The 4th Global Piano Roll Meeting – Day 1

Stanford, California

About

The 4th Global Piano Roll Meeting (GPRM) will take place at Stanford University, August 7–9, 2026. This is the leading international forum for music roll scholars, performers, archivists, and enthusiasts. The conference will take place over three days and include paper sessions, concerts, roll playing instruments, and social events. Topics include the historical study of piano and organ rolls, performers, audiences, and repertoires; pneumatic instruments; roll manufacturing; archival preservation and access; roll collections; performance studies; and performance practices.

Day 1 Program of Events

8:30am – Registration

9:00am – Welcome from GPRM committee

9:30am – Marc Widuch
The Welte recording Studios in Freiburg and Leipzig

10:00am – Sebastian Bausch
Deciphering the Hupfeld DEA Expression System

10:30am – Break

10:50am – Hermann Gottschewski
Roll Editors in the Earliest Years of Welte Mignon Piano Rolls: The case of WM0198 in the Condon Collection

11:20am – Artis Wodehouse, Bill Ooms, Peter Phillips
Transcribing Mahler’s performance captured in 1905 on WM 769: Symphony #5 Trauermarsch

12:05pm – Lunch

1:30pm – Carmen Romero-Valencia
A Comparative Computational Study of the 1950–2018 Transfers of Manuel de Falla’s 1912 Welte-Mignon Piano Rolls: Towards a Reliable Reference for Performance Analysis

2:00pm – Manuel Bärtsch
Enlarging performance analysis: What shall we do with dynamics in roll research?

2:20pm – Pedro Blundi d’Avila
“Expression” between intent, technology and roll mastering: Observations on recordings of Joself Hofmann

2:40pm – Cecilia Facchini
A complicated mirror: dynamics in recorded sources vs. written evidence

3:10pm – Break

3:45pm – Joerg Holzman
Benjamin, Boym and Becoming a Phonola Player

4:15pm – Darius Kucinskas (Berkman Tribute talk)
Bob Berkman and Ethnic Piano Rolls in the United States

4:45pm – Break

5:15pm – Concert 1: Berkman Tribute Concert: Julian Dyer, pianola

6:30pm – End of conference day

Admission Information

Delegates: $110 – Includes paper presentation, attendance at special sessions, three lunches, coffee/tea breaks, access to optional tours.
General Admission (auditor): Free – registration required
Hourly paid parking is available in Tresidder Parking Lot

More info on the GPRM conferences can be found at gprm.net