As part of the celebrations for the re-opening of the newly refurbished Musical Instrument Museum Edinburgh at St. Cecilia’s Hall – and as a warm up event to the joint conference of the Galpin Society and the American Musical Instrument Society (AMIS) to be held in Edinburgh on 1-4 June 2017 – the Reid School of Music is delighted to announce an afternoon workshop on the theme of “Designing Musical Instruments.”

The afternoon will open with an “in conversation” discussion on designing musical instruments with Trevor Pinch, Goldwin Smith Professor of Science & Technology Studies at Cornell University. Professor Pinch is a leading thinker in the sociology of technology and sound studies, the author of the acclaimed Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer, and the co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies.

The discussion will be followed by a hands-on instrument/interface workshop led by Kristina Andersen, researcher and storyteller at STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam. Andersen works with electronics and reclaimed materials to create unusual objects and experiences, and her research interests include wearable computers and tangible objects in virtual spaces.

Registration for the workshop is free but limited - please register to attend via eventbrite.

 Attendees of the workshop are also strongly encouraged to present a conference paper on their own musical instrument research by submitting an abstract to the Galpin – AMIS conference. Contributions should relate to the history, design, construction, function, and use of musical instruments in any culture and from any period.

Abstracts of papers (400 words maximum for full-length papers, 200 words maximum for brief contributions) and a biography (no more than 75 words) are invited, to be submitted by 16 December 2016.