Dear colleagues and friends,
Welcome back after the Christmas and New Year break. The Christmas season invites reflection and gratitude — a moment to look back on a year that has hopefully brought both progress, depth, and success. The New Year, by contrast, turns our gaze forward: the days slowly grow lighter, horizons widen, and we are once again given space both to dream big and to make the plans that will carry us onward.
At the same time, we are living in a period of transition. The world order we have long known is being challenged, and uncertainty is felt across borders. We are witnessing war and human suffering that have lasted far too long, and it is deeply concerning to see how difficult it remains for the international community to restore peace and stability. Within AEC, we too face a difficult dilemma: being a community with members on different sides of conflicts over which we — in reality — have no influence, yet which affect us all.
It is precisely for this reason that the sense of unity within AEC is so important to me. We stand together around music — around the freedom to create, perform, research, and teach what we believe in. As an international organisation, we are guided by a shared belief in the power of music and community to bring people together, to reach out, and to help us meet challenges and create sustainable solutions.
In this spirit, I wish you and your loved ones a very happy and meaningful 2026.
Finn Schumacker
AEC Director
A celebration marks the start of the 2026 advocacy year, followed by preparations for the Annual Policy Conversation in Brussels with Commissioner Micallef and other senior EU decision-makers. The article also takes a closer look at the proposed AgoraEU programme.
An exercise in democracy. This is how the AEC Members’ Dialogue Session on AEC’s role in times of geopolitical tensions, which took place on 13 January, was described. Read about the discussion, the arguments, and what the next steps will be.
Registrations are now open for the AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) 2026, which will take place at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo (Norway).
AEC announces selected mentees of the new edition of the AEC–ECSA–EJN–JMI Mentorship Programme.
The report of the AEC Congress 2025 in Salzburg is now available! The report includes pictures, recordings, speakers’ slides and summaries of the sessions.
Another edition of the WE ARE webinar series has been launched, this time addressing the topic ‘Teaching Artistic Research in Cross- and Transdisciplinary Settings’.
AEC members now have the option to offer interested students the opportunity to participate in the Classical:NEXT Fellowship program in 2026. This new partnership aims to help HMEIS strengthen the connection between higher education and the music industry. Through expert mentors and an international network, institutions can invest directly in the professional future of their students.
MusiQuE has revised Standards for Music Schools and Pre-College Institutions to reflect the real needs of music schools and pre-college education. Developed through broad consultation, the new framework offers a practical and supportive tool for quality enhancement.
The Harma HUB partners gathered in Brussels on 19-20 January for a Transnational Project Meeting, hosted by the AEC. The meeting took place in a hybrid format and focused on updates on the project’s progress, planned next steps, and distributed upcoming tasks.
On December 9, 2025, the MUSIC4D Orchestra made a landmark international debut at New York's Carnegie Hall with the event From Morricone to Bacalov: The Music of Southern Italian Cinema.
Register now for the international conference ‘Can Everyone Improvise?’ which will take place in Graz, Austria (University of Music and Performing Arts) from 26 to 28 March 2026.
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is hosting the Tradition in Motion conference. The event will explore the connections between music education, intangible cultural heritage, and the wider trad/folk scene - particularly in Nordic and Celtic Europe.
AEC Events
12-15 February 2026
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki
AEC Pop and Jazz Platform 2026
9-11 April 2026
Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo
European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM) 2026
AEC Vacancy Platform
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
