International Society for Contemporary Music

The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.

The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the Internationale Kammermusikaufführungen Salzburg, a festival of modern chamber music held as part of the Salzburg Festival.^[1] Since then, aside from a hiatus between 1940 and 1945 due to World War II, 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 (sometimes World New Music Days, abbreviated either WMD or WNMD depending on which name is used). There have been a total of 86 of these thus far, the most recent of which took place in Tongyeong, South Korea in April 2016.^[2] The next WMD is scheduled to take place in Vancouver, Canada in November 2017.^[3]

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 (Secretary General and Treasurer) are appointed positions and the remaining five (President, Vice President, and three regular members) are chosen from and by the delegates in an election during the General Assembly.^[4]

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 24 issues have been produced thus far, and since 2006, each magazine has also been made available as a digital downloadable PDF from the ISCM's website.^[5]