Music Theories, Histories, Analysis, and the Musical Cultures of Asia
October 11-14, 2025
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY, USA

The year 2025 marks the third installment of the Analytical Approaches to World Musics Special Topics Symposium series, dedicated to the intersections of indigenous and contemporary music theories, music analysis, and diverse musical traditions of Asia. The symposium will be held October 11-14, 2025, at Cornell University, and it is sponsored by the Analytical Approaches to World Musics Journal (AAWM), the International Foundation for the Theory and Analysis of World Musics (IFTAWM), the Cornell University Department of Music, and the Cornell University East Asia and Southeast Asia Programs.

This symposium aims to bring together scholars, performers, composers, and practitioners to explore interdisciplinary and cross-cultural scholarship in all Asian music traditions, past and present, and to engage with theoretical paradigms, cultural frameworks, and analytical methodologies pertinent to the music of Asian communities. In order to foster interdisciplinary and cross-cultural dialogue, promote new research methods and collaborative research, the program will include numerous special panel sessions, paper sessions, roundtable discussions, workshops, and music performances.

The event will be held in a hybrid format. While attendees are warmly encouraged to attend and participate onsite, options for remote participation involving either recorded or live virtual presentations via ZOOM are also available.

The symposium will include several special panel sessions sponsored by the organizing, program, and local arrangements committees:

• Current Trends in Gamelan: Music Histories, Theories, & Analysis (Leslie Tilley, Chair)
• From Tradition to Modernity: Chinese Music Across Time (Xinyi Liang & Jun Feng, Co-Chairs)
• Diverse Approaches to Analyzing South Asian Musics (Eshantha Peiris, Chair)
• Analytical Perspectives on Traditional Japanese Music (Bruno Deschenes, Chair)
• Recent Analytical Approaches to Korean Music (Keith Howard, Chair)
• New Perspectives on Mainland Southeast Asian Music (Lorenzo Chiarofonte, Chair)
• East Asian Concert Music and Global Modernism (Yayoi Everett, Chair)

Symposium Website: iftawm.org

Symposium Email: aawm2025cornell@gmail.com

It is with tremendous pride and enthusiasm that we acknowledge our many distinguished invited speakers:

Please see below for information on conference organization and submission guidelines for AAWM Symposium 2025.

Submission Guidelines

Papers: Proposals for spoken papers should include a s short abstract of no more than 350 words, including footnotes but not counting examples and bibliography. Supporting media files can also be submitted. Accepted papers will be allotted 30 minutes for presentation plus 15 minutes for discussion.

Posters: Poster proposals should follow the same format as spoken proposals. Authors may submit a given proposal as a paper, a poster, or both. The program committee will make a final recommendation on the presentation format, taking the author’s request into consideration. Abstracts and full proposals of the accepted papers and posters will be published online.

Panel Sessions: Authors of papers that share a common theme may propose to deliver them in a panel session. Each paper should be submitted separately and will be reviewed following the same process as that for spoken papers. In addition, a separate submission should be entered for the panel session, including a 350-word abstract.

Workshops / Lecture Recitals / Alternative Formats: Proposals for workshops or other alternative formats should also be submitted as a 350-word abstract. They should provide as many details as possible about the precise format they will employ, how many participants will attend, and the size and type of space they will require. We welcome presentations that involve music performance, if they include a substantial analytical or theoretical component consistent with the call for papers.

Submission Process: All proposals should be submitted electronically using the following link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSezSQaAAFqgj806TW_n3WccWiFKl7JNYWAVn7OLwdIGkR6C_A/viewform?usp=sharing

Submission Deadline: May 15, 2025

Notification of Acceptance: July 1, 2025

Program Committee:
Eshantha Peiris, co-chair (University of British Columbia; Vancouver Community College)
Jun Feng, co-chair (SOAS, University of London)

Organizing Committee:
Lawrence Shuster, chair (Cornell University)
Lorenzo Chiarofonte (University of Bologna)
Bruno Deschenes (Ind. Scholar; Performer)
Yayoi Everett (CUNY Graduate Center)
Xinyi Liang (University of Sheffield)
Nicola Renzi (University of Bologna)

Local Arrangements Committee:
Chris J. Miller (Cornell University)
Lawrence Shuster (Cornell University)