ISME has its own calendar

ISME has its own calendar. Within ISME we don't count years but "biennia", that is periods of two years. Now one biennium has ended and another one has begun. I thank the out-going Immediate Past President Liane Hentschke for work for ISME over several years and I welcome and wish good luck to the new ISME President Graham Welch and the President Elect Margaret Barrett.

I have experienced an intense and greatly rewarding biennium as ISME President. ISME is a continuously growing organization – not only in numbers, but also in perspectives and in activities. So when we now move into a new biennium we do this with our most urgent aims spelled out in a strategic plan. The intention is that this will increase ISME's efficiency in leading and supporting music education worldwide.

The 29th ISME World Conference in Beijing that finished on 6th August attracted nearly seven thousand participants and contained a wide number of presentations, workshops and concerts and a large exhibition. This conference adds a new chapter in ISME's history and in the history of music education. It will have a long influence inside China as well as internationally.

With this conference the name 'Beijing' has taken on yet another meaning and so has the name 'China'. One feature of the ISME calendar is that we tend to refer to previous conferences by the hosting city's or the hosting country's name. In the future we will not call this as the 29th ISME World Conference in Beijing 2010. People will just say: "Do you remember Beijing" or "China! That was great!"

Thanks to all who made this conference a living manifestation for music education!

Håkan Lundström
Immediate Past President