From October 30 to November 1, musicologists from all over the Mediterranean, together with colleagues arriving from the United States and Ukraine, will gather in Matera for the International Study Conference on Mediterranean Musics, held in the Aula Magna of the University Campus in via Lanera. The event is organized by the Inter-university Observatory on Mediterranean Music of the University of Basilicata, as part of Matera Mediterranean Capital of Culture and Dialogue 2026, a project by the Municipality of Matera and the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation, with the support of the Ministry of Culture.
FRIDAY 30 October 2026
17:00 – 18:00 | Opening: greetings, launch of the Observatory and project balance Seachanges (Kate van Orden).
18:00 – 19:30 | Keynote 1: Iain Fenlon (University of Cambridge), Mapping the Territory: Mediterranean Encounters in the Age of Braudel.
SATURDAY 31 October 2026
09:00 – 11:30 | Morning sessions 1: Free Papers 1 (Adriatic imaginaries, exile) / Panel 1 – Music of the Christian East and Orient (Byzantine chant, medicine, rituals).
12:00 – 13:30 | Morning sessions 2: Panel 2 (1st part) – Music in the Muslim Worlds (Colonial archives, Zār rituals) / Free Papers 2 (Adriatic opera, political lament, Campanian devotion).
14:30 – 17:00 | Afternoon sessions: Panel 3 – Early African Sound Worlds (Afro-European diplomacy, post-colonial hymns) / Free Papers 3 (Greek music, Arabic polyphony) / Panel 2 (2nd part) – Music in the Muslim Worlds (Colonial archives, Zār rituals).
17:30 – 18:30 | Keynote 2: Mahmoud Guettat (Institut Supérieur de Musique de Tunis), La grande tradition musicale de l’Islam africain et méditerranéen.
SUNDAY 1 November 2026
09:30 – 11:30 | Panel 4 – Circulation of Opera: Reconstruction of the Teatro San Cassiano (1637), operetta in Alexandria (Egypt), Greek itinerant companies / Free Papers 4 (Part 1): Italian-Ukrainian relations, ceremonial music of the early modern period
12:00 – 13:30 | Round Table: Towards an Inter-university Observatory on Mediterranean Music
15:30 – 17:00 | Free Papers 4 (Part 2): Modes in contemporary Greek music, Cistercian sources
17:30 – 18:30 | Keynote 3 and Closing: Nidaa Abou Mrad (Antonine University Lebanon), Towards a Modal Neuromusicology and Modal Music Therapy in the Mediterranean
Check out full programme here IMS Study Group “Mediterranean Music Studies”
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