The Maastricht Centre for the Innovation of Classical Music arose from the need to reflect on and actively shape the future of classical music. This conference seeks to engage with the different ways that practitioners are constructing this future, while considering critically the process of ‘futuring’ itself. The aim is not to simply imagine a distant future over which we have no control but to show how imagining the future of classical music informs our work today.

The MCICM symposium will offer diverse presentation formats and more casual networking moments to engage in meaningful discussions. In their keynote lectures, Harro van Lente, professor of Science and Technology Studies at Maastricht University, and Helmut Seidenbusch, Director for Cultural Education at Stiftung Mercator in Germany, will explore the theme of classical music futures, their ‘production’ and the challenges they bring.

For the parallel sessions, speakers will cover themes such as professional development for future musicians, technology, future performance formats, curation, the future of the concert hall, and politics and inclusion. We will also have discussion tables where participants can engage with each other in smaller and more focused exchanges as well as a closing roundtable titled ‘Whose Future?’ with Kirsteen Davidson Kelly from the Scottish Chambre Orchestra, George E. Lewis, professor at Columbia University, and Maria Hansen from ELIA.

The MCICM symposium aims to stimulate a supportive and fruitful dialogue in order to better understand what ingredients lead to successful innovation in classical music. The symposium will also be the start of a process that will result in a book on Classical Music Futures, to which symposium presenters and attendees are invited to contribute.