In 2026, the Royal Musical Association , the Society for Musicology in Ireland and the European Association for Dance History will join together for a collaborative annual conference, taking place between Saturday 29 August and Tuesday 1 September 2026.

The conference will be hosted at SARC (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music), Queen’s University Belfast.

SARC: Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Sound and Music emerged from the Sonic Arts Research Centre (established in 2004), reflecting a broadening in interdisciplinary research scope. The centre’s director is Professor Pedro Rebelo and its current membership consists of 42 academics from across six Schools at Queen’s, 23 PhD students and 2 visiting scholars. The membership reflects research interests across performance, composition, sound art, interaction and instrument design, musicology, digital signal processing, ethnography, documentary making, audio-visual, immersive experience, broadcast, urban space, architecture and language. SARC researchers have consistently performed at the highest level in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in Unit of Assessment 33 (Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies).

The conference sites will include the historic Music building (University Square) and the Sonic Arts Research Centre (Chloreen Gardens), with plenary sessions in the Peter Froggatt Centre on the main campus. Lecture-recitals and performance workshops will have access to the Harty Room concert hall - equipped with two full-concert Steinway grand pianos, a double-manual harpsichord, chamber organ and many percussion and specialist instruments – or the Sonic Laboratory with its 84 loudspeakers creating a specialist acoustic space designed to provide a unique and immersive listening experience. Further state of the art facilities include a Magnetic Resonator Piano, the SARC Mobile and a new Immersive Gallery. The composer workshops will be supported by the facilities of the Sonic Lab and by resident cutting edge contemporary music ensemble, Hard Rain.

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. (Information on travel options, provided by ‘visitBelfast’, is found here.) The plenary speakers will be Professor Bettina Varwig, University of Cambridge (Dent Medal recipient); Professor Michael Burden, University of Oxford (Le Huray plenary), and Professor Lorraine Byrne Bodley, Maynooth University (SMI plenary).

Delegates for the AC 2026 will have the option to purchase tickets for a conference dinner, on-site lunchtime or evening concerts, sound walks, and a social dance workshop that will take place during the conference.  

The call for papers and works for AC 2026 fosters the study of music and dance from a variety of individual perspectives; the interdisciplinary framework of SARC, along with the presence of the EADH and SMI as partner organisations, should encourage a vibrant exchange across and between disciplines.