Transplanted Roots Returns!

Transplanted Roots Returns!

 

We are thrilled to announce the return of the Transplanted Roots Percussion Research Symposium. The Symposium will be held in Porto, Portugal from September 10-13, 2025. The theme is “The Performer as Protagonist: Taking Stock of Performer Initiatives and Agency.” 

 

Call for Proposals

 

As disciplinary boundaries continue to evolve and blur in our current era, the question of performer agency (and its limits) becomes central to an understanding of percussion’s history and current development. We invite proposals that resonate with the following questions: how has the art of percussion been driven by the performer bodies that have mediated it? How have the interpretative approaches and backgrounds of its players shaped its development? In what ways do we let certain performer perspectives dictate what we do today, and are there alternatives that are less celebrated? How does a performer-centric practice open new creative roles (curation, dramaturgy, direction, technology, etc.) up within the artistic process?

Proposals may include but are not limited to paper presentations, lecture-recitals, and performances based around the following suggested topics:

• Historical contexts about the role of performers in our art form’s history

• Works to showcase collaborations between composer and performer

• Performer-led community initiatives

• Presentations that complicate composer-centric historiographical accounts

• Theoretical frameworks that seek to understand the relation between performer agency, instrument(s), discipline(s), and musical work

• Performer philosophies that challenge racialized, cultural, gendered, or otherwise normative hegemonies 

• Discussions of directions percussionists can expand and complexify their creative roles beyond the composer-performer dynamic

• Speculations on how can the introduction of electroacoustic technology and media change the performer-instrument-composer dynamic

• Presentations on new technology and its relationship to artistic creation

 

Submission Instructions

 

Submissions must include the following information, in PDF format:

 

• Name, institution and contact info of presenter(s) (please list all names in case of group submissions)
• Session type (paper, lecture recital, or performance)
• Title of submission and abstract. paper: 250-word abstract. Lecture/Recital: 250-word abstract + stage set-up/instrument requirements. Performance: 250-word abstract + stage set-up/instrument requirements.
• Biography of key artist/presenter (250 word) 
• Technical and instrument requirements (please note this section must include all requirements. Please also note we might provide alternative solutions to maximize the inclusion of your submission due to possible limitations of the host's technology and instrument inventory).

• In the case of performance submissions, links to relevant media (YouTube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, etc.)

 

Transplanted Roots is a peer-reviewed symposium. All submissions will be reviewed by external reviewers in addition to symposium organizers.

 

Deadlines

Submission Deadline: March 15, 2025

 

Notification of successful applicants: April 7, 2025

 

Accept or decline offer: April 30, 2025

 

Festival Dates: 10-13 September 2025, Escola Superior de Música e Artes do 

Espectáculo, Porto, Portugal

 

Submissions and all questions should be sent to 

 

— trpercussionsymposium@gmail.com —

 

We look forward to reviewing your work, and seeing you in Porto!

 

Sincerely, 

The TR Team

https://www.transplantedroots.org/