The New Symposium
INTERNATIONAL FORUM AND RESIDENCY PROGRAM
[for musicians, researchers, pedagogues, producers, and artists from other disciplines]
[2026]
SATURDAY I.: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CET/CEST*
coordinator: Urban Megušar
This group is oriented toward discussion and theoretical exploration within the New Symposium program. Participants are composers with established portfolios and professional performers with established artistic trajectories, contributing research cases that are already developed or beginning to take shape as long-term projects. They share essays, references, and composition drafts, while also presenting and reflecting on their individual practices. Discussions move fluidly between texts and participants’ current work, emphasizing exchange, feedback, and collaborative inquiry. Sound, composition, and performance remain central and ongoing points of exploration.
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SATURDAY II.: 4:00 PM – 5:30 PM CET/CEST*
coordinator: Brina Kren
This group brings together practitioners from a diverse range of disciplines, including music, writing and poetry, theatre, and visual art. The sessions emphasise practice as the foundation for discussion and development, with participants regularly presenting their work and sharing the questions, achievements, and challenges it raises with the group. At this stage, several members have established working relationships beyond the online sessions and are preparing projects to be realised at Bled Contemporary Music Week. The group’s ongoing objective is to establish and nurture sustained, long-term artistic exchange.
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FRIDAY I.: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM CET/CEST*
coordinator: Niki Zohdi
This New Symposium group, led by Dr Niki Zohdi on Friday afternoons, welcomes practitioners working across all areas of contemporary music, with a particular focus on composers, performers, and sound artists. These sessions are discussion-led, centred on conversation, debate, and the sharing of our own approaches to practice and practice-led research. Together, we aim to develop and advance our professional work as practitioners.
Each session builds on the last, creating an organic sense of continuity that reflects the interests and needs of the group. Sessions will typically include either a critical listening discussion, focusing on recently released albums spanning a diverse range of contemporary music, or a roundtable discussion/debate based on a short text, review, or broader theme, exploring ideas that resonate across participants' practices. All materials will be shared well in advance.
Participants will also have the opportunity to lead a session in a format of their choosing, providing valuable experience in curation, facilitation, and collaboration with like-minded practitioners. Finally, we will work together as a group of composers, performers, and sound artists towards a collaborative project in preparation for the next Bled Contemporary Music Week.
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FRIDAY II.: 2.00 PM - 3.30 PM CET/CEST*
coordinator: Pia Reš
Group is currently in formation and begins with online sessions in July, 2026.
The group led by Pia Reš, director of the .abeceda Institute is intended for musicians, researchers, and artists interested in developing projects and working behind the scenes, it focuses on the practical realisation of artistic initiatives through discussion, exchange, and feedback. The session is shaped by the concrete ideas and questions of its participants and is open both to beginners and to those with prior experience in artistic and cultural production.
The forum also offers participants the opportunity to gain practical experience by joining the production team of one of the institute’s upcoming projects, including Bled Contemporary Music Week, and gaining reference and first-hand insight into festival production.
Opportunities in 2026/2027:
— enuntiatio.praefatio.formulae
— .abeceda [new music academy]
— Bled Contemporary Music Week
— Young Researchers Youth Music Camp
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SUNDAY I.: 3.00 PM - 4.30 PM CET/CEST*
coordinator: Gašper Livk
The Sunday group, led by Gašper Livk, is in its first month of engagement and welcomes practitioners from both musical and non-musical disciplines. It primarily observes existing participants’ cases (study and professional portfolio compositions and/or performances) and extracts valuable insights from other participants through discussion. By addressing the given as is, it creates an honest and direct discussion environment, giving equal position to each participant. It bridges opposites by paraphrasing individual language into universally understandable terms. It is efficient at recognising hidden but valuable cases and anchors every composition and performance case in the context of its purpose and relation to humanity. The group is resolutely oriented towards concrete steps, tangible results, and professional portfolios.