International Conference organized by
Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini
Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française
IAM-Institute for Applied Musicology
—————-
Lovere (BG), Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini
(Via Giorgio Paglia 26/28)
16-18 October 2026
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, the Palazzetto Bru Zane and the Institute for Applied Musicology are pleased to invite submissions of proposals for the Conference «Beyond the Drawing Room: Women in the Promotion of Music in the Long 19th Century» to be held in Lovere (BG), Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini, from 16 to 18 October 2026.
What role did women play in shaping musical culture during the 19th century, a period stretching from 1789, with the French Revolution’s hymn to freedom, to 1914, when the outbreak of war marked the end of the Belle Époque? How did women influence musical life and what contribution did they make to the process of female emancipation in the entertainment industry?
In the collective imagination, the role of nineteenth-century women as patrons and promoters of music is closely linked to the salon, first aristocratic and then gradually bourgeois. In that private space, the salonnière not only influenced the dissemination of a certain type of repertoire, and consequently a certain musical taste, but also exercised a form of soft power, establishing networks of relationships with repercussions in the social and political context.
During the 19th century, however, women not only gained increasing autonomy in building their musical careers as virtuosos and establishing a specific identity in the field of composition, but also broadened their scope of action in musical organisation, which extended from the domestic sphere to wider contexts, some of which had long been the exclusive preserve of men.
Aristocratic salons, cultural gatherings where the music of great virtuosos resounded, became a model for the emerging middle class. In response to mutual aid societies for musicians that prohibited women from participating, corresponding women’s societies were created. To promote concert activity, numerous women’s clubs were established, which also devoted themselves to teaching and educating the public.
The entertainment industry gradually became a sector in which women could also play an active role, sometimes alongside male figures, as in the field of publishing, and in other cases by virtue of the prestige of their noble title, the scope of which varied according to the cultural specificities of individual countries.
The aim of the conference is to reconstruct a fragment of women’s musical history, investigating the activities carried out by women in promoting music in the roles of 1) patron, with its many variations from the domestic version of the musical salon to the organisation of charity concerts in theatres and the establishment of awards, 2) member of musical societies, 3) theatre impresarios, 4) editorial consultants, or, more broadly, 5) promoters of themselves.
The areas of investigation can include (and extend) the following topics:
- The musical salon as a space for women’s action.
- Aristocratic salons and bourgeois salons: expressions of different musical tastes?
- Women’s musical societies: role, diffusion and contribution to the promotion of music.
- Virtuosos as self-made women.
- The influence of women’s organisational activity in the field of music on the construction of female identity models and the process of women’s emancipation.
- The reception of women’s organisational activity in the field of music by the contemporary press.
- The music business: an exclusively male role?
- Support networks for female music entrepreneurship.
- National specificities in the assignment of organisational roles to women in the field of music.
Scholarly Committee
- Roberto Illiano (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini)
- Étienne Jardin (Palazzetto Bru Zane)
- Fulvia Morabito (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini)
- Massimiliano Sala (Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini)
- Mariateresa Storino (Conservatorio di Musica ‘G. Rossini’ di Pesaro)
Keynote Speakers
- Nicole Grimes (Trinity College Dublin)
- Mariateresa Storino (Conservatorio di Musica ‘G. Rossini’ di Pesaro)
The official languages of the conference are English, French and Italian. Papers selected at the conference will be published in a miscellaneous volume.
Papers are limited to twenty minutes in length, allowing time for questions and discussion. Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words and one page of biography.
All proposals should be submitted by email no later than ***Sunday, 29 March 2026*** to <conferences@luigiboccherini.org>. With your proposal please include your name, contact details (postal address, e-mail and telephone number) and (if applicable) your affiliation.
The committee will make its final decision on the abstracts by May 2026 and contributors will be informed immediately thereafter. Further information about the programme and registration will be announced after that date.
For any additional information, please contact:
Dr. Massimiliano Sala<
conferences@luigiboccherini.org
www.luigiboccherini.org
