This past January in Houston, the College Music Society (CMS) hosted a Think-Tank Summit around the theme “Ideas into Action: Reimagining Music Schools for 2026 and Beyond.” The event was designed to build upon CMS’s history as a bold change agent and facilitator of difficult conversations. In line with similar events in the past,[1] More information on past CMS summits is available at https://www.music.org/about-cms/archives/cms-summits.html the Think-Tank Summit was built as a generative event, employing a process that was inclusive, ground-up, organic in nature, ongoing, and collaborative.

Ten years ago, CMS released Transforming Music Study from its Foundations,[2] View the complete “Manifesto” document at https://www.music.org/pdf/pubs/tfumm/TFUMM.pdf commonly known as “The Manifesto.” Both inspiring and controversial, this document undoubtedly became a major disruptor in the field of higher music education. The truth is, the Manifesto has held up well over time and might even be considered prophetic given the significant cultural and social changes we have experienced over the past decade. We lived through a global pandemic that compelled us to rethink how we create, teach, and experience music. The #MeToo movement and a national effort toward racial reconciliation helped advance discussions about whose music matters. Currently, we face political polarization and shifts that pose an existential threat to education, music, and the arts. As we stand in 2026, we hope the Think-Tank Summit will serve as a call to action, outlining a path forward and fostering conversations that will influence the years and decades ahead. The goal of the event was not to create a new “manifesto” in the traditional sense, but instead to build a compendium of bold ideas and action steps that can move the profession forward and serve as a building block for conversations in our ever-changing musical and cultural landscape.

The Think-Tank Summit focused on four pillars: Belonging, Creativity, Technology, and Advocacy. The following questions guided discussion and activities within each pillar:

Belonging

  • How do we build cultures of belonging regardless of upbringing and background?
  • Does all music matter, and if so, how do we represent this value in our curricula?
  • How do we reimagine our programming to serve music for all?
  • How do we honor our past while innovating for the future?

Creativity

  • How do we restructure everything that we do around creativity?
  • How can we align our artistic intentions as our visual art and design colleagues do?
  • What does it mean to balance technique with intention?
  • How can we empower our students to use their own creativity to uplift and impact larger university communities?

Technology

  • What is the role of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) in the creative process?
  • How should we prepare our students for the coming era of AI?
  • What lessons from the pandemic ought we better integrate moving forward?

Advocacy

  • How can we collectively advocate for the value of the arts in society?
  • What does it mean to empower and encourage our students and community to engage in citizen artistry and socially-inspired art?
  • How can we make the case for music in higher education to government and society?

As we engaged in conversations, I suggested a few additional things to consider. Among the most prominent was this: In higher education, we often adopt a version of innovation filled with compromises, with resources and structures that restrict what we can envision. What resources and structures do we need to create so that our full vision can become a reality?

The Think-Tank Summit was built as a design thinking workshop aimed at generating an action plan and roadmap for the future. It was not a conference with keynote speakers and academic presentations. Everyone who attended brought equal value as a contributing member, collaboratively creating a plan for innovation. While rooted in philosophy and theoretical discussions, the event focused on taking action and developing implementation plans that build on ongoing conversations spanning years and decades.

To document the Think-Tank Summit’s outcomes, we will produce an inspirational series of documents and videos that point to where we are heading in the future and offer potential action steps to realize our vision. Hopefully these materials will be impactful in spurring continued conversations around new paradigms for the future.

[1] More information on past CMS summits is available at https://www.music.org/about-cms/archives/cms-summits.html

[2] View the complete “Manifesto” document at https://www.music.org/pdf/pubs/tfumm/TFUMM.pdf