SPLICE Festival is a three-day festival that blends engaging live performances with new technologies. Composers, performers, and composer/performers gather for a weekend of concerts and presentations covering topics such as aesthetics, technology, and issues of performance practice, with the goal of inspiring, educating, and sharing information amongst the attendees and the students at the host institution. SPLICE Festival is designed to foster community and to create bonds between performers and composers dedicated to music that involves dynamic, live performance with technology. Unlike the SPLICE Summer Institute, the Festival takes place at a different location each year.

SPLICE Festival VII will be hosted by Colby College in Waterville, Maine from March 5-7, 2026. SPLICE Festival will include five concerts, along with presentations and hands-on workshop sessions. Concerts will feature performances selected from submitted works and a curated concert by the SPLICE Ensemble in partnership with the Portland Ballet. Presentations and workshops will serve Colby College students, festival attendees, and the general community of Waterville.

We will be accepting proposals and applications in two phases. This first call is for composers who are proposing to write a new piece for the SPLICE Ensemble. The second call, which will be issued later in the summer, will be for all other artists. Applicants whose proposed work for the SPLICE Ensemble is NOT accepted are still eligible to apply for any category in the second call when it is issued later. Applicants whose proposed work for the SPLICE Ensemble IS accepted are still eligible to apply to present workshops and lectures as a part of the second call. 

There is no application fee and no registration fee. However, participants are asked to be in attendance for the duration of the Festival.

Note: SPLICE Festival and SPLICE Institute are not the same!
SPLICE Festival essentially follows a music conference paradigm, offering 3 days of concerts, lectures, and workshops at a different host institution each year. This year it happens to be at the same institution as our annual SPLICE Institute. See below for details!

SPLICE Institute is a week-long intensive summer program that takes place every year also at Western Michigan University. In addition to concerts, lectures, and panels, we offer a series of technology classes/workshops. For more details about SPLICE Institute, see our Institute page.

Dates:
March 5-7, 2026.

Location:
All events will take place live and in person at Colby College in Waterville, Maine.