Latest News - July 2025

Call for Papers - International conference
Music theory and Education through the Ages
7-8 March 2026 (+ Symposium on 5-6 March, see below)

The Dutch-Flemish Society for Music Theory, in collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, is pleased to announce an international conference focussed on the theme Music Theory and Education Through the Ages. The conference will be held in light of the festivities of the 200th anniversary of the Royal Conservatoire in the year 2026.
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The conference theme may be approached from diverse repertoires, styles, genres, and performance practices. The Society feels it will be interesting and important that diverse educational aspects and
approaches from the wide field of music theory education are represented.

Proposals are welcomed in either lecture, lecture-recital or interactive workshop format. Lectures and workshops are to be held in English or Dutch. The duration of a lecture will be 25 minutes + 15 minutes for discussion. The duration of an interactive workshop will be 40 minutes. The length of a lecture-recital may be 30 minutes max.

Abstracts should be max. 250 words and should be suitable for publication in the conference programme. They should not contain the name of the author or any indications of the author’s identity.
Please include a short biographical note in a separate Word document (three to four sentences). All abstracts will be evaluated anonymously.

Abstracts and biographical notes should be sent by 1 November 2025 to DFSMT secretary Ralf Pisters at [email protected]. You will be notified of acceptance no later than 1 January 2026.

*In honour of the 200th anniversary of the Royal Conservatoire, a symposium will be held prior to the conference, on 5 and 6 March, where VvM members and colleagues from the Royal Conservatoire are invited to give lectures and/or workshops. Please mark these dates in your agenda!

UPCOMING EVENTS
27-31 October 2025 - MTiR: Michael Spitzer
5-8 March 2026 - VvM Symposium and Conference

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Music Theorist in Residence
27-31 October 2025

We are delighted to welcome British musicologist and academic Michael Spitzer as our upcoming Music Theorist in Residence. Michael Spitzer is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. He works at the intersection of music with other disciplines, such as philosophy, psychology, biology and religion. His publications include works on Adorno and Beethoven, and one of his most recent books is titled A History of Emotion in Western Music: A Thousand Years from Chant to Pop. More information on Michael Spitzer can be found at the following link: Professor Michael Spitzer | Our people | University of Liverpool.

Spitzer will be a guest in Leuven on 27 and 28 October and in Amsterdam on 30 and 31 October. Here you can download the program: Programma_MTiR_2025_-_Michael_Spitzer.pdf

Martin J. Lürsen prize

The Martin J. Lürsen prize will once again be awarded during the VvM conference in 2026. The prize, worth €500,- , is awarded every two years to a (Bachelor or Master) student graduating from a Dutch or Flemish conservatoire (in the field of music theory) or university (in the field of musicology) for their thesis on a music-theoretical subject. Only students who graduated in the academic years 2023-2024 or 2024-2025 are eligible for this edition. The closing date for
submission of the thesis is 1 October 2025.

We would like to urge all our members working as teachers at higher education institutes to make their graduating students aware of this award, and encourage them to submit their thesis.

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