History & Mission
A Global Effort Since 1989
The International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) began in 1989 in Kyoto, Japan, as a collaborative effort among pioneering researchers in music psychology, neuroscience, and cognition. Since then, ICMPC has evolved into the world’s leading interdisciplinary conference devoted to understanding how humans perceive, think about, and engage with music.
Origins in the Cognitive Revolution
In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers from psychology, musicology, linguistics, and computer science began converging on questions about musical experience. Influenced by the broader cognitive science movement, early contributors like Diana Deutsch, Edward Carterette, and Kengo Ohgushi helped establish music cognition as a scientific field.
Specialist journals such as Psychology of Music (1972) and Music Perception (1983) emerged, and national societies began to form, including SMPC (North America), JSMPC (Japan), and DGM (Germany).
From a Single Meeting to a Rotating Global Conference
What began as a hopeful “First ICMPC” in 1989 quickly gained momentum:
ICMPC2 was held in Los Angeles in 1992.
ICMPC3 followed in Liège, Belgium in 1994.
A rotational structure was formalized: Asia-Pacific → Europe → Americas.
Since then, ICMPC has been held every two years in alternating regions, with new local and regional societies joining along the way — including APSCOM (Asia-Pacific), SACCOM (Argentina), and AMPS (Australia).
Our Guiding Principles
ICMPC operates on a flexible model guided by the following principles:
Host rotation across the Asia-Pacific, European, and American regions.
Collaborative oversight by pan-national societies (APSCOM, ESCOM, and SMPC).
ICMPC supports early-career researchers, including the Young Researcher Award and travel grants.
Growth Over Time
From just under 100 presentations at ICMPC1, the conference now attracts hundreds of researchers from across the globe. Highlights include:
ICMPC6 (2000): Over 300 presentations.
ICMPC10 (2008): 384 participants from 32 countries.
Looking Ahead
ICMPC continues to grow as a platform for rigorous, inclusive, and globally collaborative research. Our aim is to foster exchange across disciplines and borders, advancing understanding of music as a fundamental human experience.
icmpc@gmail.com ⓒ by International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition 2025