If you are a collector, performer, museum professional, university professor, musical instrument builder, technician, restorer, or simply have a passion for music, this is a must attend conference.
Suggested accommodations and things to do in Calgary
The 2022 American Musical Instrument Society meeting at Studio Bell, home of the National Music Centre, is a four-day conference that will run June 8 to June 11, 2022. The conference will feature presentations, panel sessions, instrument demonstrations, musical performances, lecture recitals, video screenings and round-table panels. Space will also be reserved for a limited number of remote presentations.
About AMIS
The American Musical Instrument Society (AMIS) promotes better understanding of all aspects of the history, design, construction, restoration, and usage of musical instruments in all cultures and from all periods. To learn more about AMIS, click here.
Book your 2022 conference pass!
Regular price: $420 CAD
Student price: $250 CAD upon entering student discount code*
AMIS Members: $350 CAD upon entering AMIS member code**
*If you are a student who did not receive the discount code to your email, then please email info@studiobell.ca with proof of eligibility in order to receive a discount code.
**Discount code has been emailed to all AMIS members. Please check your inbox and/or junk mail.
Book a day pass
Can't attend the entire conference? Book a single day pass!
Price: $150 CAD
Photos from NMC's exhibitions, collections, and recording facilities
AMIS 2022 PROGRAM
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8
| 10:00 am | Registration table open (Canada Music Square) | |
| Self-guided and guided visits to Studio Bell and recording facilities | ||
| 6:00 pm | AMIS Board dinner and meeting (offsite) | |
| 7:00 pm | Meet and Greet at The King Eddy |
THURSDAY, JUNE 9
| 8:45 am | Welcoming remarks: Andrew Mosker |
| SESSION 1 | ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS PART 1 | SESSION CHAIR: JESSE MOFFATT |
| 9:00 am | Hugh Le Caine’s Electronic Sackbut, 1946 to 1954 | Gayle Young |
| 9:30 am | The Electronic Sackbut Project | Tom Everrett |
| 10:00 am | The Tape Recorder as a Musical Instrument: Placing Hugh Le Caine’s Special Purpose Tape Recorders in Context. | James Mooney |
| 10:30 am | Coffee Break (25 mins) |
| SESSION 2 | WORLD INSTRUMENTS | SESSION CHAIR: JAYME KURLAND |
| 11:00 am | Contemporary Innovations for the Đàn Bầu Monochord in the Canadian-Vietnamese Diaspora | Lisa Beebe |
| 11:30 am | Apache Fiddles: Tradition, Forced Assimilation, Commerce, and Museums | Ken Moore |
| 12:00 pm | The Puerto Rican Tiple Requinto Costero: From the Museum Collection to its Revival | William Cumpiano, Noraliz Ruiz, and Norman Storer Corrada (Remote Presentation) |
| 12:30 pm | Lunch Break (90 mins on your own) | |
| 12:30 pm | JAMIS Editorial Board Meeting |
| SESSION 3 | PRESERVING MUSICAL ASSETS | SESSION CHAIR: ANDREW MOSKER |
| 2:00 pm | Preserving and Sharing the EMI Music Canada Archive at the University of Calgary | Annie Murray, Robb Gilbert, Elizabeth-Anne Johnson, David Jones, Andy Nichols, and Kathryn Ruddock (Roundtable Presentation) |
| 3:00 pm | Historic Cardboard and Metal Discs Revisited | Heike Fricke |
| 3:30 pm | Coffee Break (25 mins) |
| SESSION 4 | WIND INSTRUMENTS | SESSION CHAIR: JANET PAGE |
| 4:00 pm | A Flute by Any Other Name: The Uncommon and Curious Dolzflöte | Patrick Connor Dittamo |
| 4:30 pm | Tone, Technique, and Technology: Nineteenth-Century Debates on Italian Flutes | Samantha Tripp |
| 5:00 pm | A Breath of Modernity! Camille Saint-Saëns and Wind Instruments | Fabien Guilloux and Emanuele Marconi (Remote Presentation) |
| 7:00 pm | Bar open | |
| 7:30 pm | Doors open to Performance Hall | |
| 8:00 pm | Concert: Silent Movie featuring Chris Maric performing on the Allen Theater Organ | |
| Join us for an evening of laughter, intrigue, and drama in this special presentation of two classic Buster Keaton silent films Cops and Sherlock Jr. Watch as these classic films come to life as multi-instrumentalist Chris Maric provides a live soundtrack using National Music Centre’s Allen Theatre Organ. Maric will act as a one-man orchestra, accompanying the genius of Buster Keaton. The performance will encompass several variations of original compositions, as well as improvisations. | ||
| Chris Maric is a multi-instrumentalist known for his truly unique and passionate musical style. As a performer, composer and educator, he has demonstrated his talents to a wide variety of audiences, crossing paths with practically any musical genre and style. He has also worked with a vast array of artists and organizations, continually surprising audiences with fresh performances. | ||
| Cops (1922): 18 min - Buster Keaton plays a young man who accidently gets on the bad side of the entire LAPD during a parade and chased all over town | ||
| Sherlock Jr. (1924): 45 min - Buster Keaton plays a movie theater projectionist and janitor who dreams of becoming a famous detective |
FRIDAY, JUNE 10
| SESSION 5 | ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS PART 2 | SESSION CHAIR: ADAM FOX |
| 9:00 am | Rebuilding the 5th Triad A Range | Jason Tawkin |
| 9:30 am | From Datasheet to Dancefloor: The Elektron Sid Station | David Jones |
| 10:00 am | The Pervasive use of English in Electronic Music Instrument Design and its Effect on Non-native Speakers | Pablo Dodero |
| 10:30 am | Coffee Break (25 mins) |
| SESSION 6 | BANJOS AND HARPS | SESSION CHAIR: JIMENA PALACIOS |
| 11:00 am | What is an Early Banjo? An Exploration of an Instrument’s Relationship to Organology and Ethnomusicology | Kristina Gaddy and Pete Ross |
| 11:30 am | The Mysterious Affair of Queen Marie Antoinette’s Harp: A Case for the Harp Detective | Fanny Guillaume-Castel |
| 12:00 pm | The Hochbrucker Family and the Adoption of the Pedal Harp before 1760 | Mike Baldwin and Lewis Jones (Remote Presentation) |
| 12:30 pm | Lunch Break and Annual General Meeting (90 min with lunch delivery option) | |
| SESSION 7 | MUSICAL ENGAGEMENT | SESSION CHAIR: HEIKE FRICKE |
| 2:00 pm | Arching Post-1960 Musics: Four Experiences of Engagement | Valentina Bertolani, You Nakai, Luisa Santacesaria, and Gayle Young (Roundtable Presentation) |
| 2:30 pm | Historical Instruments in Virtual Acoustic Environments: A Framework for the Generation of Interactive Virtual Acoustic Objects and Multimodal Organological Datasets | Dominik Ukolov |
| 3:30 pm | Coffee Break (25 mins) |
| SESSION 8 | THE VIOLIN FAMILY | SESSION CHAIR: MATTHEW ZELLER |
| 4:00 pm | The Serafin Violinmaker Family: Macro to Micro Level Approach for the Study of Two Violins Held in the Correr Museum in Venice | Chaehoon Lee |
| 4:30 pm | Hexagram or Star of David? A Modern Interpretation of Markneukirchen Violin Inlays Under the Microscope | Stella Smith |
| 5:00 pm | Tuning, Timbre, and Technique: Reconsidering the 19th-Century Double Bass | Shanti Nachtergaele |
| 7:00 pm | Bar open | |
| 7:30 pm | Doors open to Performance Hall | |
| 8:00 pm | Concert: Robin Hatch performing on The Original New Timbral Orchestra (TONTO) | |
SATURDAY, JUNE 11
| SESSION 9 | MISC. TOPICS | SESSION CHAIR: KEN MOORE |
| 9:00 am | George Hooper Mead: One of Canada’s First Instrument Makers, 1827-1851 | Francis Lapointe |
| 9:30 am | Italian Non-sounding Musical Instruments in the Age of the Marvelous: Functional Objects Without Function | Arianna Rigamonti |
| 10:00 am | “Clicking the Ivory” – A.M. Virgil's Tekniklavier Revisited | Jörg Holzmann and Patrick Speckamp (Remote Presentation) |
| 10:30 am | Coffee Break (25 min) |
| SESSION 10 | GUITARS | SESSION CHAIR: JONATHAN SANTA MARIA |
| 11:00 am | The Instrumental Women of Fender | Jayme Kurland |
| 11:30 am | New Soundscapes on the “Ligeti guitar”: Chopin, Kurtág and Saariaho | Katalin Koltai (Lecture-Recital) |
| 12:00 pm | “I Can’t Turn Off What Turns Me On.” A Queer Phenomenology and the St. Vincent Signature Electric Guitar | Erin A. Fitzpatrick (Remote presentation) |
| 12:30 pm | Lunch Break (90 min on your own) |
| SESSION 11 | EARLY AMERICAN INSTRUMENTS | SESSION CHAIR: DARCY KURONEN |
| 2:00 pm | The Theology, Utility, and Aesthetics of Using Musical Instruments in Early American Psalmody | Maxine Fawcett-Yeske |
| 2:30 pm | The Early Piano in America, 1745–1810 | Thomas Strange |
| 3:00 pm | An Ancient American Piano with Clues About Piano Origins | John Watson |
| 3:30 pm | Coffee Break (25min) |
| SESSION 12 | ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENTS, PART 3 | SESSION CHAIR: SARAH DETERS |
| 4:00 pm | The Radio as a Musical Instrument: Five Composition Practices from Electronic Music | Thom Holmes (Remote Presentation) |
| 4:30 pm | The Ondes Martenot: A Brief History and Contemporary Design Trajectory in Review | David Kean |
| 6:30 pm | Banquet cocktail reception (Soundscapes) | |
| 7:00 pm | Doors open to Performance Hall | |
| 7:30 pm | Banquet |