Abstract
The International Society for Music Education (ISME) celebrated its 60th anniversary on July 7, 2013. This article documents a history of the Society in its sixth decade (2003–2013). Two interrelated perspectives, consolidation and expansion, are used to synthesize patterns of development. Various partnerships created and sustained by ISME enabled and facilitated the internal work of structural consolidation and the external work of global expansion. These patterns of development are set in the context of three themes used in an earlier history of ISME – democracy, diversity, and dialogue – to lend continuity to the ongoing documentation of the Society’s history.
When a professional association celebrations a milestone anniversary of its foundation, the occasion provides an opportunity to remember and assess past achievements and envision future directions. On July 7, 2013, the International Society for Music Education (ISME) celebrated its 60th anniversary. To mark its 50th anniversary, the Society published the book, Toward a Global Community: The International Society for Music Education, 1953–2003 (McCarthy, 2004). The history of the Society in its sixth decade (2003–2013) is documented in this article. Based on a reading of the Society’s archival materials and publications from the sixth decade as well as correspondence with ISME leaders of the time period, I found abundant evidence of significant growth and achievement in the consolidation of the Society’s infrastructures and financial status, and in the expansion of its global reach and influence. Such growth was made possible by the tireless work of earlier leaders and advocates (see Appendix A for a list of honorary members inducted during this decade).
The marking of the 50th anniversary through publication and extensive coverage at the XXVI World Conference in Tenerife in 2004 served to strengthen the core of the Society as it progressed through the sixth decade. There was a sense of ending one era and launching a new chapter of the Society. Energies became focused as the way forward was imagined and articulated. To summarize patterns of development in the sixth decade, I choose two interrelated perspectives – consolidation and expansion – and show that the various partnerships ISME developed enabled and facilitated the internal work of structural consolidation and the external work of global expansion. These patterns of development are set in the context of three themes that I used to synthesize challenges encountered in the first 50 years (1953-2003): democracy, diversity, and dialogue (McCarthy, 2004). The goal of returning to these themes is to lend continuity to the ongoing documentation of ISME’s history.
Consolidation of the society’s structures and resources
To consolidate in this context means to reinforce and strengthen the position of the Society, and to unite its vision and activities into a more coherent whole. I interpret the Society’s progress in this decade as leading to a position of greater consolidation. President Liane Hentschke (2006–2008) spoke to such consolidation, and her words could be attributed to activity across all the biennia of the sixth decade. She stressed the need for:
… consolidating ISME in terms of its worldwide visibility and uniqueness as the key organization representing music education internationally. … ISME has to continue to seek partnerships, to seek financial development and political awareness, so to have a prominent social role around the world – a greater political and social outreach. (Hentschke, 2006, p. 2)
Evidence of consolidation was found in the following areas of the Society’s archival materials and publications: identity and image, communication with membership, financial status, and infrastructure.
Identity and image
With increasing visibility via the internet, questions of identity and image were given priority and motivated action and policy making. Around the time of the 50th anniversary, the relationship of various subgroups and activities to the center of the Society was evaluated. There was concern that conferences and seminars held in association with the Society and carrying its logo did not always conform to ISME standards. As the decade progressed, a Memo of Agreement was put in place with the host institutions of Commission seminars, which stipulated that ISME logos and identification be included in all seminar materials, and that financial arrangements be in line with ISME policy. The revised ISME Declaration of Beliefs approved in July, 2006 (ISME, 2006b), as well as the policy that accompanied the use of the logo, were to be used henceforth on the ISME website and in relation to all ISME publications (ISME, 2006c).
Communication with membership
Regular communication with ISME members was seen as vital to the Society’s development, and keeping operations transparent and members informed about the Society’s activities and developments were frequently cited in official documents as important to the future of the Society. The speed and efficacy of electronic communication enabled the leadership to achieve these goals. Electronic postcards began to be issued on ISME’s 50th birthday on July 7, 2003, accompanied by the following message: “Happy Birthday ISME! 50 Years Today”. One decade later, postcard #156 was issued on July 14, 2013. Postcards were particularly useful for conveying information in an expedient manner, reminding members of deadlines and providing updates on the Society’s activities.
ISME newsletters, the first of which was issued in May 1996, continued with remarkable consistency and stability in their design, format, and function throughout the decade. For example, a series of advocacy articles called “Music Education Around the World”, which began in the May–June 2002 issue of the Newsletter (Threlfall, 2002), continued through the decade with No. 23 in the series published in the 2013 April–May issue (Katsochi & Androutsos, 2013). In addition to such articles, the newsletter served as a forum for communication from the president and a sharing of news related to the Society – from Commissions to ISME National Affiliates (INA) and regional developments, sponsorship programs to member obituaries, awards and citations to conference updates. The ISME Board supported the continued production of print copies to service music educators in countries where access to the internet was limited and expensive (J. Thönell, personal communication, April 25, 2015).
Electronic communication also impacted the progress of elections and policy decision-making – for example, member voting via the ISME website was introduced in 2004. Thus, all members had the option of voting for new officers, not only those who were present at the biennial world conferences. In addition, electronic communication facilitated the administration of the Society and officer voting in the interim between Board meetings.
The development and function of the website dominated discussions during the decade. It prompted attention to policies, copyright and intellectual property issues, product promotion and advertising, and consideration of what ought to be accessible to members only. A new website was launched in March, 2003. As an indicator of the use of the website after two years, the monthly average of hits for the eight months leading up to July, 2005 was around 20,000 (ISME, 2005b). The website became increasingly important to the Society’s growth, and the need for financial support to maintain a high standard became clear to the leadership. In 2006, a Website Management Committee was established and Steve Woods who had developed the Society’s electronic operations since October, 2001, served as its Webmaster until July, 2008. The next phase of web development began in February, 2009 when Evangelos Himonides was hired as Webmaster. Modes and media for communicating with ISME members expanded considerably in the sixth decade, in response to changing technologies and new digital media that facilitated ongoing dialogue between ISME Executive and Board, the leadership and members, and among members of interest groups.
Financial status
Similar to other aspects of the Society’s operations, the years around the 50th anniversary stimulated an evaluation of finances. Increasing financial resources was highlighted as a goal for the Society, not only for specific projects to expand the reach of the Society but also for securing operations. The ISME Office oversaw banking and finances for the greater part of the decade. During the same period, it became clear that the ongoing management of the increasingly complex financial affairs would benefit from expert advice. Already in 2002, President Giacomo Oliva and President Elect and Past Treasurer Gary McPherson formed a financial development committee. When McPherson assumed the presidency in 2004, he continued to focus on the need to increase and strengthen ISME’s financial reserves to make the Society more financially independent (ISME, 2004b, 2005a).
Financial operations began to be professionalized, drawing on outside expertise and calculating long-term projections based on the budget of preceding years. In 2005, President McPherson outlined some areas in need of consolidation: bank accounts, transferring funds from accounts in different countries into one currency, and investigating the best strategies to add to and grow ISME investments and build a substantial capital fund (McPherson, 2005, p. 2). Consolidating finances continued to receive considerable attention. A Finance Advisory Committee was reformed in 2006, and in 2009 a Fundraising and Sponsorship Task Group was established with a Board member as Chair. In 2011, the Finance Advisory Committee was gradually taken over by a professional company – the Morton Group – to administer all the Society’s financial operations. Ian Harvey was appointed as Finance Officer in early 2012, accountable to the ISME Executive Committee.
The building of sponsorships was one of the most significant developments of the decade in terms of achieving financial stability. Early in the decade, Yamaha President Ito donated a gift from Yamaha of one million yen, which was used to secure the publication of the ISME 50th anniversary history. Yamaha contributed a further donation of 500,000 yen to support the exhibition of Asian textbooks at the ISME XXVII World Conference in Kuala Lumpur in July, 2006. Within the same time period, 2005–2006, two major sponsorships were secured, one with the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and the other with the Gibson Foundation. A few years later, under the leadership of President Graham Welch (2010–2012), the ISME Development Fund was established with an initial sum of $25,000 drawing on internal funds (ISME, 2010c). With the goal of supporting music educators and their projects in underserved communities, this action signaled to ISME’s industry partners a commitment to engaging in charitable work (G. Welch, personal communication, April 12, 2015).
Infrastructure
International office
The role of Secretary General is vital to the welfare of the Society. Judy Thönell served in that office from October, 2001 until July, 2012, providing continuity and stability to the operations of the Society at a transformative time in its history. After an interim term during which Emily Akuno served in the role, Angela Ruggles assumed the role of Secretary General on January 7, 2013, and the International Office is now located in London, UK.
Administrative committees
Leading into this decade, one of the goals was to engage more members in the operation of the Society and to empower them to contribute to its development. Focus Groups had been introduced into the organizational structure in 2000 with the Membership, Publications, Sponsorship, and Youth groups. Additional groups were added beginning in 2002 1 and in 2004 the Board approved the addition of Standing Committees. 2 In addition to Focus Groups and Standing Committees, several other working groups and committees were set up for specific purposes such as awards, 3 finance, strategic planning, 4 and web management. 5 Collectively, these groups facilitated the implementation of the overall vision of the Society and engaged more members in its operations. Such development reflected a Society on the move, in the business of consolidating its operations, evaluating and expanding its global reach and impact, and responding to advancements in telecommunications.
Commissions
These seven specialized groups have a long history in ISME, beginning with the Research Commission in 1968. In 2002, a formal review of the Commissions was initiated with results reported to all commissioners in 2003. A primary goal of this decade was to consolidate the position and operation of the commissions in relation to the core mission of the Society. During the 2004–2006 biennium, President Elect Liane Hentschke worked with Commission Chairs to implement the recommendations of the review. A representative from each Commission attended the ISME Strategic Retreat in Anaheim on January 18–19, 2006. The outcome of the discussions was summarized in action items: reach a broader membership; disseminate and publish each Commission’s work more effectively within and beyond ISME; continually adapt, modify and revise their mission, function, and thinking in order to keep up with the pace of change; and, strengthen the interface between commissions and ISME (McPherson, 2006, p. 2).
As an outcome of the Strategic Retreat, the Board and Commissions approved an extensive ISME Commissions Policy in June, 2006 which was subsequently included in the ISME Policy Manual (ISME, 2006a). 6 As President Elect (2006–2008), Håkan Lundström was Chair of the Council of Commission Chairs and Board Liaisons and worked with individual commissions. Later in the decade, Commission Chairs met with the Board for the first time in 2011 during the year between biennial conferences. The primary intention was to further strengthen connections between the commissions and ISME leadership and for the Chairs to be active in the strategic and developmental work of ISME.
The goal of consolidating the commissions within the Society’s infrastructure took priority over the development of new commissions. Instead of ratifying proposals for new commissions, other group structures were developed – for example, interest groups whose work could be integrated into the context of world conferences. I refer to the Forum for Instrumental and Vocal Teaching and Special Interest Groups (SIG) to which I will return later.
Regional conferences
The concept of region was developed within the structure of the Society prior to this decade, particularly in the context of Latin America and Africa. The time was ripe for regional activity to come center stage. In 2003, a policy on Regional Conferences was added to the ISME Policy Manual. This move was part of a new disposition in which ISME took greater control of the organization of conferences. In 2006, President Liane Hentschke described a plan to “create a concept that will enable us to address specific regional issues, without losing sight of the global issues” (Hentschke, 2006, p. 2). In subsequent years, ISME collaborated on regional conferences in Europe and Asia, a development that will be addressed later. A related effort to consolidate operations was found in the organization of conferences. The Conferences Standing Committee, approved by the Board in 2004, worked to create guidelines that would provide continuity in the planning of world conferences.
As evident in various aspects of the Society’s development examined here, one of the major accomplishments during the sixth decade was consolidation of its structures and resources. This occurred at a variety of levels, from the unified image that ISME projected, its communication with membership, organization of financial resources, and in the very infrastructure of the Society. The intense work to consolidate within overlapped with a movement outward to serve music educators globally.
The grand expansion of the society
As the sixth decade of ISME was launched, President Gary McPherson (2004–2006) looked forward with “a great sense of expectation” about the future of the Society. He wrote:
Our collective dream is that the coming decade will result in a more rapid expansion of our organisation, particularly in those parts of the world where we have traditionally been under-represented, and that we will see our Society grow to a level where our numbers truly come from every corner of the globe. (McPherson, 2004, p. 2)
Six years later in 2010, immediate Past President Håkan Lundström noted that “ISME is a continuously growing organization – not only in numbers, but also in perspectives and in activities” (Lundström, 2010, p. 7). Just as the Society consolidated its operations and strengthened its relationships with the Commissions, the regions and the world conference hosts, it also sought to increase membership in all regions of the world, expand the scope of regional conferences, increase and diversify publications, and support the development of special interest groups.
Membership: A key development
The formation of a Membership Focus Group in 2000 reflected a new effort to reach out to current members and assess their concerns, to promote the Society and recruit new members, and to show how the Society can meet the needs of music educators. Tasks taken up by the Focus Group included developing proposals for student membership, reviewing group memberships and ISME National Affiliates (INA), and targeting countries that were not yet members e.g. in the regions of Africa and Asia (ISME, 2002). Student membership brought to the surface several unique issues, among them – fees, verification of student status, forms of payment, and the length of term of student memberships (ISME, 2004a). Regardless of the challenges identified, the importance of establishing a category of student membership remained a goal and was put into action when memberships began to be processed in January, 2005.
Two new categories of group membership had been created in 2000 – Group Membership and ISME National Affiliate (INA). In order to facilitate the renewal of the six-year term for INA, the INA Working Committee, approved in 2006, was given the charge to increase Group membership. To sustain membership in the non-conference years, the Membership Focus Group in collaboration with the ISME Executive Committee and Board, prepared a proposal in the 2008–2010 biennium to eliminate rolling memberships and introduce a two-year membership by calendar year. Incoming President Graham Welch presented a proposal at the XXIX General Assembly in Beijing in 2010 to change the Bylaw so that membership in the Society “shall be for a two-year period beginning on the first of January each year, commencing on 1st January 2011”. The proposal was approved (ISME, 2010b). Figure 1 shows growth in Individual and Group membership numbers during the sixth decade.
Individual and group membership, 2004–2012.
Outreach to members in low and medium HDI countries
One of the changes in membership policy unique to this decade was the introduction of a differentiated fee structure based on the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI categories range from Very High, High, Medium, to Low. When applied to ISME membership, the categories acknowledge the different financial resources available to individual members. A related effort to sponsor members from Low and Medium countries to participate in the Society also reflects a commitment to expanding the reach of the Society. The Sponsorship Programme, founded during the 1996–1998 biennium by Honorary Life Member, Graham Bartle, has been instrumental in bringing music educators from Low and Medium countries into the Society and affording them the opportunity to attend conferences. 7 Various kinds of sponsorship supported the Programme: donations from members, direct payment of membership fees by ISME members for people from less advantaged countries, and other sponsored memberships such as the African Project.
The African continent was one of the first to benefit directly from the Programme. The Pan African Society for Music and Arts Education (PASMAE) received 183 free ISME memberships in 2002, funded by a grant from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry (ISME, 2003b). South African ISME member Caroline van Niekerk coordinated the memberships and encouraged African participation in ISME. The African membership in 2003 was 187, many renewing for their second term of free membership and availing of the grant. Once the grant ended, most African members were unable to renew membership and at the end of June, 2005, there were only 17 members from the African continent (ISME, 2005a). The outcome of the Sponsorship grant in Africa stimulated further discussion about how to assist music educators in Low and Medium HDI countries and sustain support for their participation. By 2008, Bartle reported that in addition to membership, the Sponsorship Programme supported financially disadvantaged music educators to attend ISME World Conferences:
Through the generosity of a number of individual donors and a large donation from SEMPRE [Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research] the Sponsorship Committee has been able to sponsor 29 delegates to attend the Bologna conference. This is by far the largest group to be sponsored and it is heartening to know of the willingness of members and others with the interests of ISME at heart to make it possible for those from medium and low HDI countries to actually be present at a conference. (Bartle, 2008)
In 2010, 21 sponsored delegates from Pakistan, Russia, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam attended the XXIX World Conference in Beijing. Eight sponsored delegates, supported by donations from SEMPRE and The Callaway Bequest, representing Egypt, India, Nigeria, Palestine, Syria, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, participated in the XXX World Conference in Thessaloniki in 2012.
The effort to sponsor music educators to participate in ISME world conferences continued to the end of the decade. Marking anniversaries afforded a special opportunity to highlight the Society’s goal. To mark the 50th anniversary in 2003, 50 students were sponsored to attend the XXVI World Conference in Tenerife, Spain (M. Díaz, personal communication, April 30, 2015). A similar and expanded effort was enacted to mark the 60th anniversary of ISME in 2013. President Margaret Barrett (2012–2014) led the initiative to confer 120 anniversary memberships, two for every year of its existence, to individuals and groups across the globe (Barrett, 2013a, p. 2).
As evident from the nations represented by the delegates sponsored to attend conferences, the Society reached into new countries and regions in this decade, with concrete developments in the African continent and in China. More recent developments include Arab countries and the Middle East as well as India. And to end the sixth decade, under the leadership of President Margaret Barrett, the Board of Directors endorsed the development of ISME’s Philanthropic Charter through the establishment of a series of ISME sponsored awards: The Steve Dillon ISME World Conference Award, the ISME World Conference Awards and the ISME Sponsored Delegate Awards (Barrett, 2013b, p. 2). 8
A global plan for the regions
Each region has a unique history within ISME, resulting in part from the status, development, and organization of music education in the countries that comprise the region.
Latin America
Connections with Latin America have deep roots, going back to the founding of ISME. Music educators in Latin American countries have been active in each decade of ISME’s development. In 2003, ISME drew up a formal arrangement with the organizers of the already established Latin American conference to grant it status as “ISME Regional Activity”. Thus, the fourth Latin American regional conference in Mexico City in August, 2003 became the first ISME Latin American Regional Conference. To expand the concept of the Americas as a region, in 2010 North American music educators convened in Anaheim to discuss the development of a Pan-American region. The outcome led to ISME Pan-American regional conferences in 2011 and again in 2013. (See Appendix B for the list of ISME Latin American/Pan-American Regional Conferences.)
Africa
Turning to the African continent, in the aftermath of the XXIII ISME World Conference in Pretoria in 1998, the Society continued to support music education in Africa, especially through PASMAE which was launched in 2000 and its constitution ratified in 2001. Since ISME and its members in Africa were deeply involved in the founding of PASMAE, a regional conference held in collaboration with ISME seemed a natural outgrowth. The first ISME–PASMAE Regional Conference took place in Kisumu, Kenya in 2003. (See Appendix B for the list of ISME–PASMAE Regional Conferences.)
Europe
ISME–Europe held its first ISME regional conference in 2007. Prior to that, European members of ISME had been highly influential in the Society’s development. However, no partnership in the form of a regional conference existed. The move to change that situation began in the early 2000s when President Giacomo Oliva reached out to the European Association of Schools (EAS), the umbrella organization for diverse professional music groups. He strengthened the liaison between ISME and EAS, attending the EAS conference in Vienna in May, 2003 and later in the same year attending a board meeting of the organization. The partnership grew and culminated in a conference collaboration in 2007, followed by others in 2009, 2011, 2013. President Liane Hentschke observed in 2007 that “expanding the Society’s range of public partnerships” can open the possibility of holding regional conferences in other parts of the world” (Hentschke, 2007, p. 2). The birth of the ISME–European regional conferences illustrates her statement. (See Appendix B for the list of ISME–European regional conferences.)
Asia-Pacific
Similar to Europe, several countries in the Asia-Pacific region participated actively in ISME from the early years, particularly Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. Strong networks were in place to establish an ISME regional conference collaboration in Asia. The Asia-Pacific Symposium on Music Education Research (APSMER) was established in 1997 when the first Symposium was held in South Korea. Its development was influenced by conversations held at ISME World Conferences and the model of the ISME Research Seminar. Beginning in 2007 the ISME–APSMER Regional Conference was initiated followed by biennial conferences in various locations in Asia. (See Appendix B for the list of regional conferences.)
In addition to regional conferences, in this decade several initiatives focused on China and South Asian countries, evident in the location of two of the five world conferences in Kuala Lumpur (2006) and Beijing (2010), the latter being the largest in ISME history. Outreach to China began as early as 2002, when ISME leaders began to foster relationships with Chinese music educators. Under the leadership of President Elect Gary McPherson (2002–2004), this initiative was realized. The President’s Report to the General Assembly in July, 2004 included news of the expanding membership base in China and Malaysia:
It is relevant to note that in recent months there have been some major successes such that both Malaysia and China now have music education societies with INA status. As an example, the China Music Education Society, which joined ISME as a group member and was subsequently conferred INA status, represents and has contact with over 400,000 music teachers throughout mainland China. (ISME, 2004c)
Emerging regional connections
The will to expand ISME’s reach into new countries continued, this time into the Middle East/North Africa and South Asian countries, particularly India. When world conferences were held in southern Europe (Bologna in 2008 and Thessaloniki in 2012), leaders made an effort to connect with music educators in the Middle East due to the relative proximity to the region. Similarly, there are initiatives under way to establish ISME’s presence in India, begun during President Graham Welch’s term of office (2010–2012). In that biennium, President Elect Margaret Barrett visited India in November 2011 and March 2012 to make initial contacts with a number of individuals and groups (ISME, 2012a, 2012c) and this effort was expanded during her presidency (2012–2014). ISME sponsors such as NAMM, SEMPRE, and SAGE enabled the Society to hold meetings and seminars to bring music education leaders in India together to meet with key individuals in the music education sector (ISME, 2014).
The expansion of global connections during this decade was significant, achieved through regional conferences, exploratory work, and focused seminars in new areas such as China and India, and sponsorship of music educators in previously underrepresented countries to attend world conferences. Writing on the regional conferences project, Past President Liane Hentschke noted that the development represented “a huge step forward in promoting ISME outreach activities”, showing the international community that ISME is “an active society concerned with promoting equal opportunity to all regions”. Furthermore, the project advanced its goal “to develop: a) a worldwide communication and sharing system throughout the regions; b) a platform for discussing and acting upon new music education projects; and, c) effective partnerships with national and regional organisations” (Hentschke, 2010, p. 13). President Margaret Barrett (2012–2014) drew a similar conclusion when she wrote that the regional initiative “has proven a successful means of generating increased engagement with global communities and ensuring that ISME continues its work beyond the experience of the World Conference” (2012, p. 2).
Serving music educators around the world
Publications
During the 2002–2004 biennium through the work of President Elect Gary McPherson and Wendy Sims, Chair of the Publications Standing Committee, ISME entered into an agreement with SAGE Publications to produce future issues of the International Journal of Music Education (IJME). The number of issues increased from two to three with a different focus for each: Research, Showcase, and Practice. The new arrangement was launched with the April issue of 2004. Three years later, Sims observed that IJME had achieved “unprecedented success since our publication and distribution agreement with SAGE Publications. Not only has the number of subscriptions increased; the quantity and quality of submissions had risen, as well” (2007, p. 5). Beginning in 2008 and continuing today, the number of issues per year increased from three to four and the focus changed from one issue each of Research, Showcase, and Practice to two issues each of Research and Practice. The ISME Newsletter was distributed biannually throughout the decade, with considerable consistency in the format and content categories.
Establishment of interest groups
The first interest group to become formalized was the Forum for Instrumental and Vocal Teaching. It started out as an Interest Group in 2005 and held a pre-conference seminar in Shah Alam, Malaysia in 2006, in advance of the XXVIII ISME World Conference in Kuala Lumpur. Coordinated by Graham Bartle, the group targeted music educators whose interests were not previously catered for within ISME. The group was granted the status of Forum in 2008, with Graham Bartle as Chair (2008–2010). Policies put in place for the newly established Forum reflected the Society’s effort to build close relationships with all groups under its aegis. They included oversight of policy development and funding plans, integration of Forum conference sessions into ISME world conferences, and ISME membership and conference registration for all Forum participants. With requests for other new Forums, a pilot scheme was put in place for the XXIX World Conference in Beijing in 2010 to explore the model of strands or Special Interest Groups (SIG). Supported by President Graham Welch, this initiative was further developed and by the end of the biennium in July, 2012, there were 9 SIGs active within the Society (ISME, 2012b). 9
Role of partnerships in enabling consolidation and expansion
The two principal directions taken by the Society during its sixth decade – consolidation and expansion – were energized and enabled by the development of external partnerships with sponsors, professional organizations, and music industry. Such partnerships had a significant effect on various aspects of ISME’s progress throughout the decade: regional development through liaisons with professional organizations, membership expansion through sponsorship programs, and budget enrichment through various sources of funding. ISME’s overall agency as a pivotal force in global music education was thus strengthened.
Partnerships began to be developed in the early 2000s with the help of a Networks and International Liaisons Group that focused on building relationships with organizations and developing dialogue with partners without competing with them (ISME, 2003a; McPherson, 2005, p. 2). As partnerships began to develop, the Society made a distinction between groups or organizations that become ISME Group Members and those with whom ISME has reciprocal arrangements beneficial to both parties. Reciprocal arrangements were formalized with a Memorandum of Understanding being drawn up between ISME and such organizations. The ways in which groups are categorized over the decade show the evolution of ISME partnerships (see Appendix C).
The development of major sponsorships in this decade began when Presidents Giacomo Oliva and Gary McPherson worked with the National Association for Music Merchants (NAMM) for over a year to build the relationship, culminating in A Memorandum of Understanding signed on June 5, 2005. Immediately the fruits of the partnership were evident. Sponsorship from NAMM enabled ISME to hold meetings in Anaheim in January 2006, to attend the Beijing Forum in May 2006 and to have the Sesame Workshop at the World Conference in 2006 (ISME, 2006c). Furthermore, NAMM sponsored ISME Executive meetings and retreats during the NAMM trade show in Anaheim from 2006 to 2012, and in Moscow in 2013. Beginning in 2007, NAMM provided grants of US$5,000 for each ISME Regional Conference after the conference organizer signed a Memorandum of Understanding (ISME, 2007). The Society acknowledged NAMM’s contributions over the years when it presented the Association with the first ISME Global Sonar Award in January, 2012 “in recognition of its steadfast support for music education on a global scale” (Welch, 2013, p. 9).
The Gibson Foundation joined forces with ISME to establish ongoing awards for music educators, to be called the ISME–Gibson International Awards for Music Education, inaugurated at the 2006 World Conference. The Awards carried prizes of US$20,000, US$5,000 worth of instruments/resources, and a handmade commemorative Gibson guitar for each recipient (for the list of awardees, see Appendix D). After three cycles of grant awards, President Graham Welch appointed an ISME Advisory Group for Gibson Awards (AGGA) in 2011 to review the award and the ISME–Gibson partnership. A second category of award, the ISME–Gibson Community Music Awards, was added in 2007 with a donation of US$100,000 from the Gibson Foundation. This Award was presented every second (uneven) year, granted to Catherine Pestano in 2007 for the Croydon Intercultural Singing Project and in 2009 to the Hadahur project in Timor-Leste. 10 A third sponsor deserving recognition for generous funding is the Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE). Between 2010 and 2013 it provided the equivalent of US$85,910 in funds to support conference awards and enable several collaborative initiatives with ISME members, such as those in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India (G. Welch, personal communication, March 22 and May 6, 2015).
Other partnerships served as global networks in supporting ISME’s reach across the globe. In earlier decades, ISME participated regularly in the activities of the International Music Council of UNESCO, its parent organization. In this decade, activity related to UNESCO was found in ISME’s co-founding of the World Alliance for Arts Education (WAAE) in Lisbon in March, 2006. Working with other world arts education organizations (inSEA, WDA, and IDEA), the UNESCO International Arts Education Week was founded in 2012 (M. Barrett, personal communication, May 4, 2015). Participation in WAAE locates ISME in its original space of UNESCO while expanding its reach and influence through a forum that unites global efforts in the name of arts education.
Partnerships played a significant role in realizing ISME’s vision and goals. They enabled the Society to consolidate its operations and infrastructure, unite communities in the name of global music education, and expand its reach and influence into new regions of the world.
Democracy, diversity, dialogue: Moving the agenda forward
In the history of ISME’s first 50 years (McCarthy, 2004), I identified three themes that dominated the development of the Society – democracy, diversity, and dialogue. I return to these themes in an effort to synthesize the story of ISME’s sixth decade and lend continuity to the ongoing documentation of its history.
Toward democracy: The call of social responsibility
Democratic ideals were advanced through various aspects of the Society’s vision and strategic planning. They can be summarized in discourse and action around social responsibility, specifically access and inclusion. The ISME Strategic Plan, approved in August, 2010, focused on the promotion of music in the education of people throughout the world: “ISME will be a key resource serving the diverse needs of music education worldwide” (ISME, 2010a). President Graham Welch (2010–2012) addressed the agenda succinctly when he stated: “We believe that access to music and music education is a fundamental right for all people of all cultures and we will seek every opportunity to support underserved communities wherever these exist” (2012, p. 2).
New to this decade was a concerted effort to reach out specifically to “underserved communities”. The sense of responsibility to all music educators regardless of social standing was foremost in the minds of ISME leaders, and increasingly so as the decade advanced. Outreach to music educators living in low and medium HDI countries who did not have the financial resources to join and participate in ISME was a consistent theme. This effort included initiatives to finance their membership, to bring them to conferences, and to recruit Board members from countries classified as low HDI and enable them to carry out duties of their offices by providing full economic support to attend Board meetings (Lundström, 2009, p. 2).
A focus on social justice was evident in extending an invitation to the founder of El Sistema, José Abreu, to the 2004 World Conference in Tenerife, in supporting the development of the El Sistema Special Interest Group, and in the establishment of ISME’s Philanthropic Charter and Conference Awards. Furthermore, the series of advocacy articles, “Music Education Around the World”, published in the Newsletter, described projects from diverse communities including those in low and medium HDI countries. A disposition of inclusion was reflected in the adoption of distance voting rights in 2004. This was the first time in the history of ISME that electronic voting took place and that all members could vote, even those not attending the biennial conference. Inclusiveness was also evident in underlying efforts to engage and empower more ISME members in the Society’s leadership and professional interest groups. Further evidence of inclusion as an ideal was found in the Society embracing the linguistic diversity of its members.
The dominance of the English language has always been a barrier to full participation for many whose first language is not English. In this decade there is abundant evidence of increasing linguistic diversity in the Society’s publications, with article abstracts published in languages other than English, translations included in the ISME Newsletter, guidelines provided to those making conference presentations, and assistance given to non-English speakers to have their work presented and published. To culminate efforts to diversify the language of its publications, in 2013 ISME celebrated the launch of Revista Internacional de Educación Musical, a peer-reviewed journal in Spanish edited by José Luis Aróstegui Plaza (Board Member, 2012–). 11
The Publications Standing Committee initiated a mentorship program in 2008 to assist authors of full papers submitted for inclusion in the ISME 2008 conference proceedings. That assistance extended to the publication of articles in the IJME. Chair of the Publications Standing Committee, Wendy Sims (2008), commented: “We believe that this member-to-member mentoring initiative represents the best of the ISME spirit of sharing, cooperation, and facilitation of cross-cultural understanding and partnerships” (p. 13). This level of outreach to members embraces not only the ideals of democracy but also contributes to the ideals of diversity upon which the Society was founded.
Expanding the meaning and presence of diversity
In the first 50 years of ISME’s existence, there was a consistent focus on and attention to musical and cultural diversity. Such diversity was present in the ISME Declaration of mission and core values approved in 2006: with respect to international and intercultural understandings and cooperation, ISME believes that “the richness and diversity of the world’s music provides opportunities for intercultural learning and international understanding, co-operation and peace; and, in music education everywhere, respect for all kinds of music should be emphasized” (ISME, 2006b).
The following year, a Working Group chaired by Huib Shippers and Håkan Lundström was created to revisit the Policy on Music of the World’s Cultures approved in 1994. The review culminated in the approval of a new policy, ISME Policy on Cultural Diversity in Music Education in July, 2010. While musical diversity was typically represented by ethnic musics in the early years, in this decade there is evidence of expanding musical cultures to include popular music, the theme at the World Conference in Tenerife in 2004, and various genres of community music.
In addition to continuing its legacy of promoting musical and cultural diversity, the ISME leadership was active in promoting geographic, socioeconomic, and linguistic diversity during this decade. ISME reached out to music educators in countries heretofore not active in the Society – countries in the Middle East, China, and South Asia. The site of the world conferences was varied in location: Tenerife, Kuala Lumpur, Bologna, Beijing, and Thessaloniki (see Appendix E for conference details). Similar to earlier decades, conference themes illustrated unique local cultures – for example, Sentuhan in Kuala Lumpur or Music Pædeia in Thessaloniki. More diverse formats were introduced for conference sessions – the now popular symposium format and the strands session category for Special Interest Groups, to name some. Other forms of diversity developed in this decade or highlighted as goals for the Society are reflected in the range of countries represented in ISME membership, the categories of membership, and the cultural background of Board members.
In working to achieve goals of diversity, challenges are encountered along the way. As an international society, cultural sensitivities and political tensions are likely to surface in such a forum – for example, in the formal naming of nations, exhibiting flags of countries, or in accommodating the United Nations directives versus the preferences of ISME members in matters of national identity. In the Society’s archival materials, there is a marked decrease in reference to issues of international politics in this decade when compared to past decades (McCarthy, 2004). When they do occur, they demand high levels of diplomacy, political knowledge, and cultural understanding.
The fruits of dialogue
At no other time in the history of ISME were communication and dialogue as central to the development of the Society. Through a variety of media – email, video conferencing, the ISME website, Facebook, and Twitter – the leadership reached out to the membership on a regular basis. The will to increase dialogue was evident in efforts to deepen mutual understanding and strengthen relationships between the Board and the Commissions, to build collaborations with the Regions, to nurture partnerships with donors – from non-profits to music industry to professional organizations. Advancements in technology enabled increasing access to information and professional sources, accelerated the speed of communication across the globe, and facilitated the formation and maintenance of special interest groups through a variety of social media networks.
Publications played an important role in implementing the Society’s goals and enacting its strategic plans. They include diverse forums that communicate a variety of content, from information to descriptions of practical projects to research-based articles. The goal of reaching a global audience through publication will continue to be implemented through the inclusion of more material in languages other than English.
Overall, the Society has reached a new level of professionalization that is reflected in the changing identity of the Society and its policies and operations. Increased professionalism is evident in ISME’s image and web presence, infrastructure and mode of operation, its financial management system and strategic planning, and its use of research studies and data analysis to inform its policies and actions. The positioning of the Society as a philanthropic organization intensifies its agency as an advocate for improving the quality of life through participation in music. At the same time, the Society serves to advance issues of social justice through promoting access to music education, preserving music cultures, and nurturing creative music makers. In sum, the Society continues to realize its mission to promote music education “for all people of all ages in all relevant situations throughout the world”.
Footnotes
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
Funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.