Join us for the inaugural Musical Care International Conference

We are delighted to host the inaugural Musical Care International conference. Led by the Musical Care International network, this conference is hosted by Queen Margaret University and in partnership with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and supported by the Royal College of Music, London and Sempre.

The conference focuses on the topic of musical care which broadly speaking “refers to the role of music—music listening as well as music-making—in supporting any aspect of people’s developmental or health needs” (Spiro & Sanfilippo, 2022, pp. 2-3).

Musical care practices from different disciplines and cultures are wide-ranging, from private experiences (including music listening and mood modulation) to public ones (such as concerts for babies and music in health campaigns) and from targeted or professionalised musical care practices (such as music therapy) to everyday musical care practices (including informal singing between caregivers and infants). Musical care practices can include but are not limited to music therapy, community music, music in health campaigns, music in everyday life from around the world and from different disciplinary and practice perspectives.

Reflecting the Musical Care International Network’s core values of cultural humility, open interdisciplinarity, diversity, and ethical practice, the conference seeks to promote dialogue. It seeks to build opportunities for collaboration across disciplines and cultures to advance musical care practice and research locally and globally.

The conference will be a vital opportunity for practitioners, researchers, those with lived experience, and policymakers from diverse fields and practices (including music psychology, music therapy, ethnomusicology, community music, music education, and more) to gather and collaborate.

We look forward to welcoming participants both in person to the historic city of Edinburgh and virtually, ensuring accessibility and broad participation.

The fees for this conference are:

Category	Early Bird (In-Person)	Regular (In-Person)	Early Bird (Online)	Regular (Online)
Standard	£115	£145	£55	£75
Student (including all students, e.g. Master's and PhD students), Unemployed, Underemployed*	£50	£70	£20	£30
Lower/Middle Income Country**	£35	£50	£10	£20

Deadline for early bird registration: 30 January 2027. There will be an opportunity to apply for support for travel to and attending the conference. More details to follow.

^{*An underemployed part-time worker is a person working part-time who would like to work additional hours and is available to do so. (Source: Eurostat)}

^{** Using the World Bank classification (Source: Worldbank)}

Book your place at this event

Programme
People
Call for contributions
Accommodation available
Venue

Programme

The conference begins on Wednesday 9th of June in the afternoon with a welcome session and reception. Thursday 10th will see parallel sessions of facilitated discussions, and Friday 11th will see more parallel sessions and a closing session. Watch this space for more details.

Provisional programme as of July 2026

9 June 2027

12.00 Registration

13.00 Welcome

13.30 Presentations and dialogues

15.00 Tea / coffee

15.30 Presentations and dialogues

16:30 Close

17:00 Welcome reception

10 June 2027

8.00 Registration & Tea / coffee

9.00 Presentations and dialogues

11.00 Tea / coffee

11.30 Presentations and dialogues

13.00 Lunch break

14.00 Presentations and dialogues

15.30 Tea / coffee

16.00 Presentations and dialogues

17:00 Close

11 June 2027

8.00 Registration & tea / coffee

9.00 Presentations and dialogues

11.00 Tea / coffee

11.30 Presentations and dialogues

13:00 Close

The conference is being organised by the conference leads and the organising committee members.

Conference leads

Professor Giorgos Tsiris, Division of Occupational Therapy and Arts Therapies, Queen Margaret University & St Columba’s Hospice Care, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Professor Neta Spiro, Centre for Performance Science, Royal College of Music, London United Kingdom

Dr Katie Rose Sanfilippo, Presidential Research Fellow, Department of Population Health and Policy School of Health and Medical Sciences, City St George’s, University of London, United Kingdom

Associate Professor Bonnie McConnell, Australian National University, School of Music, Australia

Alaa Shihadeh, PhD Candidate, Australian National University, ANU College of Health & Medicine, Australia

Organising committee members

Programme Consultation Committee: Laura Baxter, Terry Clark, Debashree Das Gupta, Aditi Deo, Philippa Derrington, Mark Ettenberger, Clare Gillespie, Carol Graham, Nicky Haire, Xiaoxiao Hou, Marcelo Kakihara, Emma Maclean, Serveh Naghshbandi, Alexia Quin, and Davina Vencatasamy.

Communications Committee: Mark Rowles and Christina Santaka.

Fundraising Committee: Victoria Blessing Butete, Chi Ying Lam, and Kevin John Samuel.

Review Committee: Mitsi Akouynoglou, Phillip Cartwright, Bhuvaneswari Chandrasekar, Amy Clements-Cortes, Jane Ellis, Zehra Karademir, Tobias Kranz, Marcela Lichtensztejn, Tania Lisboa, Sally Mollison, Rosie Perkins, Marianne Rizkallah, Diana Santiago, Potheini Vaiouli, Rebecca Yarnold, and Sumbul Zehra.

The Musical Care International Network

Established in January 2022, the Musical Care International Network aims to bring people together to explore and share knowledge of musical care from different disciplines and cultural contexts.

If you’re not already a member, you can join the network free of charge.

We are delighted to invite contributions to the inaugural Musical Care International conference.

Format of sessions: Dialogue and discussion

Rather than traditional individual paper presentations, we will organise contributions into dialogue sessions. Thus, spoken/musical contributions will take the form of short presentations or examples of practice, which will be followed by a chaired discussion. For example, three 10-minute presentations will be followed by a 30-minute discussion. When you submit a contribution, you can:

Let us group you - our programme committee will match your work with a complementary or contrasting submission
Propose your own grouping - if you know of another submission(s) you'd like to be in conversation with, you're welcome to suggest it at the point of submission

We also welcome electronic poster presentations. Posters will be grouped by theme to allow for dialogue in this context, too.

Form of contributions

We therefore welcome three forms of contributions online or in-person:

10-minute contribution
5-minute contribution
Electronic poster

Focus of contributions

The conference seeks to expand the understanding of musical care by highlighting diverse disciplinary and cultural perspectives. Topics may include (but not be limited to): 

How musical care is understood and experienced in diverse social and cultural contexts
Musical care in the context of life stage (e.g., infancy, childhood) or life course perspectives
Musical care in clinical contexts, including hospitals and hospices
Understanding of musical care through neuroscientific perspectives
Understanding of musical care through comparative or observational approaches
Social identity and forms of expertise in musical care practices 
Methodological approaches and interdisciplinary collaboration in musical care research
Issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in musical care research and practice
Musical care practices of underrepresented groups, including Black, Indigenous, and communities of colour
Musical care practices in low- and middle-income countries 
Potential negative impacts of musical care practices
Examples of musical care in training and education

Type of contribution

A full range of contribution types is welcome including but not limited to:

Descriptions or examples of practice
Lived experience perspectives
Research or evaluation studies or case reports
Policy or implementation perspectives

Submissions

Send in your submission using our dedicated form

A PDF version of this form (External PDF) is also available, should you wish to review the questions before submission.

Deadline for submissions: 20 September 2026.

How to submit

In the submission form, you will be asked to provide information, including the focus of your contribution and to provide some details such as the names of any co-contributors and whether you would like to join the conference online or in-person.

You will also be asked to write a short description of your contribution (max 250 words) covering the aim of your contribution, the focus of your contribution, and what your contribution adds to our understanding of musical care.

Sessions will involve a dialogue format bringing together different perspectives on a theme. You will be asked whether you would like to let us group you with presenters of other contributions or whether you’d like to propose your own grouping with presenters of other contributions.

Review criteria and publication

All contributions will be peer-reviewed according to the following criteria: relevance to the topic of musical care and the quality and clarity of the main ideas being suggested.

The conference language will be English. All accepted abstracts will be published in advance as a supplementary issue of Approaches: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy.

Accommodation Information

We will have QMU on-site Campus Accommodation available from Wednesday, the 9th of June, until Friday, the 11th of June 2027.

We have single, en-suite rooms (with shared kitchen and living space) available at £65.00 room only per person per night (including VAT). Check-in is from 2 pm, and check-out is by 10 am.

Wednesday 9th of June £65.00

Thursday 10th of June £65.00

Friday 11th of June £65.00

Book your accommodation with QMU (add Ivvy link here)

(Booking link currently not live)

As the time approaches, we will send you an accommodation and welcome guide.

Please note that this is not a live booking system, and we will confirm your room via email once we receive your request.

Please contact the Events Team if you have any queries.

Location and Getting Here

We are delighted to be hosting the inaugural Musical Care International Conference at Queen Margaret University Campus. The campus is easily accessible whether you are travelling by bike or on foot, by public transport, or by car.

QMU campus is located close to Musselburgh, east of Edinburgh city centre. The best way to access the campus is through public transport or walking/cycling. We have Musselburgh train station at our front door and bus services stopping on campus. National Cycle Route 1 provides direct access via active travel. Vehicular access can only be gained from the A1.

Sustainability is a key element of the campus's design, and we further encourage it with a Green Travel Policy. Staff, students, and visitors are encouraged to travel sustainably, and car parking is on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you need to travel by car, we do not require your car registration during the summer months. Please note spaces are not guaranteed and are only subject to availability.

If you have any questions, please contact events@qmu.ac.uk

Call for Sponsors

Thanks to the kind support of partners and sponsors, we are able to keep this event at a low cost. If you or your organisation wishes to support this conference as a sponsor and/or an exhibitor, please contact us at musicalcarenetwork@gmail.com.