The 2026 Annual Meeting of ICOM MUSIC will take place in the historic St Cecilia’s Hall, the home of the University of Edinburgh’s musical instrument collection in Edinburgh, UK, 3-5 September 2026. The theme of this year’s meeting “Musical Instrument Collections in Digital Transformation: Research, Access, and Museum Ethics” examines the challenges and opportunities that digital technologies bring to musical instrument collections and will be a unique opportunity to come together, share ideas, and engage in meaningful discussions within our common field of interest. To make the meeting as accessible as possible, those who cannot attend in-person will be able to attend online.
The conference papers and panel discussions will be presented in the Sypert Concert Room of St Cecilia’s Hall, the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland. Throughout the conference and during tea and coffee breaks, participants are invited to socialise in the Laigh Hall, the historic under croft of the Concert Room, and to explore the musical instrument galleries, which display more than 400 musical instruments from the last 500 years. In addition to presentations, the conference will include musical instrument demonstrations and a concert of Georgian music featuring historic instruments from the University of Edinburgh’s collection. St Cecilia’s Hall originally opened in 1763 and is located in Edinburgh’s Old Town, the medieval heart of the city and part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, we are an inclusive, welcoming museum and performance space, with a world-class musical instrument collection as the centrepiece of research, teaching and conservation, and event programmes that help people learn about, and be inspired by, music.
The team at St Cecilia’s Hall, the ICOM MUSIC Board, and the Conference Committee look forward to welcoming you to the 2026 ICOM MUSIC Annual Meeting in Edinburgh.
