MIR Community-building Workshop on Music AI

New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi on Saadiyat Island, on February 14-15, 2026

To kick off the journey toward International Society for Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) 2026, we are excited to invite you to a special Community-building Workshop hosted at New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi . This two-day event explores the frontier of Music Information Retrieval (MIR), focused on processing, analyzing, indexing, organizing, and accessing music-related data.

Functioning as a "warm-up" for the world’s leading research forum for Music Information Retrieval, this workshop is scheduled for February 14–15, 2026. The program offers a comprehensive mix of introductory and hands-on MIR lectures, panel discussions, and a curated selection of presentations from authors of high-quality research published in TISMIR (Transactions of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval). 

Beyond the technical program, we have designed interactive sessions to bridge the gap between academia and industry in the Middle East, facilitating direct engagement with invited ISMIR experts and sparking future research collaborations.

We are also honored to host three distinguished keynote speakers:

  • Xavier Serra

    Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona

    keynote Speaker

  • Geoffroy Peeters.png

    Télécom Paris/ IP-Paris

  • Stacy Huang

    The University of Hong Kong

    Keynote Speaker

Event Details:

Dates: February 14–15, 2026 (Full-day sessions)
Time: 8am-5:30pm
Location: New York University (NYU) Abu Dhabi, A6-007, NYUAD Institute conference room, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi
Registration/RSVP: https://forms.gle/Pp7hCydr7wqjDd1j9

We hope you will join us for these two days of vibrant academic exchange. February is a wonderful time to visit, and we hope you enjoy the beautiful season and pleasant weather in Abu Dhabi during the workshop. We look forward to seeing you there!

Warm regards,
Carlos Guedes, Kaustuv Kanti Ganguli, Gus Xia
(General Co-chairs of the ISMIR 2026 Organizing Committee)

TimeDescriptionDuration
9:00 AMRegistration45 min
9:45 AMWelcome  15 min
10:00 AMKeynote A-1: The MIR Community and its Role in Shaping a Trustworthy, Open and Culturally Inclusive Music-AI 
(Prof. Xavier Serra)		80 min
11:20 AMCoffee Break20 min
11:40 AMKeynote B-1: 25 Years of MIR Research
 Achievements, Practices, Evaluations, and Future Challenges 
(Prof. Geoffroy Peeters)		80 min
1:00 PMLunch Break60 min
2:00 PMTISMIR Presentations75 min
3:15 PMCoffee Break15 min
3:30 PMPanel P-1: MIR avenues with the Arab world (Prof. Baris Bozkurt)60 min
4:30 PMPanel P-2: Ethical considerations for MIR (Prof. Monojit Choudhury)60 min
TimeDescriptionDuration
9:00 AMNetworking with Students45 min
9:45 AMWelcome 15 min
10:00 AMKeynote C-1: Musicological Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Challenge, and the Future of AI Music Contests 
(Prof. Stacy Huang)		80 min
11:20 AMCoffee Break20 min
11:40 AMKeynote A-2: Studying a Musical Repertoire with Computational Approaches: The Case of Carnatic Music (Prof. Xavier Serra)80 min
1:00 PMLunch Break60 min
2:00 PMKeynote B-2: Self-Supervised for Learning 
MIR Representations 
(Prof. Geoffroy Peeters)		80 min
3:20 PMCoffee Break20 min
3:40 PMPanel P-3: MIR and Musicology 
(Prof. Andrew Eisenberg)		60 min
4:40 PMRound table40 min
5:20 PMClosing Remarks10 min