The 4th Global Piano Roll Meeting

This is an Archive of a Past Event

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 3 Program of Events:

9:30am – Grace Chan
Edwin Lemare’s Welte-Mignon and Aeolian player organ rolls: contextualising his influence on contemporary organ performance culture

10:00am – Joyce Tang
Playing the Piano: Between Human and Machine in Harry Gill’s Caprice

10:30am – Break

11:00am – Peter Broadwell
How to Share Playable Roll Scans with the Global Community: Lessons from the Stanford University Piano Roll Archive

11:30am – Freja Cole and Kevin Kishimoto
WikiProject Piano Rolls: Introducing a Collaborative Data Model for Piano Rolls

12:00pm – Lunch

1:30pm – Lourdes Rebollo
The Pleyela Roll Collection of the National Library of Spain – BNE

2:00pm – Esther Burgos Bordonau
Spanish and Latin American rolls in the Denis Condon collection

2:30pm – Break

3:00pm – Julian Dyer
George Gale Foster – the man who gave us the Ampico and modernised the American piano industry

3:30pm – Scott Brown
Piano Roll King — The Historical Importance of James P. Johnson’s Music Rolls

4:00pm – Break

4:30pm – Paul Johnson
An interview with Richard Riley - recut roll and Disklavier producer

5:00pm – Peter Phillips
Popular music on reproducing piano rolls

5:45pm – Concert 3: Disklavier Roll Concert

6:30pm – End of Conference

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