International Society for Contemporary Music


The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.
The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik following the
Internationale Kammermusikaufführungen Salzburg, a festival of modern chamber music held as part of the Salzburg Festival.
It was founded by the Austrian composer Egon Wellesz and the Cambridge academic Edward J Dent, who first met when Wellesz visited England in 1906.
In 1936 the rival Permanent Council for the International Co-operation of Composers, set up under Richard Strauss, was accused of furthering Nazi Party cultural ambitions in opposition to the non-political ISCM. British composer Herbert Bedford, acting as co-Secretary, defended its neutrality.
Aside from hiatuses in 1940 and 1943-5 due to World War II and in 2020–21 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the ISCM's core activity has been an annual festival of contemporary classical music held every year at a different location, the first of which took place in 1923 in Salzburg, which has come to be known as the ISCM World Music Days. There have been a total of 92 of these thus far, the most recent of which took place in Tallinn, Estonia in May 2019. The 2021 WMD in Shanghai and Nanning has been postponed until March 2022 and the 2022 WNMD is scheduled to take place in New Zealand in August 2022.Each year, during the World Music Days. ISCM members also convene in a General Assembly. Membership in the ISCM is organized through national sections that promote contemporary music in each country. These sections are usually organizations independent from the ISCM that send delegates to the ISCM General Assembly. Each member of the national section is also a member of ISCM and may send in 6 works that are evaluated for performance at the World Music Days. National organizations that promote contemporary music, but have not been designated as the nation section of ISCM, are sometimes given an associate membership status. This status also applies to the members of these organizations. Some individual music professionals receive the "honorary membership" status. The ISCM is governed by an executive committee consisting of seven people; two are appointed positions and the remaining five are chosen from and by the delegates in an election during the General Assembly.
Since 1991, the ISCM has also published an annual World New Music Magazine, a print publication that is distributed to its members for further dissemination. A total of 28 issues have been produced. Recent magazine issues are available as digitally downloadable PDFs from the ISCM's website. ISCM is a member of the International Music Council. The current members of the executive committee of the ISCM are: Frank J. Oteri, President; Rebecca Diependaele, Vice President; Oľga Smetanova, Secretary General; David Pay, Treasurer; Chialin Pan ; Magnus Bunnskog ; Deborah Keyser, and Wolfgang Renzl, Legal Counsel.

ISCM World Music Days

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  • 1923 in Salzburg, Austria
  • 1924 in Prague, Czechoslovakia and Salzburg, Austria
  • 1925 in Prague, Cezechoslovakia and Venice, Italy
  • 1926 in Zürich, Switzerland
  • 1927 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • 1928 in Siena, Italy
  • 1929 in Geneva, Switzerland
  • 1930 in Liège/Brussels, Belgium
  • 1931 in Oxford/London, England
  • 1932 in Vienna, Austria
  • 1933 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1934 in Florence, Italy
  • 1935 in Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • 1936 in Barcelona, Spain
  • 1937 in Paris, France
  • 1938 in London, England
  • 1939 in Warsaw/Krakau, Poland
  • 1941 in New York, New York, U.S.A.
  • 1942 in Berkeley, California, U.S.A.
  • 1946 in London, England
  • 1947 in Copenhagen/Lund, Denmark
  • 1948 in Amsterdam/Scheveningen, Netherlands
  • 1949 in Palermo/Taormina, Italy
  • 1950 in Brussels, Belgium
  • 1951 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • 1952 in Salzburg, Austria
  • 1953 in Oslo, Norway
  • 1954 in Haifa, Israel
  • 1955 in Baden-Baden, West Germany
  • 1956 in Stockholm, Sweden
  • 1957 in Zürich, Switzerland
  • 1958 in Strasbourg, France
  • 1959 in Rome/Naples, Italy
  • 1960 in Cologne, West Germany
  • 1961 in Vienna, Austria
  • 1962 in London, England
  • 1963 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1964 in Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 1965 in Madrid, Spain
  • 1966 in Stockholm, Sweden
  • 1967 in Prague, Czechoslovakia
  • 1968 in Warsaw, Poland
  • 1969 in Hamburg, West Germany
  • 1970 in Basel, Switzerland
  • 1971 in London, England
  • 1972 in Graz, Austria
  • 1973 in Reykjavík, Iceland
  • 1974 in Rotterdam/Utrecht/Amsterdam/Den Haag/Hilversum, Netherlands
  • 1975 in Paris, France
  • 1976 in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  • 1977 in Bonn, West Germany
  • 1978 in Stockholm, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland
  • 1979 in Athens, Geeece
  • 1980 in Jerusalem/Tel Aviv/Be'er Scheva/Kibbuz Schefajim, Israel
  • 1981 in Brusells/Gent, Belgium
  • 1982 in Graz, Austria
  • 1983 in Aarhus, Denmark
  • 1984 in Toronto/Montreal, Canada
  • 1985 in The Netherlands
  • 1986 in Budapest, Hungary
  • 1987 in Cologne/Bonn/Frankfurt am Main, West Germany
  • 1988 in Hong Kong
  • 1989 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • 1990 in Oslo, Norway
  • 1991 in Zürich, Switzerland
  • 1992 in Warsaw, Poland
  • 1993 in Mexico City, Mexico
  • 1994 in Stockholm, Sweden
  • 1995 in Essen/Bochum/Dortmund/Duisburg, Germany
  • 1996 in Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 1997 in Seoul, South Korea
  • 1998 in Manchester, England
  • 1999 in Romania/Moldova
  • 2000 in Luxembourg
  • 2001 in Yokohama, Japan
  • 2002 in Hong Kong S.A.R., China
  • 2003 in Slovenia
  • 2004 in Switzerland
  • 2005 in Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2006 in Stuttgart, Germany
  • 2007 in Hong Kong S.A.R., China
  • 2008 in Vilnius, Lithuania
  • 2009 in Sweden
  • 2010 in Sydney, Australia
  • 2011 in Zagreb, Croatia
  • 2012 in Belgium
  • 2013 in Košice/Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria
  • 2014 in Wroclaw, Poland
  • 2015 in Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 2016 in Tongyeong, South Korea
  • 2017 in Vancouver, Canada
  • 2018 in Peking, China
  • 2019 in Tallinn, Estonia
  • 2020 in Auckland/Christchurch, New Zealand postponed to 2022
  • 2021 in Shanghai/Nanning, cancelled
  • 2022 in Auckland/Christchurch, New Zealand
  • 2023 in Johannesburg/Soweto/Cape Town, South Africa
  • 2024 in the Faroe Islands
  • 2025 in Lisbon/Porto, Portugal
  • 2026 in Bucharest, Romania

ISCM Honorary Members

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ISCM ExCom (Update: July 17, 2025)

  • Frank J. Oteri, U.S.A.
  • Rebecca Diependaele, Belgium
  • Magnus Bunnskog, Sweden
  • Chia-Lin Pan, Taiwan
  • Deborah Keyser, Wales
  • David Pay, Music on Main/Canada
  • Oľga Smetanová, Slovakia

ISCM World Music Days jury members

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Significant premieres at ISCM World Music Days

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Significant performances at ISCM World Music Days

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