DEPARTMENT OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

SCIENTIFIC AND CREATIVE CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

OF THE MOSCOW CONSERVATORY
announce an academic conference

“Boulez, Berio and Musical Culture between 1925 and 2025: From Structuralism to Postmodernism”

The conference will take place in the Conference Hall of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
(Moscow, B. Nikitskaya St., 13/6) on 15‒16 October 2025.

1925 was the year of birth of two composers whose work had an enormous influence on the world of musical culture: Pierre Boulez (1925‒2016) and Luciano
Berio (1925‒2003).
Each of them left a mark that changed the musical world and the musical community in all its branches ― composers,
performers, researchers, listeners.
Each of them brought together in his work a whole “bouquet” of professions: both
P. Boulez and L. Berio made a significant contribution to the art of musical
composition, musicology and the philosophy of music (we may mention here “Thinking Music Today”, other articles and lectures, as well as the last work, “Music Lessons”, by P. Boulez;
the numerous articles by L. Berio and his book “Remembering the Future”, compiled from his
Harvard lectures), and to the philosophy and aesthetics of contemporary art in general.
A remarkable fact of Boulez’s career was the founding of IRCAM, an institution without which it is impossible today to imagine the work of the professional
academic composing community.
All these materials and facts remain relevant both for musicians
and for art historians of a broader profile, since both Boulez and Berio ― each in his own way
― “reformatted” not only the musical environment but also the intellectual
reality of the last century, the consequences of which we continue to observe today.
The work of Boulez and Berio, as well as of the musicians of their circle ― philosophers and
cultural theorists closely connected with these outstanding thinkers and musicians ―
their music and theoretical writings, performance and other fields of activity ― all
this is meant to become the focal points of discussion at the forthcoming conference.
Thematic areas include:

• P. Boulez ― composer: aesthetics, poetics, stylistics of different periods of his work
• L. Berio: poetics and stylistics of instrumental compositions
• The theatre of L. Berio
• P. Boulez ― conductor and organiser (the work of the Ensemble Intercontemporain;
  Boulez and the classical orchestral repertoire)
• The work of IRCAM and the role of this institution in contemporary culture
• Boulez as a theorist of musical art
• Berio and his contribution to the intellectual history of music
• Contemporary research on the work of P. Boulez and L. Berio

Musicians, musicologists, philosophers and cultural theorists
are invited to take part in the conference

REGULATIONS

The expected length of presentations: in the plenary session
— 30 minutes, in the section session — 20 minutes, discussion of the paper — 10 minutes.
The working languages of the conference are Russian and English.
Participation in the conference is free of charge; no registration fee is charged to participants.
Travel and accommodation expenses are not covered. A personal invitation
to the conference is sent on request.
A hotel room can be reserved (this must be indicated in the Application).
Hotel accommodation is allocated by decision of the organising committee (owing to the limited
number of places).

Applications to participate in the conference must be sent by 15 September 2025 to
info@ccmm.ru.
Application form:

Application form:

The organising committee reserves the right to select papers on a competitive basis.
Presenters have the opportunity to publish their materials in one of the academic
journals recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission (VAK):

• “Scientific Bulletin of the Moscow Conservatory”
• “Journal of the Society for Music Theory”
• “Musical Art of Eurasia. Tradition and Modernity”

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

14 October, Tuesday
11:00-18:00
Conference Hall
Chair ― Prof. Marianna Sergeevna Vysotskaya

11:00 | Opening of the conference
Konstantin Vladimirovich Zenkin
Doctor of Art History, Professor,
Vice-Rector for Research
at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
WELCOME ADDRESS TO THE CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Yulia Nikolaevna Panteleeva
Candidate of Art History, Associate Professor of the Department of Music Theory,
Head of the Scientific and Creative Centre for Contemporary Music of the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music
PIERRE BOULEZ: THE COMPOSER’S WORD

12:00
Marianna Sergeevna Vysotskaya
Doctor of Art History, Professor,
Head of the Department of Contemporary Music
at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
ON THE WAY TO THE “FERTILE COUNTRY”: BOULEZ ANALYSES KLEE

12:30 | Online
Svetlana Vitalievna Lavrova
Doctor of Art History, Vice-Rector for Research and Development
at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet
THE MUSIC OF SPEECH AND THE DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSLATION IN MUSICAL COMPOSITION OF THE 21ST
CENTURY

13:00
Alexander Gennadievich Perov
Composer, graduate of the assistant-trainee programme
at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
TESTING THE POSSIBILITIES: ARTISTIC CONCEPT AND
ITS REALISATION IN L. BERIO’S SEQUENZA XI FOR GUITAR

13:30 – 14:30 ― break

14:30
Nadezhda Alekseevna Travina
Assistant to the Rector, lecturer at the Department of Contemporary Music
at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory

L. BERIO’S PIECE “A-RONNE” AS A CHARACTERISTIC EXAMPLE OF HIS MUSICAL
PHONOLOGY

15:00
Sofia Alexandrovna Devutskaya
Postgraduate student at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music
P. BOULEZ’S “ANTHÈMES I” FOR SOLO VIOLIN: ON THE QUESTION OF VIRTUOSITY

15:30
Svetlana Ilyinichna Savenko
Doctor of Art History, Professor at the Department of Contemporary Music
at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
LUCIANO BERIO AS A GUEST OF SALVATORE SCIARRINO

16:00
Tatiana Vladimirovna Tsaregradskaya
Doctor of Art History, Professor at the Department of Contemporary Music
at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory
BERIO AND HIS WORK “ECPHRASIS”: IN THE LABYRINTH OF MEANINGS

16:30
Screening of the documentary film by F. Schäffer “Voyage to Cythera” (1999)
In the course of a conversation about the Sinfonia – a kind of homage to Gustav Mahler – Berio
invites us on a journey through the pages of music history: “For me, Mahler is a
ship cutting through the waves of the ocean, loaded with beautiful things, populated by
remarkable people… it is, in its way, a journey to Cythera. I decided to set out on a
musical journey, accompanied by various elements of the art of music, famous and not so
famous.”