Here you will find all the information regarding the 2024 WMAF Biennial Conference at the University of Cologne (4-6 December). You can download the full programme with abstracts and bios here.

Day 1: 4 December 2024

Venue: Tagungsraum (Main University Campus, Seminargebäude)

09:30 – 10:00 | Registration

10:00 – 10:30 | Opening Remarks Jan Czarnecki, Ivana Trajanoska
                        | Welcome Address Daniel Bunčić Head of the Slavic Institute

10:30 – 11:30 | Keynote Axel Englund

A Fistful of Music: Pianistic Dramas of Discipline and Freedom

11:30 – 12:30 | Session 1

• Rodrigo Guijarro Lasheras: Musical Constraints as a Creative Device in Literature
• Thomas Gurke: The Idea of Notational Ekphrasis in Words and Music

12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch Break

13:30 – 15:00 | Session 2

• Paweł Siechowicz: Disciplining Looking, Liberating Listening: Life and Death of Mona Lisa in Dmitry Merezhkovsky's/Prose and Ludomir Różycki's Music
• Katarzyna Spurgjasz: Dancing Cities: Musical Embodiments of Freedom and Constraint in Early Modern Urban Cultures
• Jörg Holzmann: “Maurice Guest” and the Rebellion through Literary Music

15:00 – 15:30 | Coffee Break

16:00 – 17:30 | Concert Lectures

Venue: Musiksaal, Hauptgebäude, Albertus-Magnus-Platz 1

 

• Ana Velinovska –  Piano
  Improvisatory Composing in Frederic Rzewski's Novel for Solo Piano "The Road"
• Anna Chęćka – Piano
  Minding the Gap: The Spark Between Freedom and Discipline

17:30 – 19:00 | Reception  (Apericena)

 

19:00 – 20:00 | Macedonian Opera Evening |
Special Event supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of North Macedonia

• Ivana Trajanoska – Talk: Female Characters in the Librettos of Macedonian Opera
• Vesna Gjinoska Ilkova – Soprano
• Ana Velinovska – Piano

Day 2: 5 December 2024

09:30 – 10:00 | Morning Coffee

10:00 – 11:00 | Keynote Philip Ross Bullock

Quiet Songs of Protest: Valentyn Sylvestrov from Stagnation to the Revolution of Dignity

11:30 – 13:00 | Session 3

• Michael Beckers: "Boże, coś Rosję": Revolutionary Contrafacta in Nineteenth Century Russian Empire
• Carmela Simmarano: Between Censorship and Creativity: Singable Translation in Italian Pop Music's Spanish Adaptations
• Alexander Rüter: Free Zone(s): Choirs of Freedom from East Berlin to L.A.

13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break

14:30 – 15:30 | Session 4

• Benang Xuan: Romanza and Requiem: James Joyce’s Polyphonic Narrativity and Its (De-)Musicalization
• Lily Schwieren: Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy and the plays of William Shakespeare: An Analysis of Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest

15:30 – 16:00 | Coffee Break

16:00 – 17:00 | Session 5

• Iuliana Matasova "'Big' Literature" and Popular Music: Notes on a University Course
• Anna Bergiel: The Escape from Time. Glenn Gould and Stanisław Barańczak: Two "Counterpoint Minds"

17:00 – 18:00 | Aperitivo

Day 3: 6 December 2024

09:30 – 10:00 | Morning Coffee

10:00 – 11:00 | African Legacies Roundtable (online-hybrid) CANCELLED

• • Adeyemi Johnson Ademowo: Freedom in Folk Music: Unpacking Ominira, Omi-Inira and Other Protest Narratives in Beautiful Nubia's Music
  • Allie Reznik: "It's a matter of life and death": Music's Manifestation of Discipline and Freedom in Idafe Atogun’s Taduno’s Song
  • Oluwafemi Oni: The Spirituality of Drums in Yoruba Culture
  • Adeyemi Teslim Oyedele: Discipline and Freedom in the Rhythms of Resistance: Analyzing Fela Anikulapo Kuti's Musical Legacy
  • Stanley Ojugbo: A Peep into Harmony of Constraint and Liberation: Exploring the Dualities in Beautiful Nubia’s Musical Narratives
  • David Adepegba: Rhythms of Resilience: Navigating Gender Dynamics in the Nigerian Music Scene through the Experiences of Female Drummers

11:00 – 11:30 | Coffee Break

11:30 – 13:00 | Session 6

• Anna Tenczyńska: Between Freedom and Discipline in Modern Contrafactum: The Case of Stanisław Barańczak's “Podróż zimowa”
• Laura Vattano: Discipline and Freedom in Franco Casavola’s Futurist Manifestos and Scores
• Ivan Delazari: Translation(ality) as Freedom/Manipulation: Viktor Tsoi's Mixed Legacy

13:00 – 14:00 | Lunch Break

14:00 – 15:30 | Business Meeting of the Word and Music Association Forum

 

 

 

18:30 – 20:45 | Concert Lectures & Concluding Discussions

• Alexandra Huang-Kokina – Piano Paul Docherty – Violin Atzi Muramatsu – Cello Remediating Chamber Music Practices: AI Mediation for Intermedia Performances through Word-and-Music Interactions
   
• Aleksander Mocek – Harpsichord The Convention of the Unconventional: Towards the Instrumental Sprezzatura
   
• Sarabel Delgado – Voice and Vielle Máximo Saz Martin – Voice and Flutes The Mysticism of Sound: Human and Divine Love in Medieval Iberian Lyric