International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition

International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition
Name	International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition
Abbreviation	ICMPC
Discipline	Music cognition
First	1972
Frequency	Biennial/Triennial

International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition is a recurring scholarly meeting bringing together researchers, practitioners, and students in music cognition, psychology, neuroscience, ethnomusicology, and computer science to present empirical and theoretical work on musical perception, performance, and cognition. The conference has connections with institutions such as Max Planck Society, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, Stanford University, and University of Oxford, and has featured contributors from organizations like American Psychological Association, Society for Music Perception and Cognition, International Musicological Society, and European Society for Cognitive Psychology.

History

The conference emerged in the early 1970s amid dialogues among researchers at University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, Yale University, Columbia University, and New York University interested in linking experimental methods from Harvard University and University College London with musicological traditions from King's College London and University of Cambridge. Early meetings attracted figures associated with Daniel Levitin, Roger Shepard, Earl Sunderland, Carl Seashore, Leonard Meyer, and Irving Babbitt-era debates, and later expanded to include work by scholars from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, McGill University, University of Toronto, Australian National University, and University of Tokyo. Over decades the conference has alternated host cities including Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Montreal, Boston, Melbourne, Stockholm, Vienna, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Seoul, Barcelona, Chicago, Helsinki, Prague, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Istanbul.

Organization and Structure

Organizing committees have typically combined faculty from flagship institutions such as University of California, Los Angeles, University of Michigan, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Northwestern University, University of Washington, and Royal Holloway, University of London with representatives from associations like International Association for Music and Medicine, British Psychological Society, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and National Science Foundation. Program chairs coordinate peer review processes invoking editorial boards resembling those of journals like Journal of Experimental Psychology, Music Perception (journal), Psychomusicology, Cognition, and Nature Neuroscience. Local organizing teams often liaise with venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, and university auditoria at University of California, Berkeley and Sorbonne University.

Conference Activities and Formats

Typical formats include keynote lectures by scholars affiliated with University College London, Columbia University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and Yale University; symposia organized by groups from Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Donders Institute, Riken, CNRS, and NIH; poster sessions with contributions from MIT Media Lab, Queen Mary University of London, University of Melbourne, University of Edinburgh, and McMaster University; workshops led by practitioners from Royal Conservatory of Music, Juilliard School, Conservatoire de Paris, and Berklee College of Music; and panel discussions featuring editors from Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Routledge, Springer, and Elsevier.

Research Themes and Topics

Recurring themes draw on interdisciplinary frameworks from cognitive neuroscience, computational modeling, developmental psychology, auditory neuroscience, and cultural anthropology and cover perception of pitch, rhythm, timbre, and harmony studied by teams at McGill University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University, Columbia University, and University of California, San Diego. Other topics include music and emotion research associated with groups at University of Geneva, University of Amsterdam, University of Barcelona, University of Helsinki, and Karolinska Institutet; music and language interactions investigated by researchers at University of Oxford, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, University of Edinburgh, Brown University, and University of California, Los Angeles; cross-cultural investigations involving collaborators from SOAS University of London, National University of Singapore, University of Cape Town, Universidade de São Paulo, and Peking University; and technological approaches from Google Research, IBM Research, Spotify Research, Sony CSL, and Microsoft Research.

Notable Presentations and Publications

The conference has showcased influential talks and papers from scholars linked to Daniel Levitin, Aniruddh D. Patel, Stefan Koelsch, Nina Kraus, Isabelle Peretz, Carol Krumhansl, Patricia K. Krumhansl, Peter Q. Pfordresher, Ruth Campbell, David Temperley, Mark Reybrouck, Lawrence Zbikowski, Fred Lerdahl, Ray Jackendoff, Henkjan Honing, W. Eric Moore, Gavin Plitnick, Adrian North, and John Sloboda. Proceedings have had editorial and distribution ties with publishers and journals such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Springer Nature, Psychological Science, PNAS, Nature Communications, and Frontiers in Psychology, and have informed monographs and edited volumes from Routledge and MIT Press.

Attendance and Community

Attendees typically represent a mix of labs and centers including Centre for Music and Science, Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Rotman Research Institute, Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, and numerous university departments in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Japan, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Spain. The community fosters networks connecting graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, faculty, clinicians, performers from Royal College of Music, and industry scientists from Dolby Laboratories and Fraunhofer Society.

Impact and Influence on the Field

The conference has influenced curricula and research agendas at institutions such as Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, New England Conservatory, Royal Academy of Music, and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and has helped shape funding priorities at agencies like National Endowment for the Arts, European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Its role in consolidating cross-disciplinary standards has affected methodologies in functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, computational musicology, machine learning, and music therapy practiced by clinicians and researchers at Hospital for Sick Children, Massachusetts General Hospital, Mayo Clinic, and Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Category:Music conferences