I am proud and honoured to join Lydia Goehr, one of the most important voices in music philosophy, on the closing panel of this important conference. Talking about the future of an entire discipline under the conditions of disruptive technologies, especially in the wake of the growing importance of artificial intelligence in art and science, is a great challenge. And I look forward to exchanging ideas with all those colleagues who have dedicated themselves to the development of contemporary music research:

What does the future of listening to and analysing music look like? How will listening continue to change in private and public spaces, in art and everyday contexts, supported by media and unplugged? What does the historical view of what was once designed as the future shed light on? Does the analytical-linguistic, sound-centred approach have a future in music research? What role will AI play in this? And in general: What significance does analysis have for scientific thinking and how can the future become a category for the humanities and cultural studies?

The symposium on 6 September 2024 at the University of Potsdam, on the Neu- es Palais campus, is dedicated to these questions. Surrounded by Sanssouci Park in late summer, we want to address the topics of the future, analysis and listening with lectures and interactive formats. On this day, the focus will be on collegial exchange between Early Careers and Senior Scholars. Together, we want to discuss the future of these topics and thus the future of our science as such.