CFP Puentes Caribeños 2026: Symposium of Art Music from across the Caribbean

[jaime Bofill-Calero]

Puentes Caribeños 2026: Symposium of Art Music from across the Caribbean

11th Symposium of Music Research

Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico

15-17 October 2026

 

Puentes Caribeños (Caribbean Bridges), an international symposium on Caribbean art music, will be held from 15 to 17 October 2026 at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico (CMPR). The symposium will focus on strengthening bonds between composers, performers, artists, and scholars throughout the Caribbean and its diaspora, as well as specialists from outside the region. The symposium invites submissions of original musical works, papers, workshops, lecture recitals, and documentary films.

Puentes Caribeños comprises presentations by regional composers, panel discussions by composers and academics, and evening concerts by faculty musicians from CMPR and other invited artists. Panel sessions will focus on a wide range of issues concerning art and popular music in the Caribbean, and performances will include both local traditional music from the participating countries and recently written pieces for the concert hall.

Call for Papers:

Proposals for individual paper presentations, panel presentations of 2-3 papers, workshops, and documentary films should include:

1) an abstract of 250 words and

2) personal information (name, email, phone number, and institutional affiliation) in a Word document (.doc; .docx) or .pdf.  

We are particularly interested in proposals that engage with the following topics:

•  Musical Bridges: the Context of Art Music across the Caribbean
•  Tradition, Identity, and Influences: New Art Music in the Caribbean.
•  Jazz, Fusion, and Experimentation
• Afro-Caribbean Composers
•  The Future of an Art Form: Engaging the Caribbean’s Musical Youth
•  Dialogues between Art, Traditional, and Popular Music in the Caribbean
•  Composition, Improvisation, and Other Modes of Musical Creativity
•  Music, Sound, and Environment: Climate Change and Musical Activism
• Archives, editions, and preservation of Caribbean art music
• Pedagogy and curriculum

 

Please send proposals to: puentes.p...@gmail.com  no later than July 25th 2026

Proposals may be submitted in English or Spanish. Presentations may be delivered in English or Spanish.

 

Call for Scores:  

Compositions are invited from composers with an authentic connection to the Caribbean, defined here as the circum-Caribbean region. This includes composers born in the Caribbean, those living abroad, and those born outside the Caribbean but resident or artistically active here. Accepted compositions will be considered for performance during the Puentes Caribeños symposium by Trio Sanromá Camerata Caribe, faculty members, and students. Compositions may be for the full ensembles or any combination of instruments within the ensembles. Submission of previously performed works is permitted.

Instrumentation:

Trio Sanromá: Violin, Violoncello, and Piano

Camerata Caribe: Flute, Oboe, Bassoon, Horn, Clarinet, and Piano

Guitar (solo)

Piano (solo)

Voice

 

Please send scores in PDF format, audio recordings, or MIDI realizations, if available. Score submissions must include contact information and short bio. Send to: puentes.s...@gmail.com  no later than July 25th 2026.