding the collaborative networks that sustain musical creation. Furthermore, we invite critical reflection on the archive and its limitations, encouraging a dialogue on the methodologies used to navigate archival silence and the ephemeral documentation of women’s and other marginalized genders’ musical lives. The conference committee welcomes contributions on any topic or issue related to gender and music history and/or contemporary practice, including critical perspectives on (auto)biography.

Potential themes might include (but are not limited to):

* Music as narrative: musical works as autobiographical statements, sonic diaries, or fictional musical biographies, even when not explicitly created as such.

* Musician’s writings: autobiographies, letters, memoirs and other collections as a source for understanding artists’ self-perception, romotion strategies, and construction of their public image.

* Performance of Self: artistic use of narrative to shape identities, perform their “selves,” and position themselves within society, bridging private and public personas.

* Challenging canons: exploring the ideologies of musical biographies in order to challenge historical assumptions and the limitations of traditional narratives.

* Cultural & ideological reflection: musical (auto)biographies as a reflection of the cultural, political, and media landscapes of their time.

* New approaches: promoting new biographical approaches in contemporary musicology; combining musicology with interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary analysis to understand the complex interplay between music, narrative, and identity.

Conference convenors: Rūta Stanevičiūtė (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre), Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik (University of Helsinki) Program committee: Anja Bunzel, Leena Julin, Anne Kauppala, Nuppu Koivisto-Kaasik, Tatjana Marković, Lauma Mellēna-Bartkeviča, Saijaleena Rantanen, Rūta Stanevičiūtė

Submission

The conference will take place in person, and the conference language is English. Proposals are invited for individual papers (30 min.: 20 min. presentation and 10 min. Q&A), and study sessions (up to 90 min.). Proposals for artistic research papers that include performances are to be submitted in the individual papers category (30 min.).

Papers

We invite abstracts of no longer than 300 words, including five keywords and an optional list of references (max 10).

Study sessions

The study session organizer should submit the panel abstract and all individual abstracts (200 words each) in one document, with a full list of participant names and email addresses.

Please submit proposals as a doc/odt/rtf attachment to by 1 October 2026. The following format should be used:

• Name, affiliation and contact email address

• Type of presentation (select one from: study session, individual paper)

• Title of presentation

• Abstract (300 words maximum; in the case of study session, include a general abstract followed by individual abstracts, in total 1200 words maximum)

• Keywords

• CV (100 words maximum; in case of panels, CVs of all participants)

Accepted speakers will be informed by 1 November 2026. There is no conference registration fee. The organizers will invite the doctoral candidates and early career scholars accepted to present at the conference to apply for grants to support their participation (accommodation) in the conference. Award amounts will depend on the number of applications received.

The selected papers will be invited for publication in the international peer-reviewed scientific journal “Lithuanian Musicology” (indexed in SCOPUS, EBSCO, RILM, ERIH PLUS). The conference organizers look forward to receiving your submissions!

Contact e-mail:
Rūta Stanevičiūtė

Musicologie.org, 56 rue de la Fédération, 93100 Montreuil. 06 06 61 73 41.

ISSN 2269-9910.

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Dimanche 17 Mai, 2026