Pathways through
music evolution

We invite you to an exciting in-person symposium that focuses on the interplay of cognition and evolution in musicality. Thinking of music as rooted in social interaction, we propose a fresh take on the question of why and how music emerged in human evolution. 

For this, we gathered 10 brilliant scholars from cognitive science, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, cultural evolution, philosophy, and musicology. The idea is to develop an approach that moves us from "evolutionarios" to testable theories, via concrete methods rooted in evolutionary thinking. We aim to create space for thinking and spark inspiration for future and current scholars of the sciences, philosophy and the humanities - and practitioners of music.

On days 1 and 2 speakers will present perspectives that will inspire group discussions among the audience. Ideas and thoughts developed there will in turn guide panel discussions. On day 3, speakers will convene to string these ideas into a possible publication.