Call for Papers
Pierre Boulez and His Cultural Legacy Today Symposium, Institut Français Edinburgh , 6-7 November 2025, with two live concerts and a workshop featuring violinist Rachel Koblyakov Supported by the Royal Musical Association As a composer, conductor, administrator and thinker, Pierre Boulez emerged as one of the decisive figures of the trente glorieuse , the period of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, the welfare state, technological innovation, European integration and cultural participation in France and Europe after the Second World War. There was a darker side, however, notably France’s unsettled colonial history, epitomised by the brutal war in Algeria, as well as deepening social divisions, all coming to a head in the events of Mai 68. The national dimension is at most one aspect of Boulez’s music and personality, in any case: while, for many, his music epitomises a distinctly French, post-Debussyian colourism, he embraced serialism at a time when it was firm...