Conference: Biennial Mathematics and Computation for Music Conference

This award supports the 2026 Mathematics and Computation for Music (MCM) Conference which is being held at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, June 23-26, 2026. This conference is the tenth biennial international conference of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music, held on alternating sides of the Atlantic. The main goals of the conference are to bring together researchers from around the world who combine mathematics and computation with music theory, music analysis, composition and performance and, to provide a dedicated platform for the communication and exchange of ideas among researchers in mathematics, computer science, music theory, composition and performance, musicology, and related disciplines. The conference includes public concerts and sound installations which exemplify the topics at the intersection of mathematics, computation, and music. Mathematicians and musicians share longstanding interests in classification, acoustics, symmetry, transformation, and structure; MCM provides a primary international forum where these questions are addressed using modern mathematical tools and also advances research at the interface of mathematics, computation, and music theory, focusing on mathematically rigorous models of musical structure, perception, and creativity. The articles that result from the MCM conference will be published in the Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) series. These articles have undergone a strict peer review process and will be presented either as talks (20-page articles) or posters (12-page articles). There will also be plenary talks on canons in mathematical and musical contexts and panel sessions on: algebraic and topological perspectives on scale theory, harmony, and neoRiemannian transformations; voice leading & rhythm; applications of mathematics to music theory analysis of composers and styles; quantum theory and music; mathematical approaches to music cognition, pitch perception, consonance-dissonance, and performance; algorithms and modeling for music and music related phenomena; computational approaches to music. The research highlighted at the meeting brings innovations not only in the mathematical and computational sciences through new theorems and applications of abstract theories and the creation of computational models and software, but also makes an impact on different areas within music, such as performance, musicology, music teaching, and music cognition. More information about the conference can be found at: https://sites.google.com/bard.edu/mcm2026/. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria. NSF Award ID: 2612079 | Program: 01002627DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT | Principal Investigator: Caitlin Leverson | Institution: Bard College, ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY | Award Amount: $21,995 View on NSF Award Search: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/show-award/?AWD_ID=2612079 View on Research.gov: https://www.research.gov/awardapi-service/v1/awards/2612079.html