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The University of Southampton
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Music

RMA Conference 2025

RMA logo in red on a white background

10 September 2025 - 12 September 2025

Sir James Matthews Building, Guildhall Square, Southampton

Registration OPEN, and provisional programme available: please click on the relevant sections below!

The conference will highlight and promote all aspects of music research, whether expressed in words, notation or sounds. Scholars with expertise from across the spectrum of music and sound studies will join us for this event. The programme will explore approaches to the discipline that are historical, practice-based, analytical, theoretical, ethnographic and empirical. These presentations will examine a wide range of genres, styles, periods, geographies and media.

For over 60 years, the University of Southampton Department of Music has been a home for disciplinary innovation. We plan to create sessions based on broad topics (e.g. music and maternity, music and activism, humour in music) that allow exchange between creative practice (such as performance and composition) and musicological research. 

The Department of Music at the University of Southampton is home to the Centre for Music Education and Social Justice and the AHRC Hub for Public Engagement with Music Research . Both of these prioritise collaborative research with stakeholders outside of academia. We warmly invite proposals that include and engage with those who benefit from music research broadly defined, including composers and performers outside of the academy and members of our communities. We also welcome work that engages with, and intervenes in, questions of public policy.

Registration

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN! 
 
If you are an RMA Member, the RMA Member’s Discount Code can be found in the Members Area of the RMA Website for anyone with a valid membership. 
 
Please register for the Southampton 2025 conference here

Programme

The full programme is now available.

See our full programme

Keynotes

The Dent Medal Lecture will be given by the recipient for 2024, Professor Sarah Collins (The University of Western Australia). The Peter le Huray keynote speaker will be Dr Marianna Ritchey (University of Massachusetts, Amherst). We anticipate that most of the conference will take place in person, but there will also be certain hybrid elements for those unable to travel.

Full details to follow.

Travel

For those who plan to stay in Southampton the night after the conference, please be aware there is a Championship league football match taking place on Saturday 13 November at 15:00. As the city centre and public transport are likely to be particularly busy through the afternoon and evening, we strongly recommend leaving the city centre on the evening of Friday 12 November or early on Saturday 13 November prior to the match.

By air


Southampton Airport

Transport links from Southampton Airport

Heathrow Airport

Transport links from Heathrow Airport

Gatwick Airport

Gatwick airport by train

Gatwick airport by coach and bus
 

By train

See times for South West Trains from Waterloo

See times for Southern Trains from Victoria

By coach and bus

See times for National Express coaches

See times for Megabus coaches

See times for local Southampton busses

By taxi

You can find taxi ranks across the city, including at the railway station and the airport. You can also book a car via Uber.

Southampton taxi rank locations

Find out about Uber taxis in Southampton.

 

Call for proposals

Our call for proposals ended on January 10, 2025. 

See the call for proposals

Conference committee

Erin Johnson-Williams (chair)
Tom Irvine
Chiying Lam
Valeria De Lucca
Matthew Shlomowitz
Amy Williamson
Louise Johnson (Events support)
Michelle Assay (RMA)
Max Syedtollan (Southampton Student Rep)
Ian Mayes (Southampton Student Rep)
Maya Morris (RMA Student Rep)

Contact us

For enquiries, please contact rmac2025@soton.ac.uk 

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