A short report on the conference

For the occasion of Wim van der Meer’s retirement as from 1 April 2014, the international conference on Cultural Musicology took place in Amsterdam on 24 and 25 January. In all respects, we believe the conference to have been a major success, which proved to be both a worthy homage to Wim van der Meer and an occasion that calls for promising future prospects.
The conference committee had agreed to invite participants individually instead of through a general call for papers. Already in this stage of the project, we experienced a great success, with of the about 25 invitees no less than 20 positive responses, among which many internationally acclaimed scholars. The success continued with the invitation of the moderators and referents, to whom, with respect to the intended discussion, great importance was attached. In total, this amounted to 34 participants of the conference in a formal function.
Owing to the impressive list of names on the program, the expectations for the conference were understandably high. This resulted in an excellent attendance of scholars and students from Amsterdam and Utrecht, as well as several international members in the audience, with a total of 137 registered participants and an estimated average attendance of about 90 people per session. Considering the quality, variety and depth of the presentations, the high expectations were justified, and we feel confident to assume that none of the 137 participants left disappointed. Moreover, thanks to the superb dedication of the speakers and the referents, the often excellent questions from the audience, and the concept to publish the papers beforehand on the conference website, the quality of the discussions occasionally raised perhaps above all expectations.
Obviously, this success calls for more than cherishable memories. Currently, the conference committee is starting to work on a full transcription from the audio recordings of the conference, as well as on an edited volume, which we strive to publish in 2015, to which all speakers are invited to contribute. The conference committee wishes to express its gratitude to all presenters, referents, moderators and members in the audience, and looks forward to future collaborations.
Wouter Capitain