Opportunities

The Hinrichsen Foundation is inviting composers and music creators working experimentally or taking adventurous approaches to sound and music to contribute to new research.

The survey explores the challenges music creators currently face, the support they need and whether new cooperative, long-term funding approaches could help sustain experimental music for future generations.

The survey is anonymous, takes approximately 5–7 minutes and closes on 24 September.

Take part: https://isobelanderson.com/survey

This open call is for works strongly grounded in experimental sound practices and audio art, and driven by conceptual approaches or sonic narratives. Its aim is to support exploration at the blurred edges between sound, noise, music, storytelling, poetry, documenting and more, while reflecting on ideas, stories, current events or the very processes of sound and listening. Both text and music can form integral parts of the piece, but the challenge is to develop works where sound is the main medium.

Works should respond to the CTM 2027 theme Process…ing. Active listening – as a form of individual or relational process – should inform the proposals to this call. In this spirit, applications should include information on how the work could be developed for two complementary yet different outputs – as a live event at CTM 2027, and as a radio broadcast on Deutschlandfunk Kultur and Ö1 / ORF.

At CTM, proposed works should focus on the shared listening experience at an international music festival. Works will be presented in the silent green Kuppelhalle with an intimate setup where the audience is seated around the performer(s), and surrounded by a 6.1-channel PA-System. We welcome creative use of this setting, including working with the distribution of fewer channels, stereo or mono signals. Minimal lighting and scenography can be included insofar as they reinforce the listening experience and concept, for example through the performer’s presence, gestures, sound objects etc. Scenography is not necessary however – performances in the dark are also suitable. Proposals including video and complex scenography are outside the scope of this call.

For radio/podcast, proposals should consider particular mechanisms needed for a successful individual listening experience – it is not enough to submit a recording of the performance. Some suggestions when thinking through radio are: considering what active listening can mean through broadcasts, imagining various listening environments (home stereo, car radio, headphones, etc), and diverse forms of listening. The broadcast will be transmitted during a late night slot to a largely German-speaking audience who are not music or sound art specialists.

The commissioned works will premiere at CTM 2027 Festival in Berlin (22–31 January 2027), and will be broadcast in Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s Klangkunst programme in Spring 2027 in the form of a 40–55 minute radio piece. The Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austrian Broadcasting Service) will also present the work via one or more of its platforms: the Ö1 Zeit-Ton or Ö1 Blaue Stunde (Kunstradio) radio shows, and/or the ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival in Graz (Autumn 2027). Subsequently the world will be available for streaming online via the websites and apps of Deutschlandfunk and ORF for at least one year.

Theme: Process…ing

Read the CTM 2027 theme Process…ing.

Budget & Conditions

Two selected works will be supported by a fee of 6000 € each. The commission winners will give up to two performances of their works during CTM. Winners are responsible for covering costs relating to the research and creation of the work (eg. collaborator honorariums, specific materials purchase, etc). Technical/staging costs for CTM and for possible presentations at ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst festival will be covered additionally, upon discussion with the respective organisers. 

Works including language or bits of spoken word/lyrics might consider accessibility for an international audience (at CTM Festival) respectively German speakers (for the Radio broadcast). Guidance and certain possible costs related to radio production (translations, voiceovers, recording studio time) can be provided by Deutschlandfunk Kultur upon discussion. 

Travel expenses to Berlin and lodging during the production/festival period will be covered by CTM. Please bear in mind that project proposals involving multiple collaborators are possible, but should aim for a modest travel budget to be seriously considered.

Deutschlandfunk Kultur and CTM Festival will provide support, counselling, and general assistance during the production of the work.

Schedule & Deadline

• Deadline for submission: 6 September 2026 at 23:59 local Berlin time (UTC+2)
• Winners notified and announced: mid October 2026
• Production phase (remote): late October 2026 – January 2027
• Presentation at CTM 2027 Festival: 22 – 31 January 2027
• Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Klangkunst radio broadcast: Spring 2027
• Presentation via ORF and /or musikprotokoll: Autumn 2027

Jury

The international jury consists of Jan Rohlf (co-founder CTM Festival), Marcus Gammel (Deutschlandfunk Kultur), Anna Soucek (ORF Ö1), and one independent artist who will be disclosed together with the results.

Questions

Please send an email to in_listening(at)ctm-festival.de with the subject »In Listening« should you have any questions about applying.

A Note on AI

We want to hear your ideas in your own voice.

What matters to us most is your artistic thinking, not elaborate application writing. We recognise the helpfulness of AI tools to help brainstorm, structure, translate, or polish applications, especially for people whose first language is not English. We are looking for your authorship and clarity of ideas – meaning your perspective, your artistic reasoning, and what genuinely drives your proposal. Applications where AI has replaced rather than supported that voice are harder for the jury to evaluate meaningfully and may not stand out.

Application Form

Due to the international nature of the jury, we ask that applications be submitted in English. 

In the case of duos or group projects, please select one person as the main/contact applicant.

Before applying, please have the following documents ready for upload in PDF format, maximum size 20Mb:

• project description including rough budget (rough breakdown of the project’s costs, for example your fee, collaborator fees, materials purchase, maintenance costs, etc. Maximum 4 pages)
• technical requirements (a rough idea of your technical equipment needs and staging)
• your CV (for projects that involve duos or groups, please combine CVs into one pdf document)

IMPORTANT: please label all of your PDF documents with your first + last name so that our application system accurately groups them together.

As part of this year’s FullDome UK (FDUK 2026), Spatial Gathering will take over a space at CULTVR, Cardiff, to present an exhibition of 8-channel sound works.

We are inviting artists and sound practitioners to share works that explore sound as a spatial, physical and immersive medium. We are interested in works that consider how sound can occupy, move through and transform a space, creating environments, encounters and ways of listening beyond the traditional stereo field.

We welcome a broad range of approaches, from experimental composition and electronic music to field recordings, electroacoustic work, voice, soundscape, improvisation and works that sit somewhere between these forms.

There is no set theme. We are interested in a diverse collection of sonic perspectives, ideas and approaches to spatial listening.We are looking for:

• 8-channel fixed media sound works
• Multichannel / Ambisonic / Ambix files formats will be accepted
• 48khz / 16-24bit files only
• Maximum duration: 10 minutes
• Any theme, subject or approach
• New, experimental and exploratory works are welcome

Deadline September 7th 2026

Selected works will be presented as part of the Spatial Gathering’s Immersive Audio Exhibition at CULTVR during FDUK, creating a shared space for listening, exploration and encounter.

We are particularly interested in works that invite listeners to experience sound not simply as something to hear, but as something to inhabit, navigate and feel.

FDUK 2026 takes places on the 9–10 October 2026 at CULTVR, Cardiff. Tickets are available at: https://www.fulldome.org.uk/fduk-2026/#tickets 

IntAct Festival invites all international artists from all disciplines to submit their works for exhibition and performance during the 8th edition of IntAct — New Music and Art Festival.

Venue: Bacc หอศิลปวัฒนธรรมแห่งกรุงเทพมหานคร

Festival Dates: 17–20 December 2026

Theme: “…if…”
A condition suspended between reality and virtuality. Building on the festival’s ongoing inquiry into artistic transformation, IntAct 2026 invites artists to question the conditions that make creativity possible. Inspired by Bergson’s idea of creative evolution, “…if…” considers creativity as a process of continual actualization — where the past is not a fixed archive, but a virtual force reactivated by the present and opened toward unforeseeable futures.

What drives humanity to continue creating new things through the shifting relationship between past, present, and future?
Can creativity become timeless or borderless? Or is it inevitably shaped by the systems, technologies, and realities we construct?

This edition invites artists and thinkers to inhabit the uncertain space between what has already occurred and what may yet unfold — a space of possibility, speculation, and transformation.

Open Call Categories

Call for Artwork

Call for Performance

Important Dates
Application Deadline: 15 September 2026
Application Fee: USD 10 per submission
Selection Announcement: 30 September 2026
Exhibition & Performance Dates: 17–20 December 2026

Apply Now

Application Form: https://forms.gle/iYyBuaLgrt3LhEHY8

More Information: tmaoinfo@gmail.com

We look forward to receiving your work and welcoming artists from around the world to IntAct 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Commission fee: £580
Presentation: Saturday 17 October 2026

As part of the Forth Rivers Trust Artist in Residency programme, exploring our relationship with the Leven Catchment, we are inviting two artists and creative practitioners who live or work within the catchment to each respond to the ideas emerging from the residency so far.

THE INVITATION

A catchment asks us to think differently about place.

Rather than following the boundaries of towns, neighbourhoods or ownership, it follows water, connecting people and places that might otherwise seem unrelated.

The residency so far has explored three recurring ideas:

FLOW
The movement of water, but also of people, stories, memories and care.

SCALE
From one burn, pond, tree or memory to the complexity of an entire river system. How do we connect the places we know intimately with the much bigger landscape around us?

POWER
Who owns land? Who shapes access? Who decides how nature is experienced? Whose knowledge and relationship with the landscape is recognised?

Alongside these themes, the residency has explored care, access, childhood, memory, belonging, stewardship and the different ways we understand landscape.

You can read more about the residency and the thinking so far here: https://catchmentcollective.scot/newsandevents/think-like-a-catchment/

THE COMMISSION

We are offering two micro commission, each £580, for artists or creative practitioners living or working in the Leven Catchment to make a response to any of the ideas, questions or themes emerging from the residency.

We are deliberately keeping the brief open.

Your response might be visual, sculptural, photographic, performative, written, sonic, participatory, digital or something we haven’t thought of. It does not need to be a completely new or finished artwork.

You might use the commission to:

• develop an idea you are already exploring;
• extend or adapt an existing piece of work;
• test something new;
• undertake a small piece of research or experimentation;
• create a work in progress that could develop further in the future.

What matters is that the work creates a meaningful response to the idea of the catchment and brings another perspective into the conversation.

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU

Keep it simple. Please send us in an email to levencollective@forthriverstrust.org:

Up to 200 words telling us:

• what you would like to explore;
• how it responds to the themes or questions emerging from Think Like a Catchment;
• what you think you could create or develop with the £580 commission.

Please also include:

• links to three examples of previous projects or work;
• a link to your website and/or social media;
• your name and where you live or work within the catchment.

We’re interested in the strength of the idea and its connection to the residency, not beautifully polished application language.

TIMESCALE

The two selected artists will have until Saturday 17 October 2026 to develop their response.

The work, or work in progress, will be shared as part of the Catchment Festival: A Day Along the Leven Catchment, bringing artists, communities, farmers, ecologists and local organisations together to explore the catchment through different perspectives.

Application deadline: 17th September
Artist notified: 20th September
Commission period: 20th September– 17 October 2026
Fee: £580

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to levencollective@forthriverstrust.org

A QUESTION TO START WITH

What happens when we stop thinking about the places where we live as separate places, and start thinking like a catchment?

Wildness is often understood as that which escapes control. It may be found in untamed landscapes or hidden within urban infrastructure; in systems that exceed their creators’ intentions; in collective action and acts of creative disruption; in unruly behaviours and emergent forms of life. Yet in an increasingly managed and mediated world, what does it mean to remain wild? What happens when sound is allowed to escape established categories, hierarchies, disciplines, technologies, and modes of listening? How can we rewild our music?

BEAST invites artists, composers, performers, technologists, researchers, and creative practitioners to explore wildness in all its sonic ferality. We welcome works that engage with ecological complexity, non-human worlds, undomesticated technologies, improvisation, uncertainty, resistance, transformation, and evolution.

spudOPEN 2026: CROSSROADS AND OTHER JUNCTIONS

At every moment, we find ourselves at a crossroads — between choices, identities, places, and possibilities. Crossroads and Other Junctions invites artists to explore these charged points of meeting and transition: where paths intersect, diverge, collide, or quietly overlap.

This theme is an open field. It might emerge through stories of migration, personal turning points, cultural exchange, or the layered histories embedded in a single place. It could be found in physical junctions — roads, borders, networks — or in the more intangible spaces between ideas, disciplines, or states of being.

We’re looking for work that lingers in these in-between moments, that questions direction, or embraces uncertainty. Whether your practice maps a clear route or resists resolution altogether, this is a space to reflect on what it means to stand at a point of connection — and to decide, or not decide, what comes next.

There are two prizes – £500 for the Open Winner and £200 for the Public Choice. Sponsored again by the New Forest National Park Authority.

Submitted work can be in any medium (Painting, Textiles, Photography, Print, Text based work, Jewellery, Video, Sculpture, Ceramics, Mixed Media, Poems, illustrations, sound etc.) There is a size limit for each work – maximum scale 100cm x 100cm x 100cm. Work exceeding this will be sadly rejected.

Applications are to be made online and the panel will be making its selection digitally. 

Successful applications will be included in a group show to be held in our celebrated gallery over December/January 2026/27, with a gala public opening and the opportunity to win ‘Best in Show’. The very popular ‘Public Choice award’ will be voted on throughout the show and announced at the end of the exhibition in January. This is all made possible by our sponsor again this year, The New Forest National Parks Authority.

You can make up to three applications through our online portal @spud.org.uk. Deadline for us to receive your applications is September 25th at Midnight. A successful application will be notified via email by Friday 30th Oct.  If you have not heard by this date, then you can assume that you have not been successful on this occasion. Successful applicants will need to drop off or send work to arrive at SPUD between 23rd or 25th November 2026 (10am-4pm) and collect it between 13th – 15th January 2027 (10am-4pm). 

Rejections

No one is rejected from our Open, we just can’t select everyone. Even if you do not make it into the final exhibition, you have been an important part of defining the discussions and emerging themes of the show, and your work has been seen by an important art panel. We do want you to feel that all can enter and be part of the SPUD family.

The SoundChain International Composition Competition is a one-round composition competition for composers under the age of 40 for new multi-channel and stereo electroacoustic compositions. The competition is held every two years.

The aim of the competition is to encourage the creation and creation of new innovative accusmatic compositions and to inspire young domestic and international composers by creating related professional publications reflecting newly created works and their technical and aesthetic character, and by continuously exploring this dynamically developing compositional field.

Compositions submitted to the competition must be between 7 and 20 minutes in length, must not have been previously published, premiered or commissioned, and are then judged anonymously.

Adora New Music announces the Call for Acousmatic Music, an initiative aimed at promoting the dissemination of fixed-media acousmatic music and supporting the work of composers within the professional circuit of new music creation.
The outcome of this open call will be the release of a compilation album on digital streaming and download platforms and, subject to feasibility, in a limited physical edition (CD or vinyl). Selected works will be presented in concert at the Sala Berlanga in Madrid in spring 2027, in collaboration with the Fundación SGAE.

Eligibility
The call is open to composers of any nationality, aged 18 or over, with legal capacity to sign licensing agreements in accordance with European regulations. Each participant may submit a maximum of two works unpublished in a commercial recording context, belonging to the field of acousmatic or fixed-media electroacoustic music. Works involving live performers or audiovisual components will not be accepted.
The recommended duration is between 4 and 12 minutes per piece, with a maximum of 15 minutes. Multichannel works are accepted, provided that a stereo mix is submitted for evaluation and album inclusion. Audio files must be delivered in .wav or .aif format, 48 kHz, 24-bit, stereo.

There is a registration fee of €12.50 (plus applicable taxes) per submitted work, intended to cover the costs of the selection process and album production. No monetary prizes will be awarded.

Selection process
Works will be evaluated by an artistic committee alongside invited specialists in acousmatic and electroacoustic music. Assessment criteria include artistic quality and originality, technical quality of the audio material, and diversity of styles, aesthetics and geographical backgrounds, with attention to the overall coherence of the compilation. Between 8 and 12 works will be selected. The committee’s decisions are final and not subject to appeal.

Timeline
Submission deadline: 30 September 2026, 23:59 CET
Results announcement: late 2026
Album release and premiere concert: spring 2027

The Immersive Audio Network (IAN) is pleased to announce a Call for Works for its upcoming spatial audio Festival — curated listening events celebrating excellence, experimentation, and innovation in immersive sound.

We welcome submissions from spatial audio practitioners, sound artists, composers, and producers working across immersive formats such as Ambisonics and Dolby Atmos.

Open call for composers, sound artists and performers, of any nationality, whose research is set within contemporary and electronic music. Two categories:

a) Acousmatic Music – NO AGE LIMIT 
– Composition, max duration 15 minutes
– Artist’s presence during playback not required
– Quadraphonic sound system provided by the organization
– One selected work will be screened during the festival’s closing night

b) Live Musical Performance –
UNDER 30 
– Max duration 30 minutes
– Preference given to performances bridging seemingly distant genres (rave, techno, minimal, experimental)
– Stereo sound system provided; audio/video documentation of the performance produced
– We provide to the selected artist a fee of €350 gross, travel reimbursement up to €150, plus accommodation
– One selected performance will take place live during the festival’s closing night

It is possible to apply to both categories with different projects.

Application Period:
From 01/09/2026, 10:00 CET to 10/10/2026, 23:59 CET

How to apply:
Exclusively via Google Form

Registration fee:
€10, non-refundable, via bank transfer

Required documentation
(single PDF, max 2 pages, min 10pt font):
1. CV of artist/group (max 2,000 characters)
2. Project description
3. Link(s) to audio/video material (publicly accessible — unreachable links = automatic exclusion)
4. Specific technical requirements
5. Contact details (email + phone)
6. Proof of payment of registration fee

(Applicants submitting to both categories may attach a single PDF up to 4 pages)

Results:
Communicated by email and published by 15 October 2026

Our annual juried contest spotlights new musical talent from around the world, offering four cash prizes and opportunities to be heard and published. In 2025, we received 127 submissions from 17 countries, including Canada, the U.S. and U.K., Italy, France, Japan, and others.

First prize: $500, a composer profile in Musicworks in 2027, and the composition released on the accompanying Musicworks CD.

Second prize: $200 and composer coverage on musicworks.ca in 2027.

Third prize: $100 and composer coverage on musicworks.ca in 2027.

Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique: $300 and a composer profile in 2027. This prize is open to entrants who self-identify as female or non-binary. Learn about the prize HERE.

*Cash prizes and entry fees are listed in Canadian dollars.

REQUIREMENTS

Compose and submit an experimental piece in any electronic-music genre—acousmatic, electroacoustic, glitch, soundscape, intelligent dance music (IDM), turntable art, or video music. The contest is open to entries from anywhere in the world and from artists at any stage of their careers. Pieces must be previously unpublished (i.e. not released on a commercially available recording at the time of submission).

Maximum length: 10 minutes.

Accepted file types: MP3 or MP4 only.

Contest entry fee: $30 CAD. Unlimited additional entries are $5 CAD each.

All entrants receive a one-year print subscription to Musicworks ($44–$59 value).

MID SIDE Aps and its record label Empirica announce a call for acousmatic compositions and audiovisual works, in stereo or multichannel format.

The selected works will be presented in the Listening Room of CLAB Studios in Foggia (Italy) during the REF – Resilience Festival 2026, which will take place from 27 to 30 December 2026.

This edition starts from a simple idea: going back to the studio as a place of experimentation. Electronic and electroacoustic music was born exactly there, in the tape rooms and radio laboratories of the mid-twentieth century — Schaeffer’s musique concrète in Paris, the elektronische Musik of the WDR in Cologne, the Studio di Fonologia della RAI in Milan, the Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York. Those spaces did not merely adopt new technology: they invented new ways of listening. REF 2026 asks artists to take up that same impulse and rework it in a contemporary key, treating today’s studio — its software, its interfaces, its tools for spatialisation and machine learning — as a laboratory for sonic research, and bringing the results into the listening room.

The call is open to all composers and multimedia artists, regardless of nationality and age. Participation is possible both individually and as a group, and the same artist or group may submit more than one work.

The works will be selected by an internal committee composed of members of MID SIDE Aps and of the Empirica label. The committee reserves the right to exclude works that do not provide adequately clear information; incorrect completion of the application form results in automatic exclusion. The committee’s judgment is final and indisputable.

Categories and specifications

[A] Acousmatic — stereophonic or multichannel acousmatic compositions. Works in several movements are also accepted.
Audio format: WAV, 48000 Hz, 24 bit.
Stereo works: one single stereo WAV file.
Multichannel works: a stereo reduction (single WAV file) plus the multichannel version as a single interleaved WAV file (quadraphonic or octophonic), together with a channel_setup.pdf describing loudspeaker layout and channel order.
Maximum duration: 20 minutes.

[B] Audiovisual — experimental audiovisual productions, with stereo or multichannel audio.
Video: mp4, mov or m4v — 1080p — H.265 or H.264, with an embedded stereo mix for the preview.
Multichannel audio: in addition to the video, the soundtrack as a single interleaved multichannel WAV file (48000 Hz, 24 bit — quadraphonic or octophonic), together with a channel_setup.pdf.
Maximum duration: 20 minutes.

All files must be shared via a Google Drive link with viewing permissions. No other platforms will be accepted.

Mode of participation

Applications are submitted exclusively through the online form at https://www.midside.it/callforworks2026

Deadline: 23:59 on 25 November 2026 (UTC+1).

Participation fee: €15 (tax included) per work. The fee is a donation to MID SIDE Aps to support the expenses of the project. No reimbursement of expenses is provided for selected artists.

Full call (PDF): https://midside.it/ref_media/CALL_FOR_WORKS_2026_EMPIRICA.pdf
Contact: midsideaps@gmail.com | empiricarecords@gmail.com

Rules
– The competition is anonymous and open to composers of any nationality and age, each of whom may submit only one work.
– The winners of previous Xenakis competitions cannot participate in our 6th competition.
– The submitted work shall be an electroacoustic composition to be diffused by loudspeakers without the use of live sound interventions.
– The submitted work might implement a maximum of 8 channels (speakers) and must have a duration between 7 and 15 minutes.
– The submitted work may have been performed in concerts but It should not be the object of any discographic or publication rights.

Deadline
– The deadline for submissions is the 1st of January 2027

Prize
The Jury will select and mention the 5 highest quality works and will award three of them with prizes of €600 €400 €300 respectively. Contemporary Music Lab will present the distinguished pieces in a concert in November of 2027. The chair of the jury will be present there for this special event.

Fee

The entry fee for participation is 15€. You can use the following links to pay online.

EMS 2027 invites composers and sound artists to submit fixed-media works in stereo or multichannel formats of up to eight channels. Works engaging with the conference theme, “The Nature of Electroacoustic Music,” are particularly encouraged. The two concerts will also offer an informal setting for exchange among artists and audiences.
Concert dates: June 25 and June 26, 2027

Concert venue: Li Ying Concert Hall, Peking University, Beijing [北京大学百年讲堂 李莹厅]

Deadline for submissions: FEBRUARY 1,  2027

Acceptance Announcement: MARCH 15, 2027

Eligibility

The call is open to composers and sound artists of all ages and career stages.
Collaborative works are welcome.
Each applicant may submit one completed work.

Works completed within the past five years are preferred, and works presented at a previous EMS conference will not normally be reconsidered.

Formats and Playback Materials

Stereo and multichannel fixed-media works of up to eight channels are accepted. The venue uses an eight-channel horizontal loudspeaker array. Ambisonic works should be decoded and submitted as multichannel renders suitable for this system.

Multichannel submissions must include the multichannel audio files, a complete stereo reduction for review, and a loudspeaker-layout diagram with clearly labelled channels.

Duration

Works of up to 10 minutes are preferred, with shorter works especially welcome. Longer works may be considered in exceptional cases.

Submission Materials

Applicants should provide:

For multichannel works, channel numbers must correspond to the loudspeaker-layout diagram included at the end of the downloadable form below.

• title and year of composition; 
• exact duration and channel format; 
• a program note of up to 150 words; 
• a technical note of up to 250 words; 
• a short biography of up to 100 words. 

A brief statement relating the work to the conference theme may also be included.

Audio Specifications

Audio files should be submitted in WAV format, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, or 96 kHz.

Suggested file names: ComposerName_WorkTitle_STEREO.wav

• Mono files: ComposerName_WorkTitle_CH01.wav 
• Stereo-pair files: ComposerName_WorkTitle_CH01-02.wav 

Live Diffusion

Works will be presented with live diffusion, preferably by the composer or a member of the concert team.

Special Playback Requirements

Any non-standard routing, software, project files, computer requirements, or other special playback needs must be declared at the time of submission.

Review Process

Submissions will be reviewed by the concert selection committee based on artistic quality, relevance to the conference theme, technical feasibility, program balance, and the practical requirements of the venue.

Participation

Selected composers and sound artists are required to attend the concert, briefly introduce their works, and, where appropriate, take part in live diffusion.

Rights and Documentation

Applicants must hold all necessary rights to the submitted material. Copyright remains with the composer or rights holder. Information concerning recording, video, streaming, and online archiving will be provided separately.

Timeline (all deadlines are by 11:59 pm Beijing time)

• Submission deadline: February 1, 2027  
• Notification of results: March 15, 2027 
• Acceptance confirmation: March 22, 2027 
• Final performance materials due: May 17, 2027 
• Technical checks and rehearsal: June 25–26, 2027 (morning and afternoon) 
• Concert: June 25 and 26, 2027 (evening; time TBA), Li Ying Concert Hall 
Peking University, Beijing [北京大学百年讲堂 李莹厅]

Contact

• General enquiries: ems2027concert@outlook.com

• Technical enquiries: emsconcert2027te@outlook.com

Submission

Please submit this form:

• Fixed-Media Works submission:
Fixed-Media Works Submission Form

  For questions requiring longer answers, such as the short biography, programme note, and technical note, please submit your answers on a separate page.

EMS2027 seeks to present, alongside up-to-date research results, a number of papers investigating how today’s and tomorrow’s specialists expect this important field to evolve. Will it settle in as a contemporary sub-area of musicology? Or will it find its own foci of scholarly endeavour thanks to the fact that it incorporates all sounds as well as many forms of technology?

EMS27 Conference Theme: THE NATURE OF ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC

If nature is a labyrinthine concept, famously characterized by Raymond Williams in his Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society as “perhaps the most complex word” in the English language, attempts to clarify its relationship with other phenomena and fields of cultural production will likely become only more complex. In place of primary terms, we often seem to be engaged in secondary levels of analysis: for instance, pivoting from “first” to “second nature” (Adorno) or from the “natural attitude” to various forms of the “phenomenological attitude” (Pierre Schaeffer and his successors in phenomenologically-oriented inquiry). Aesthetic ideas emerging from experimental electronic practices have likewise decentered “music” and positioned it within the broader domain of “sound,” with corresponding transformations in the disciplinary facets that embrace acoustic ecology and sound studies as well as compositional domains that include soundscape composition, field recording, and data sonification. The exceptional semantic fluidity of the concept of nature is matched by its productive energies and varieties. We invite contributions that explore new and challenging configurations of the relationship(s) between electroacoustic music(s) and nature(s). These may include historiographical and critical engagements within the broad ‘Western’ tradition we have sketched above as well as conceptualizations of “nature” and creative work with “natural” elements in electroacoustic media outside of this tradition.

ADDITIONAL EMS 2027 THEMES

The conference is also open to other topics relevant to the history and/or contemporary practice of electroacoustic music. We encourage the submission of papers relating to any aspect of the field, including but not limited to analysis, perception, listening, terminology, composition, performance, cultural issues and education.

Analysis:

– What types of discourse are relevant to electroacoustic works?
– Analysis of pieces from the repertoire (self analyses will not be accepted)
– Analytical methods currently being developed?
– Can one adapt existent analytical methods of music to electroacoustic works, many of which involve no prescriptive notation?
– How can we further develop the field of study of electroacoustic musics?

AI and musicology of electroacoustic music:

– Generative AI and questions of agency, intentionality and human expression

Transcription and representation of sound, new audio-visual tools:

– How are analytical tools being produced and disseminated in the community?
– Which means are available for communicating this sonic art form through symbolic and graphic representations?
– Does the study of electroacoustic musics require specifically designed tools or can it take advantage of methods conceived for other musics?

Taxonomy, terminology – ‘meaningful’ units of music description:

– Which systems of classification are in use or should be developed?
– How can we become more consistent in our use of terminology in a field as dynamic as electroacoustic music?

Real-time music making:

– How can live performance/composition strategies be analysed
– What is ‘live’ electronic music?

Performance, presentation, dissemination:

– What is the ‘work’?
– New presentation spaces, technologies.
– Aesthetical and musical issues raised by Internet communities, group compositions, telematics and performances.

Listening, Intention-Reception

– Issues of perception and interpretation.
– How do the composer’s intentions relate to what is perceived?

Semiotics/semiology, ‘meaning’:

– What (and how) do different electroacoustic music genres express?

Soundscape, sound ecology:

– Analytical tools for the understanding of soundscapes.
– New approaches to sound ecology, sonification, sound environment.

Genres/styles, ‘languages’:

– Questions of unity, diversity, plurality, multicultural resources, polystyle, hybridisation, ‘local music’.

Gender issues:

– Have gender balances shifted since the early days?
– The relationship between technology/electroacoustic music and gender.
– Unrecognised contributions: revising history.

Research on history of electroacoustic music:

– Research on historical documentation.
– Studies on the genesis, development and activities of private and public studios.
– How can and should we revise history?

Socio-cultural issues:

– What are the socio-cultural ramifications of electroacoustic music?

Pedagogy:

– Curriculum design.
– Balance between theory and practice, general and specific approaches.
– Real-time and interaction versus fixed medium and studio techniques.
– Teaching material: how to select it, and language issues.

Caution: Participants are discouraged from submitting proposals focusing on their own compositions as well as those discussing the development of new technological resources for musical application that have a better home at events such as ICMC.

PAPER SUBMISSION

Please see Submission Guidelines.

Deadline for submissions: FEBRUARY 1,  2027

NOTE ON ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

There will be two remote sessions, with very limited slots available. Please indicate in your submission if you are proposing an online presentation and the time zone in which you will be located when presenting.
The few online presentations we’ll accept will have to given live and not in an off-line, recorded manner.

PAPER PUBLICATION

Accepted full papers will be included in the EMS27 Proceedings booklet (PDF), while the abstracts and bios will appear in the printed EMS27 guidebook

All approved/presented papers will be published on the EMS site and the Zenodo research Web site and will receive their own DOI   

Acceptance Announcement: MARCH 15, 2027

Deadline for receiving the full papers, fornatted with EMS27 template : MAY 1, 2027

Aion Laboratory was established as a specialized division of Ise-Shima Art Company with the mission of advancing and promoting digital art. Through innovative initiatives and support for creators, it aims to foster the growth of digital artistic expression and its international recognition. We broadly invite submissions in all forms of digital and media art. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

Examples of Eligible Fields

Computer Art

• Works created wholly or partially using computers.

Electronic Art

• Works using electronic technologies, such as digital installations and interactive systems.

Multimedia Art

• Works integrating multiple forms of digital media, including text, images, sound, and video.

New Media Art

• Innovative works exploring emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI).

Acceptable Submission Formats

Document Formats

• Digital text-based works such as PDF, DOCX, and other commonly used formats.

Image Formats

• Image-based or pictorial works such as JPEG, PNG, and TIFF.

Video Formats

• Video art, animation, and short film works in formats such as MP4, AVI, and MOV.

Audio Formats

• Sound art or music works in formats such as MP3 and WAV.

Eligibility

• Open to all nationalities.
• No age restrictions.
• If an applicant has a close relationship with an Aion Laboratory member, or is that member’s student or relative, that member may not participate in the judging of the relevant work.
• List of related members: https://www.aionlabo.com/about-1
• Works created entirely by AI are not eligible.

Application Procedure

• Online application opens: April 1, 2026.
• Application deadline: March 1, 2027, 23:59 (GMT).
• Reference for GMT: https://greenwichmeantime.com/current-time/
• Entry fee: 3,000 JPY (non-refundable). After submitting the application form, payment must be made by credit card or PayPal via the following page: https://www.iseshimaart.com/digitalartprize
• All important communications will be sent from info@iseshimaart.com. Please check your email settings so that messages from this address can be received.
• Depending on the circumstances, prize winners may be asked to submit a copy of an identification document.
• The name printed on the certificate will be exactly the same as the name entered in the application form. Please ensure that your name is entered correctly. Applicants may use a name other than their legal name, such as an artist name; however, in such cases, their legal name must also be entered in the address field, as this is necessary for delivery of the certificate. Applicants must also provide an address at which they can reliably receive the certificate if awarded. Temporary addresses must not be used.
• Applicants must submit their own original work. In the case of a collaborative work, the names of all creators must be entered in the application form, separated by slashes (/). Example: Creator 1 / Creator 2 / Creator 3.

Regulations

• Submitted works may have been previously exhibited or awarded.
• Multiple submissions are permitted; however, each work requires a separate application form and a separate entry fee.
• Works must be uploaded to a file-hosting service or media-sharing platform such as Google Drive, Dropbox, SoundCloud, YouTube, Youku, or Vimeo.
• When uploading a work, applicants may also use a ZIP file containing multiple files.
• Applicants must write an explanation of the work directly in the application form.
• If AI was used in the work, applicants must explain in the application form how it was used and for what purpose.
• Until the announcement of the results, submitted works must remain accessible to the judges.
• Incomplete or incorrect application materials may result in disqualification.
• Copyright remains with the applicant; however, by submitting, the applicant grants our organization the right to introduce, share, and exhibit the work on its website and in promotional materials.
• After submission, no revision or alteration of the work will be accepted under any circumstances.
• All decisions regarding the judging results are final.
• Submission constitutes full agreement to all of these rules and conditions.
• Aion Laboratory reserves the right, after consultation with the judges, not to grant an award or to amend these rules if it considers such action justified in light of the number of submissions or the evaluation results.
• Judging will be carried out by Aion Laboratory members.
• If applicants enter social media accounts or website URLs in the application form and win an award, that information may be made public for winner promotion. If applicants do not wish such information to be published, they should leave those fields blank.

Judging Criteria

• Particular importance will be placed on originality and individuality that demonstrate new possibilities in the field of digital art.
• Technical ability to realize that originality will also be evaluated.

Contact

info[at]iseshimaart.com

Prizes

• One entrant will receive the Aion Digital Art Grand Prize (certificate and 50,000 JPY).
• Up to 35 entrants will receive the Aion Digital Art Prize (with certificate).
• Printed certificates will be sent within two months after the announcement of the results.
• Results will be announced by email on May 5, 2027, and will also be published on the official website.

Positive Ambisonics is now in its second year. We offer week-long, one-to-one
residencies for artists working with spatial audio, ambisonics, and immersive sound
practice — in one of the most acoustically distinctive environments in Europe.

The residency is built around a simple but rare proposition: dedicated time,
professional infrastructure, one-to-one mentoring, and free accommodation, in a
temperate rainforest on the west coast of Scotland. The landscape is not a backdrop — it is part of the programme. Residents engage directly with the acoustic
environment through field recording, site-specific work, and spatial composition.
We welcome artists at all career stages — from practitioners developing a spatial
audio practice for the first time, to established artists making ambitious new work that needs the right conditions to exist.

The Black Artists Grant (BAG) offered by Creative Debuts as a no-strings attached financial support to help Black artists. They can spend the grant on whatever they want – be that make new work, buy equipment or materials, travel, research, visit exhibitions or conferences, or to even just cover some life expenses.

This grant has been set up because Black artists are systematically under-supported by the art world; by institutions, curators, the artist-led scene, major and minor funding bodies, the market, art schools, and by audiences too.

Creative Debuts recognises that a full institutional overhaul and dismantling of racist structures is required to transform the industry permanently, but they hope in a small way that this grant will help enable recipients to continue their artistic practice when the odds are so stacked against them.

Before you apply, please read the grant details below:

· Applicants must be based in the UK.

· This is specifically for Black artists (those with Black heritage and identify as Black); not politically Black, not POC or BAME.

·  Recipients will be chosen monthly

·  Each successful recipient will receive £500

· Open to all creative disciplines, eg painters, musicians, directors, jewellers, set designers, sculptors, choreographers etc etc

·  There is no deadline as this is a monthly rolling grant, no age limit, and the grant does not expect any outcomes or reporting. Please only apply once, if you apply in February for example, you are still eligible for selection in a different month, all applications are kept and reviewed.

·  Applicants will not be informed if unsuccessful as all applications remain valid and are reviewed regularly by the selectors.

·  The grant currently supports 1 recipient per month.