A Scientific Symposium paired with the festival

Professor Töres Theorell (former Director of the Institute for Psychosocial Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm) is the Scientific Coordinator of a Scientific Symposium that is paired with the Music Festival. Leading Scientists from the worlds of Brain Research, Pedagogy, Psychology, Medicine, Criminology and Economy will lecture about how music affects children’s brains, study results, abilities to express emotions and how music affects physical health.

Following scientists have agreed to participate and lecture at the festival:
Beatriz Ilari, Professor of Music Teaching and Learning, University of Southern California;
Örjan de Monzano, Senior Researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main; Eva Bojner Horwitz, Professor of Music & Health, The Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm; and Töres Theorell.

The symposium will be a venue for debating and discussing strategies how to reach decision makers with convincing arguments that Music and all Art forms are cornerstones in building a better world. It’s important to convey knowledge of why it’s important to start building musical platforms in early age as part of regular school curriculums for all children!

An open panel discussion with decision makers, scientists, artists and young musicians

September 13, 2026 Sweden will have a general election electing both parliament and government. We are inviting key personalities from all political parties to discuss how scientific reports – around how music affects children’s brains and learning capacities – can be implemented into the Swedish school system. Our Scientists, artists and young musicians will be part of a discussion about how music in all classrooms can transform schools with discipline problems and eliminate destructive tendencies in all of Society.