CALL FOR PAPERS AND POSTERS
The Improvising Brain II: Multiple Perspectives
Concert & Symposium
March 8-10, 2015
Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia
Presented by the GSU School of Music, the GSU Neuroscience Institute, & the Center for
Collaborative and International Arts
Steering Committee: Andrew Goldman (University of Cambridge), Monika Herzig (Indiana
University), Kimberly McCord (Illinois State University), Brian Wesolowski (University of
Georgia), Iwan Wopereis (Open University of the Netherlands).
Local Program Committee: Martin Norgaard (Symposium Chair, Georgia State University), Katie
Carlisle (GSU), Patrick Freer (GSU), Mariana Montiel (GSU), Daniel Welborn (GSU).
Keynote Speakers:
Peter Vuust, Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus, Denmark, and Associate
Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Centre of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience
(CFIN), Aarhus University Hospital.
Guerino Mazzola, Professor at the School of Music, University of Minnesota and Department of
Informatics, University of Zurich.
The Improvising Brain II: Multiple Perspectives is a symposium and concert event designed to
bring together researchers and musicians to explore musical improvisation and its related brain
processes. A collaboration between Georgia State University Neuroscience Institute, School of
Music, and Department of Mathematics and Statistics, the symposium will feature Peter Vuust
and Guerino Mazzola. Dr. Vuust is one of the leading neuroscientists in the field of music
perception and production as well as a prominent jazz bassist. Dr. Mazzola is a world renowned
mathematician and jazz pianist and the founder of Mathematical Music Theory. He will be
performing in duet with Swiss percussionist Heinz Geisser. The symposium theme is Multiple
Perspectives as exemplified by the keynote speakers’ background in both science &
performance and tonal & free improvisation.
Following the success of the first Improvising Brain Symposium in 2013 and the related theme
issue in Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, this symposium will once again explore
questions related to all aspects of improvisation in music including cognitive, neuroscientific,
therapeutic, and pedagogical issues. Examples include: How can improvisation be studied
empirically? How do creative processes differ in musicians from different performance
traditions? Are note choices during improvisation and word choices during speech controlled by
similar decision making processes? Is it the sound or the motor movements that drive the
choices? How do the environment and the underlying musical structure affect these decisions?
Can these decision making processes be modeled mathematically?
We seek related papers and posters describing completed or in-progress work from both
faculty and graduate students. Paper presentations should be 20 minutes in length and include
visual slides. Please submit an extended 350-word abstract including purpose, literature review,
methodology, and findings (final or preliminary). Those interested in a poster presentation may
submit a shorter 250-word abstract with the same, though abbreviated, information.
All proposals will be blind-reviewed by a panel of experts. Do not include the author(s)’s name
or other identifying details in the proposal. Attach the proposal as a Word or PDF file to an
email that includes the author(s)’s name, email address, home and work addresses, and
academic affiliation. Send proposals to Martin Norgaard at mnorgaard@gsu.edu. Submissions
must be received no later than October 15, 2014, and notifications will be made by November
15, 2014. Accepted presenters will be invited to submit full papers to a follow-up special issue
of Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain on improvisation to be published in September
2016.
For more information on the Improvising Brain Concert & Symposium, see
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Please address questions to:
Martin Norgaard, Ph.D.
Georgia State University – School of Music
PO Box 4097
Atlanta, GA 30302
mnorgaard@gsu.edu
(404) 413-5930
The organizing committees would like to thank the following for their support of this event:
Steven Harper (Interim Director, School of Music, GSU), Walter Wilczynski (Director,
Neuroscience Institute, GSU), Guantao Chen (Chair, Department of Mathematics & Statistics,
GSU), Pearl McHaney (Associate Dean, Fine Arts; Director, the Center for Collaborative and
International Arts, GSU)
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