PFPA28 – 28th International pedagogical forum of performing arts

Overview

Department of Solfeggio and Music Education, Faculty of Music in Belgrade, organizes 28^th International Pedagogical Forum of Performing Arts PFPA titled In Search of a Model of Sustainable Music Education. This year’s PFPA will be run in association with SEMPRE – Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research, which will provide financial support for technical assistance to enable the conference hybrid format.  

The conference is dedicated primarily to music education and its scientific fields, such as methodology of solfeggio teaching, methodology of general music education, and methodological aspects of teaching other music-theoretical and artistic subjects. Equally, the conference theme is designed to inspire engagement of music theorists, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, psychologists, aestheticians, thinkers, philosophers and theorists in music, arts and other interdisciplinary sciences. 

Pedagogical Forum of Performing Arts presents an important event of this kind in Serbia. It has been running annualy since 1998, providing an opportunity for all those interested in making a clear path forward for music education and raising awareness about the importance of music education within the educaional process. PFPA’s aim is to bring together scholars and students to discuss theoretical and practical issues, relationships between theory and practice, and international collaboration in music education.  

The conference theme “In Search of a Model of Sustainable Music Education” offers a space to reflect and rethink how to: accelerate progress of music education; make music education for sustainable development; enhance music teacher’s competences and their professional development; make an effective vertical alignment in music education; create an inclusive learning environment; improve digital competences of music teachers; understand the future perspectives of music education, both the dynamics and the challenges of music education sustainability in the contemporary environment, for the benefits of participants in the educational process.

There are four main conference themes:     

1. Epistemology of music phenomena from the aspect of music education;
2. Methodology of teaching:
   • Solfeggio;
   • General music education;
   • Instruments;
   • Music-theoretical subjects;
   • Performance subjects;
   • Music culture;
3. Approaches and perspectives of music education: historical, contemporary and interdisciplinary aspect;
4. Performing arts education.

The four main conference themes reflect the specific features of music education and methodology of teaching music subjects, and the relationship between practice, empiricism and science. The following conference sub-topics represent deep rethinking on a model of a sustainable music education:

• Historical, social and cultural context of music education;
• Sociology of music education and social interactions in music education;
• Politics of music education and music education in politics;
• Music curriculum and music syllabuses;
• Assessment and evaluation in music schools;
• Music teacher evaluation criteria;
• Practices and research in music education;
• Methodology of research in music education;
• The applied music education phenomenon;
• Music in an inclusive classroom;
• Music, media and technology;
• Popular music education;
• Lifelong learning in music education;
• The importance of music education affirmation;
• Evaluating professional development programs for music teachers;
• Cross-curricular integration in music education.

We are living in a time of rapid social and cultural change, and adapting to change can be a difficult and complex process. In present times, when posthumanism and transhumanism ideologies seek to redefine the boundaries of humanity, we realized the need to look into new possibilities of music education. By nurturing humanism as a sociocultural phenomenon, music education goals will be achieved.

This year’s PFPA conference includes two prominent keynote speakers: Saturday morning’s keynote speaker will be Axel Petri-Preis (PhD), professor at the Department of Music Education Research and Practice (IMP), University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria; on Sunday, participants will be invited to a keynote presentation by Dr Helen Prior, professor at the School of Drama, Music and Screen, University of Hull, UK. Other forms of sessions that are considered beneficial to PFPA participants will be oral presentations, workshops, roundtable discussions, book promotions and concerts. 

PFPA2025 will be a hybrid conference.

• The abstract submission deadline: 1 June 2025
• Abstract submit to: [email protected]
• Notification of acceptance: the end of July.

Printed and electronic bilingual (Serbian-English) Book of Abstracts will be published in October 2025, while the Thematic Conference Proceedings of international significance will be published in October 2026. 

Timeslots for regular oral presentations should be 30 minutes (20 for presentation, 7 for discussion, 3 for transition time) and the duration of workshops 50 minutes. The languages in the meeting are Serbian and English as well as the languages spoken in the countries once belonging to Yugoslavia. The meeting fee for the active participants is 2000 dinars (for the Faculty of Music Belgrade staff), 3000 dinars (for the participants from Serbia), 6000 for participants from abroad. The meeting fee for the passive participants is 2000 dinars, and for the accredited seminar participants 1500 dinars. Members of the Program and Organizing committee do not pay the conference fee. The meeting fee covers the Program, Book of Abstracts, attendance to all sessions, lectures, workshops and concerts, welcome cocktail and coffee-breaks.

Payment instructions for Serbian currency – dinar:

To: Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade

Address: Kralja Milana 50, 11000 Belgrade Serbia

Purpose of payment: Registration fee for the 28^th Pedagogical Forum of Performing Arts

Account number: 840-1644666-35

Payment instructions for foreign currency – EUR:

To: SFIMP Srpski forum za istraživanje u muzičkoj pedagogiji

Address: Put za ćumurane 17-B, Ripanj Belgrade

Purpose of payment: Registration fee for the 28^th PFPA

SWIFT (BIC) RZBSRSBG

IBAN RS35265100000011610175

Raiffeisen banka a.d. Beograd