The Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre is organizing a two-day international conference

The aim of the meeting, entitled '21st Century Perspective on Liszt and his Contemporaries', which will be held in English and German at the Old Academy of Music, is to bring together researchers from different institutions and countries to share the latest findings and coordinate future goals. In addition to presentations by foreign experts, Hungarian researchers, mainly from the Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Centre, will present the current state of Hungarian Liszt research.

Among the topics will be new perspectives on Liszt's relationships with his musical contemporaries (Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Mahler, Delibes, Ede Reményi), lessons from the composer's biographical sources that have not been analysed before, musical analyses of his works based on the latest research and a presentation of his figure as a character in a 21st century novel.

Welcoming speeches will be given by Gyula Fekete, Vice President of Research and International Affairs of the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music and Zsuzsanna Domokos, Director of the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum and Research Centre, organiser of the conference, and Alan Walker, professor emeritus of McMaster University, Canada, and doyen of international Liszt research.

The second day of the conference will start with a welcome speech by Mária Eckhardt, founding director of the Liszt Museum. Among the 23 speakers will be a number of foreign professors, including Prof. Rainer Kleinertz, Head of the Department of Musicology at Saarland University, together with two colleagues who are working on a complet edition of Liszt's writings, Prof. Dolores Pesce, the Avis Blewett Professor Emerita of Music at Washington University in St. Louis, Prof. David Trippett, Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Christ’s College, Prof. Monika Hennemann, Humanities and Social Science’s Dean for International Engagement at Cardiff University, Laurence Le Diagon-Jaquin, Professor and head of the Music Department at the Université de Franche-Comté, Prof. Cécile Reynaud, Vice-President of Research at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes University of Paris, Prof. Jonathan Kregor, Interim Dean and Thomas J. Kelly Professor of Music at the University of Cincinnati, Prof. Mariateresa Storino, Professor of Music History at the G. Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro, and Malgorzata Gamrat, Associate Professor at The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin.

The first day of the conference will conclude with the launch of Professor Kenneth Hamilton's latest recording, the second day will end with a book launch with the Duke of Schillingsfürst and Hans Emmert. The conference last programme is the upcoming morning concert at the Liszt Museum with a piano recital by Marouan Benabdallah on 18 May.

Zsuzsanna Domokos said: "We are honoured that so many people from many countries have accepted our invitation. In particular, we have contacted colleagues with whom we have good professional and friendly relations for decades. We hope that this personal meeting will again be a useful and enjoyable experience for all of us, that it will lead to new professional collaborations and that it will be a great help to the younger generation to build their future careers in the spirit of Liszt."

The conference abstracts are available here.