Call for Music / Performance

Important Dates

All dates are 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth).

• 4 December 2026: Submission CMT site opens
• 24 January 2027: Titles, program notes, and author/performer lists due
• 31 January 2027: Final submissions due (documentation, technical rider, stage plot)
• 19 March 2027: Acceptance decisions and reviews released
• 30 April 2027: Final program notes, technical riders, and performer registration deadline
• 21–25 June 2027: NIME 2027, Paris (main conference 23–25 June)

Only works registered by the title-and-program-note deadline can be completed by the final deadline. There will be no extensions.

Scope and Contributions

We invite proposals for performances that showcase new interfaces for musical expression in composition, performance, and sound art. We welcome work that expands and reshapes our understanding of NIME through the conceptualisation, performance, and reception of music. Submissions may be existing works or proposals for new ones; there are no limitations or requirements concerning musical style.

NIME 2027 asks what happens when expression no longer belongs neatly to a single body, instrument, or system. Musical interaction emerges through relations among performers, instruments, computational systems, environments, audiences, and traces of other bodies and events across time. For the music programme, we especially welcome works in which those relationships are audible: performances where agency is shared, contested, or handed back and forth; works combining acoustic instruments and NIMEs; pieces that offer audiences something new to sense; and works carrying gestures, recordings, or signals from other bodies, places, or times into the present. Engaging with the conference theme is welcome but optional.

Topics

We invite performances on any aspect of new interfaces for musical expression. The submission form will ask contributors to select the topics that best fit their work. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Sensorial Symbiosis (Theme Topics)

• Works that stage relationships among bodies, instruments, machines, environments, and audiences, whether mutualistic, parasitic, intimate, asymmetric, or unstable
• Shared agency and authorship between performers and machines, including co-creative, adaptive, and machine-learning systems as musical partners on stage
• Works that extend, substitute, or reshape perception for performers or audiences, including multisensory, haptic, cross-modal, and physiological interaction
• Traces across time: re-performance, archives, documentation, and works built from gestures, recordings, or signals that outlast the bodies that produced them

Core Topics

• Performances with novel controllers, interfaces, or instruments
• Augmented, embedded, and hyper instruments
• Ensemble, collaborative, and networked performance, including works combining acoustic instruments and NIMEs
• Mobile, web-based, and telematic performance
• Works foregrounding motion, gesture, and embodiment
• Works using sensor and actuator technologies, haptics, and force feedback
• Spatial audio and site-specific works
• Accessible instruments and inclusive performance practice
• Robotic and mechatronic performers
• Interactive sound art and sonic interaction design
• Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and generative algorithms in live performance
• New insights with established or long-lived NIMEs, including new repertoire for existing instruments
• Works by communities and practitioners beyond academia, and collaborations with them

Submission Requirements

Music submissions use structured fields and supporting-media uploads in CMT. Contributors do not prepare or upload a formatted submission PDF for review. Reviewers assess the information and media entered in the submission system. If a work is accepted, NIME will use the submitted data to generate consistently formatted PDF and web records for author review and publication.

Create the submission by 24 January 2027 with its title, program notes, author and performer list, presentation category, and topic tags. Complete the remaining fields and supporting materials by 31 January 2027. The submission must include:

• Program Notes (maximum 200 words): the audience-facing text intended for the concert programme.
• Project Description: the background, context, and concept of the work; the instruments, systems, and technologies involved; and why the work matters to the NIME community.
• Technical Notes: the duration; performers and their roles; space, staging, furniture, lighting, and projection needs; sound amplification and channel count (stereo, multichannel, or spatial); network requirements; setup and strike time; and what the contributors will bring versus what they expect NIME to provide. Include a stage plot and images or diagrams wherever they help reviewers understand how the work will be staged. State a preferred presentation format or venue, if applicable, and explain why.
• Media and Supporting Links: required video documentation and any additional audio, video, score, code, repository, or online material that helps reviewers understand the work.
• Acknowledgements (optional): omit these from the anonymised review submission and restore them after acceptance.
• Ethical Standards: the statement described under Ethics, Accessibility, Sustainability, and Inclusion.
• References and Related Resources where relevant.

Video documentation is required. It should document or otherwise communicate the proposed work through a recording of a previous performance, rehearsal, demonstration of the instrument or system, or, for a new work, a mock-up that makes the intended performance and staging clear. Reviewers must be able to judge the proposal from the structured submission and video together.

The review process is double-blind and uses soft anonymisation. Author identities entered in CMT will be hidden from reviewers. Remove names, affiliations, acknowledgements, funding details, and identifying account names or URLs from the review-facing text and media. Cite prior work in the third person. Contributors do not need to obscure faces or hide a recognisable instrument: anonymise identity where practical without compromising the documentation of the work.

Follow the general submission instructions.

Review and Selection

The review process is double-blind, meaning reviewers remain anonymous to the authors and vice versa. Every submission receives peer review by at least three reviewers from an international committee of artists and researchers. A meta-reviewer leads the discussion, writes a summary review, and recommends a decision. The Music Chairs make the final decision on acceptance, taking feasibility and programme balance into account, and inform the creators of their decision, presentation format, venue, and reviewers' comments.

Reviewers ask one guiding question: does the work present a unique, important, and compelling contribution to the NIME community's musical practice? They weigh:

• originality in the instrument, system, performance practice, or concept;
• artistic and performance quality as evidenced by the documentation;
• significance to the NIME community and relevance to its topics;
• technical quality and feasibility of staging the work at NIME 2027;
• clarity and completeness of the submission materials;
• ethical standards and responsible use of artificial intelligence.

New insights or new pieces using established NIMEs are judged on the same terms as new instruments. Production details for accepted works are arranged with the Music Chairs after notification.

Submissions that identify their authors in review-facing text, are not in English, are substantially incomplete, lack video documentation or technical information, or omit the required ethical statement may be rejected without review.

NIME depends on volunteer reviewers. We kindly request that the authors of each submission collectively agree to provide at least three reviews for other music submissions. To review for NIME 2027, sign up to review.

Presentation and Participation

Accepted works will be presented in NIME 2027 concerts and club nights in Paris. The Music Chairs will assign each work to a venue and session on the basis of its technical notes, stated preferences, programme balance, and feasibility. Venue requests will be considered but cannot be guaranteed.

• Live (in-person) performance: at least one performer is present at NIME. A live work may include an online connection to an artist who is not present if the technical requirements are fully documented and approved by the chairs. Organisers provide the house sound system, standard stage lighting, and projection where available. Performers bring their own instruments, interfaces, computers, and the cabling or interfaces required to connect to the house system. Works requiring multichannel or spatial diffusion should name the required channel count in their technical notes.
• Remote (pre-recorded) performance: no author attends in person. The work is presented from the final video, with a synchronous question-and-answer session where scheduling and time zones allow. Contributors who expect to be unable to travel should choose this category when submitting; late changes from live to remote may not be possible.

Typical NIME performances last 5–15 minutes. Shorter and longer proposals will be considered; when a longer work is accepted, the chairs may request a shorter version. Proposing artists should be available to perform on any conference day and, for spatial or small-room systems, may be asked to perform more than once in rotation. Requests for specific days cannot be accommodated.

NIME cannot provide funding for performers' travel, accommodation, instrument shipping, or fees.

Publication and Archiving

Accepted and presented works will be archived as part of the NIME 2027 Music Proceedings on the conference website and nime.org. Works that are not presented will not be published.

After acceptance, NIME will export the structured CMT data and generate consistently formatted PDF and web records. Authors will receive a password-protected preview and should make any corrections through the CMT fields by the final-materials deadline. Author names, affiliations, acknowledgements, and final programme information must be restored before publication. The final documentation video will also be retained as part of the work's public record and as a technical backup for presentation.

Ethics, Accessibility, Sustainability, and Inclusion

All submissions to NIME 2027 must follow the NIME Principles & Code of Practice on Ethical Research.

The Ethical Standards field should address what is relevant to the work, including consent from performers, collaborators, and people whose bodies, voices, likenesses, or data appear in the work or its documentation; ethics approval; data protection; compensation; performer and audience safety; conflicts of interest; environmental impact; and limitations to accessibility or inclusion. Technical notes must identify hazards or strong sensory elements such as lasers, strobe or flashing light, fog, extreme sound levels, and haptic, electrical, or mechanical risks so that suitable safety measures and audience advisories can be arranged.

Use alternative text for images, choose colours that remain legible in greyscale and for colour-blind readers, and caption video documentation. Explain how audience members who are Deaf, blind, or have limited mobility could experience the work and identify any support needed to make that possible.

We encourage contributors to consider the environmental impact of instruments, materials, travel, and shipping, and to use locally sourced, borrowed, reusable, or remotely presented resources where appropriate. We welcome contributors of every background, career stage, and region, including artists and researchers working outside academia and mainstream institutions.

Contact

For questions about music submissions, contact the Music Chairs at music@nime2027.org. For general queries about NIME 2027, contact the General Chairs at general-chairs@nime2027.org.