<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><span style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class="">(Please distribute widely)</span><br style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class=""><br style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class=""><span style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class="">Dear colleagues,</span><br style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class=""><br style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class=""><span style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class="">On behalf of the organizing and program committees we are delighted to invite you to attend the Music Encoding Conference 2016, which will be held on 17-20 May in Montréal, Canada. Registration for this event is now open. </span><span style="font-family: SourceCodePro-Regular;" class="">Details on the program, venues, and registration are available on the conference website:</span><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><a href="http://music-encoding.org/mec2016" class="">http://music-encoding.org/mec2016</a></font></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We are following the successful model of previous Music Encoding Conferences: The 17th will be a hands-on workshop day, the main program of the conference will be held on the 18th and 19th, and an "unconference" day will be held on the 20th as an opportunity for community members to self-organize tutorials, discuss research projects and collaborations, or participate in a "hack" day.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">We are delighted to announce that this year's keynote speakers will be Julia Flanders and Richard Freedman.</div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">Regular registration is available until 31 March, and "late bird" registration is be available until 8 May.</font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">Thanks to a grant by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, we are able to offer dramatically reduced prices for student registration. There are also a limited number of travel bursaries for student presenters available. Details on deadlines, eligibility, and how to apply are available on the conference website. </font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">This year we will also be inviting conference participants to attend a free public lecture and concert in collaboration with Montréal-based choir VivaVoce on the evening of Friday, 20 May. Details on this event are also available on the website.</font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">Any questions may be sent along to the conference organizers at <a href="mailto:conference2016@music-encoding.org" class="">conference2016@music-encoding.org</a>.</font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">We are looking forward to welcoming you to Montréal in May!</font></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">For the program and organizing committees,</font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">Andrew Hankinson</font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class="">Ichiro Fujinaga</font></div><div class=""><font face="SourceCodePro-Regular" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>