CALL FOR PAPERS
3rd International Symposium
IMPACT: IMProvisation and Creativity In and Through Performing Arts
Creative Collaborations: Improvising the Unknown
Symposium Dates: December 3-6, 2025

Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Hosted by: Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre

Submission Deadline: September 15, 2025

Submit your proposals here: https://forms.office.com/e/4GkPDZZTZt

Applicants will be informed of their acceptance by email by 29 September 2025. Accepted presenters are asked to confirm their participation and pay registration fee.

The Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre is pleased to announce an international symposium titled “Creative Collaborations: Improvising the Unknown”. Scheduled for December 3-6, 2025, in Vilnius, Lithuania, the symposium aims to provide a comprehensive, interdisciplinary examination of the complex phenomena of creativity and improvisation.

This academic event is significant not only within the discourses of the humanities and the social sciences but also for professional artists and researchers. It seeks to contribute to the understanding of creativity and improvisation as fundamental components of artistic practice, thereby enabling the investigation of new forms of expression and encouraging innovation in daily artistic activities.

The symposium will feature a diverse array of scholars, artists, and practitioners from multiple disciplines, including musicology, theatre studies, sociology, and psychology. Participants from the international academic community will present research and artistic experiments that highlight the advantages of an interdisciplinary approach. A key element of the symposium is the Experimental Creative Laboratory, an innovative component that will present live improvisational artistic experiments conducted by interdisciplinary groups. These performances will be subject to critical analysis and discussion by the attending scholars and artists, offering a unique opportunity for professional development and interdisciplinary engagement. By offering a rigorous academic environment for intellectual exchange and artistic exploration, the symposium aims to make a substantive contribution to the field of interdisciplinary research and artistic practice, both in Lithuania and internationally.

Topics may include but are not limited to:

Improvisation as a methodology in the arts
Collaborative processes across disciplines
Improvisation in game-theatre models
Performer–audience relationships in improvisational settings
Between composition and improvisation
Embodiment, intuition, and the unconscious in creative practice
Technology and live interaction in improvisation
Cultural, social, and political dimensions of improvisation
Improvisation as resistance, resilience, or healing
We invite scholars, artists, and practitioners to submit proposals for:

Keynote Presentation | 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A
Paper/Presentation | 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A
Research-Based Teaching Demonstration | 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A
Performance as Research Outcome | Up to 60 minutes, followed by a 20-minute Q&A

Submission Guidelines
Abstracts should be no more than 1500 characters.
Please include a short bio of up to 500 characters.

For more information, contact bozena (dot) ciurlioniene (at) lmta (dot) lt

Fee Deadline: October 20, 2025
Paper/Presentation | 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A (170 EUR)
Research-Based Teaching Demonstration | 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A (200 EUR)
Performance as Research Outcome | Up to 60 minutes, followed by a 20-minute Q&A (250 EUR)

Fee includes the opportunity to present, access to all keynote and panel presentations, discussions, coffee breaks, participation in all other conference events.

Scholarships for free participation available on request. Selected papers will be considered for publication.

Organising committee:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ramunė Balevičiūtė, Vice-Rector for Art and Research, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
Dr. Božena Čiurlionienė, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
Assoc. Prof. Mantautas Krukauskas, Head of Music Innovation Studies Centre, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
Dr. Bruno Pereira, Porto Polytechnic Institute’s School of Music and Performing Arts

Scientific Committee:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ramunė Balevičiūtė, Vice-Rector for Art and Research, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
Prof. Dr. Lina Navickaitė-Martinelli, Chair of the Senate, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre
Dr. Rui Penha, Vice President, The School of Music and Performing Arts ESMAE, Porto
Dr. Theodore Parker, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre