PhD students are invited to present their work in the first two-day symposium on “Methodological Challenges and Perspectives in Multimodal Music Performance Research”, which will be held at the University of Luxembourg on January 26-27th 2026. This symposium is organised by the Institute for Musicology and the Arts at the University of Luxembourg, in collaboration with the departments of engineering and computer science.
This symposium is part of the SAMUSE project (Skill Acquisition in Music Performance through a Multi-Sensing Approach), funded by the Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS) at the University of Luxembourg. SAMUSE aims to capture the physical, cognitive, and emotional dimensions during the process of music skill acquisition. It does so through a multi-sensing approach, which involves measuring psychophysiological and biomechanical indicators across different levels of musical expertise and tracking their evolution during skill acquisition.
Within this research context, over two days, the aim is to:
- Explore quantitative methods that researchers use to assess musicians’ physical, cognitive, and emotional engagement in instrumental performance.
- Examine the conceptual and methodological challenges of integrating psychophysiological and biomechanical data, including acquisition, analysis, and computational modelling.
- Foster collaborations and identify future research directions in this emerging interdisciplinary field by bringing together researchers from musicology, engineering, neuroscience, and computer science.
During the symposium, there will be talks from the following keynote speakers:
- Dr. Laura Bishop from RITMO (University of Oslo, Norway)
- Prof. Dr. Giacomo Novembre from the Neuroscience of Perception and Action Laboratory (NPA Lab) (Rome, Italy)
- Prof. Dr. Inès Chihi in Electrical Measurement and Sensor Technology from the University of Luxembourg
- Prof. Dr. George Waddell from the RCM (Royal College of Music, London, UK)
- Dr. Ernest Kamavuako from Kings College (London, UK)
- Dr. Saravanakumar Duraisamy, from the department of Computer Science (Luxembourg)
The team would like to invite you to participate in the symposium by submitting an abstract of your work. If you are accepted, you will have an allocated slot of 20’ to present, followed by 10′ of discussion. We will also have time for networking and a roundtable at the end of the second day (see the preliminary schedule attached). The symposium will be free to attend; however, we are not able to offer funding for travel costs nor accommodation.
To submit your work send an email to laura.serramarin@uni.lu, with a title, abstract (~500-700 words), and references.
We hope you will consider this invitation to present your work for what promises to be an inspiring exchange.
Thank you and kind regards,
Laura Serra Marin and Prof. Dr. Luc Nijs