By Scott Leimroth, AMPS Committee Student Member, University of Wollongong
If you’ve been following the AMPS community this year, you’ll have noticed that 2026 has been building towards something big. The AMPS/APSCOM 2026 conference is just around the corner, running from Tuesday 8th to Friday 11th December at the Crowne Plaza in Surfer’s Paradise, and it’s shaping up to be one of the most exciting gatherings our community has seen.
This is a joint conference with the Asia-Pacific Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (APSCOM), which means we’ll have researchers from across the Asia-Pacific region presenting and discussing work that spans the full breadth of music science. For those of us who usually operate within our own university bubbles, this is a rare chance to see the bigger picture of where music psychology and music cognition research is heading in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
The call for papers is open now, with abstracts due by 24 April 2026. Presentations will be approximately 15 minutes, predominantly in person with an online option available. Works at all stages are welcomed, from PhD projects in progress through to completed studies and discussion papers. The conference covers a wide range of music science themes including perception and cognition, health and wellbeing, neuroscience, performance, music technology and AI, and more. Presenters can also self-nominate for the student and ECR keynote awards at the time of submission. Full details and the submission link are on the AMPS Call for Papers page.
A Year of Building Momentum
Looking back, the AMPS community has been super active in the lead-up to this conference. The AMPlify seminar series is running throughout the year, covering topics from AI and ethics in music research, to wellbeing measurement, book publishing, academic career preparation, and building a music psychology business beyond academia.
The AMPS Writing Group has been running fortnightly since Semester 1, giving members dedicated time and community support for getting words on the page, whether that’s a thesis chapter, a journal article, or a conference abstract. For many of us, having that regular rhythm (pun intended) has made a real difference.
And of course, the community engagement activities have continued to grow, with AMPS members visiting schools and community groups to share what music psychology is all about.
What to Expect at the Conference
The conference format is designed to encourage real exchange. Presentations, posters, and symposia will cover the full breadth of music science topics. The student and ECR keynote awards are a highlight, putting emerging voices front and centre alongside established researchers.
For those of us presenting, it’s a chance to get feedback from a diverse audience. That cross-pollination is where some of the most interesting conversations happen: the questions you didn’t expect, the connections you hadn’t considered, the collaborations that start over a coffee between sessions.
Practical Bits
If you haven’t sorted your travel yet, the Gold Coast is well connected. Gold Coast Airport is nearby with good bus and tram links, and if you’re flying into Brisbane Airport, regular trains run to the Gold Coast with a tram connection to the venue. The Crowne Plaza sits between Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, so you’re minutes from the beach, which is not a bad setting for a conference in December.
For those travelling from interstate or internationally, it’s worth planning a bit of extra time either side of the conference. The Gold Coast in early December is warm, the beaches are excellent, and there’s something restorative about ending a year of research with sand between your toes before diving into the conference program.
See You There
Whether this is your first AMPS conference or your tenth, there’s something energising about gathering with people who share your curiosity about music and the mind. The Australian music psychology community is relatively small, which means it’s also the kind of place where a PhD student can have a meaningful conversation with a professor, and where interdisciplinary work is celebrated rather than seen as an oddity.
I’m looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones on the Gold Coast in December. If you haven’t registered yet, keep an eye on the AMPS/APSCOM 2026 conference page for updates.
See you at Surfer’s Paradise!
Scott Leimroth is a PhD candidate in Psychophysiology at the University of Wollongong and a student member of the AMPS Committee.