Cross-European Winter School On

Musical Ability

1-5 February 2021

What is musical ability? How do we assess it in research and education? What insights do different disciplines offer? These questions were central to the winter school that considered these through presentations, methods training, and hands-on research practice.


Guest speakers: Daniel MĂĽllensiefen, Glenn Schellenberg

School workshop leaders and presenters: Annarita Addessi, Maria Chelkowska-Zacharewicz, Suvi Saarikallio, Marc Thompson, Renee Timmers, among others.

For information about the school, contact Prof. Renee Timmers (chair)


Due to COVID-19, the winter school was fully ONLINE.

The programme is adapted to be longer (spread out across 5 days) but with fewer hours in day, to facilitate remote attendance.


1-5 February 2021

The winter school is intended for PhD and advanced MA students. It will be held online, and will be free to attend. Registration for the winter school is required as places are limited to 40 in total.

Main themes of the winter school will be: cultural understanding of musical ability, measurement and observation in research and educational contexts, and musical ability as embodied, affective and multisensory.

5 part-time days of presentations and workshops

Participate in the Winter School

Workshop leaders and school organisers

About the cross-european school and the theme

This winter school is organised by

The European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music

The virtual conference format allows greater geographical participation at low financial and environmental cost, in line with ESCOM's climate policy.

Musical ability is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon, that can be researched and understood from various disciplinary perspectives. Central to the winter school will be issues related to the cultural understanding of musical ability, measurement and observation in research and educational contexts, and musical ability as embodied, affective and multisensory.

The winter school will offer interdisciplinary perspectives on musical ability through presentations, workshops and group research projects. Perspectives will range from psychometric to embodied and from cognitive to educational and sociological.