The European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) Online Conference 2021 took place on 18-20 March, bringing together the record number of 342 music researchers, educators and/or performers from all over Europe into a three days event for the promotion and development of the discourse around artistic research in the specific context of Higher Music Education.

Watch the short video summary of the event and grasp the atmosphere of the EPARM 2021 Online!

The 8th EPARM Conference (corresponding to the 10th gathering of the platform) was presented in collaboration with the AEC – Strengthening Music in Society project, co-funded by Creative Europe, which organised a pre-conference workshop on Artistic Research-based music education and a session about the concept of the Researching Artist. The topic of artistic research in society was addressed during a round table with contributors from different disciplinary perspectives, including fine arts and architecture. Most of the panelists represented signatories of the 2020 Vienna Declaration on Artistic Research, with the added contribution of an external prominent representative of the artistic sector. Artistic research in society was also discussed by the invited keynote speaker Sandeep Bhagwati from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Concordia University in Montreal and board member of the German Society for Artistic Research. In his speech entitled "Sounding the climate we live in" he discussed how making and thinking about music and sound can give rise to or actually be a program of knowledge production, as well as how artistic research in music might help our societies with some of the most pressing issues that confront mankind today.

The Information Gallery, with its 11 pre-recorded videos on institutional initiatives linked to artistic research was the occasion to share knowledge, insights and outputs, as well as to incubate new ideas and offer support and inspiration to AEC members. To reflect the centrality of performance in artistic research, 19 presentations were selected from the Call for Proposals and the participants attended a special evening programme of 7 online performances and discussions, the L8nite Performances, themselves an outcome of artistic research.
The L8Nite performances, the Information Gallery Q&A as well as the many online networking moments offered in the programme took place in a special sound-dynamic virtual space which intends to recreate real life interactions and shared experiences.
More information on the event, all the abstracts and biographies of the speakers as well as the presentations can be found on the event page on the website. A full report of the event, including the recordings of all the sessions, will be sent to all registered participants in April.

The next EPARM Conference will take place at the Royal Academy of Music in Londo, on 7-9 April 2022.