Call for Music

Call for Music

ISMIR 2023 invites submissions of music/sound art works for the concert program during the conference week. Like the conference, the concert will be held in a hybrid format. The call is open to all composers, technologists, and performers for inclusion in the conference’s concert program. Submissions demonstrating applications of music information retrieval, computational musicology, human computer interaction, machine accompaniment, call-response, ethical hacking, cultural diversity in non-Eurogenetic music are highly encouraged.

Important dates

  • Submission portal opening: Jul 10, 2023
  • Submission deadline: Jul 31, 2023
  • Notification of acceptance: Aug 15, 2023
  • Music author grant application deadline: Aug 21, 2023
  • Notification of Music author grant: Sep 5, 2023
  • Performance-ready submission deadline: Oct 31, 2023
  • Music author grant application open: Aug 15, 23

Early bird special for concert submissions

Please note that accepted submissions for the concert will be allowed to register at the early bird rate, even if early bird registration has closed.

Themes

This year, music from any genre and in any formats is invited for submission. It is essential that all proposals include a clear description of how ISMIR-related technology is embedded in the performance. To make it a good fit for a hybrid format and make it more interesting, we propose the following themes that participants are encouraged to explore, but of course not limit to:

  • Live Ensemble: Participants form teams to compose ensemble performances that can be performed live. A recording of the edited ensemble has to be submitted for review, however, the accepted works will be performed live on-site and broadcast live.
  • Creative Visuals for Music: Participants are encouraged to apply creative visual effects to accompany music. This includes but is not limited to AI-powered visual effects (e.g., facial distortion, video filtering) synced with music contents, animations or fictions, body performances, movements and gestures, etc.
  • Metaverse-based performances: pre-recorded musical performances leveraging immersive audio/video technologies and/or Musical Things. The recorded material should demonstrate the performers’ interaction within immersive environments and with the remote audience (if present).
  • Recorded Ensemble: Participants form teams to record ensemble performances to submit. The accepted submissions will be played back on-site as well as broadcast live.

Concert

The concert program will be held in a hybrid format consisting of live performance for the on-site attendees and a live online streaming for the virtual attendees. For broadcast of pre-recorded videos, performers are expected to be present to interact with audiences in the live chat window.

Submission guidelines

The submission of music works should consist of:

  • A submission proposal with description of the performance in the form of program notes (text) and technical rider (pdf). The proposal should include a clear description of how ISMIR-related technology is embedded in the performance. It should also clearly specify how long the performance will last, noting that performances should be 10 minutes maximum.
  • Video/audio performance of the piece, as .mp4, .mov, .wav, .aif, .flac format with file size < 100MB or an online link (preferably).
    • For non-live performance, the video file will be broadcast during the concert.
    • For live performance, please also submit a video/audio of a previous performance along with descriptions of implementation details of the live streaming.

After notification of acceptance, all participants have a chance to further edit the uploaded material to make a performance-ready submission. The video should be self-explanatory with some post-processed titles and subtitles, since there will be no commenter during the broadcast. Original audio submissions should be converted to video format with a meaningful visual component. Only one submission per participant will be accepted. Pieces have to be shorter than 10 minutes. The submission is not anonymous. The proposals and video performances will be submitted through the CMT system for a light review. There is no guarantee that all submissions will be accepted for the program. Please note the submission proposal is for informative purposes for the selection and will not be included in the conference proceedings. The artist must hold the copyright of submitted materials to be used in ISMIR 2023.

Submission site: https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/ISMIR2023/Submission/Index

Each accepted music submission needs to be covered by an in-person registration (student or full, as appropriate) by the early bird deadline (Sept. 15, 2023). If the authors of the music submission are already ISMIR paper authors and have registered for the conference, their music submission can be covered with the same registration. Kindly indicate in the submission form if the first author of a submission is a student author.

Grant Procedure

Grant applications for ISMIR 2023 will open on August 15, 2023.

The deadline for Grant application is August 21, 2023.

Grant notifications will be announced on September 5, 2023 (as specified above)

In order to apply to the grants, please fill out this form (from August 15, 2023)

We request grant applicants to wait until the notification deadline before registering for the conference.

All grant applications shall be processed with utmost confidentiality and any information provided on the application shall only be used for assessment of grant eligibility and not for any other purpose. The information will not be shared beyond the members of the ISMIR 2023 grants committee.