The SysMus conferences (International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology) are annual student-run events designed to allow advanced students in the fields of systematic musicology and music science systematic musicology: music perception, music cognition, music psychology, music therapy, music modelling, music information retrieval, musical acoustics, music theory and analysis, music sociology, music education, music technology, music and culture, music and semiotics, and music philosophy.
SysMus takes place at different international venues and welcomes participants from all over the world.
SysMus Conference Series
The SysMus Concept
The SysMus conference series was co-founded by Manuela Marin and Richard Parncutt in 2008. SysMus08 took place in Graz, Austria, having received abstract submission on a wide variety of topics from 14 countries. This success has led to further SysMus conferences, designed and organised by students for students under the supervision of experienced researchers in the field.
SysMus promotes systematic musicology as an interdisciplinary research field, while supporting high academic standards, fairness, equality, and dialogue between different generations of researchers. It brings together students and researchers from different backgrounds, encouraging participants to engage with perspectives beyond their own specialised fields and develop an international research network.
SysMus provides early-career researchers with opportunities to present and publish their work, receive constructive feedback, attend keynote lectures and workshops, and gain experience in conference organisation. Through rigorous peer review, international participation, and a small and supportive conference environment, SysMus aims to foster academic development, exchange, and collaboration.
SysMus27 in Helsinki
SysMus27 – 20th International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology - University of Helsinki. 12-14 August 2027
The , as part of the , will host the next edition of at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, . It will be the 20th edition—a great milestone for the conference series!
ICMPC/ESCOM 27 in Helsinki, the week after SysMus27
The next ESCOM conference will be held as a joint ICMPC–ESCOM 2027, in Helsinki and Online, from the 16th – 20th August, 2027.
European Society for the Cognitive Sciences Of Music (ESCOM)
is an international non-profit society that promotes theoretical, experimental, and applied research in the cognitive sciences of music. It is one of the three societies involved in (International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition), one of the main international conferences in music research, which is organized every two years on a different continent. The three societies are the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (APSCOM), and the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM) in Europe.
In 2027, ICMPC-ESCOM will be organized in Helsinki on August 16–20, the week after SysMus27, by colleagues from the at the . This provides a unique opportunity for early-career researchers to attend both conferences and foster connections between music researchers across all academic career stages.