ICTMD Ambassadors are appointed individuals to support the Council by invigorating its function as an international organization. They are appointed individuals to bring focus to specified regions and areas within their background and experience with activities such as: Contributing to the Council’s economic sustainability, logistically and financially supporting the Council's gatherings and members in need, assisting in finding national and regional representatives for the World Network, providing new venues and partnerships for the Council's activities. To learn more about the initiative, please see the Guidelines on ICTMD Ambassadors. An Ambassador is appointed for a term of three years and may be reappointed. 

Currently there are two ambassadors: 

Professor Düsen Kasseinov (Kazakhstan) - See current mandate 2025-2027

Professor Dr. Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco See current mandate 2025-2027

Get Involved!  We warmly invite researchers, musicians, educators, archivists, and institutions to take part in these initiatives. If you are interested in partnering, supporting, or joining our projects, please contact us via the Secretariat or write directly to the individual Ambassador's office.

Professor Düsen Kasseinov

Mandate Period: 2025–2027

Mission

The regional initiative, coordinated by ICTMD Ambassador Prof. Dusen Kasseinov, aims to strengthen ICTMD's academic and cultural presence across Central Asia, the Turkic World, and neighbouring regions. The plan embraces digital transformation, youth engagement, archival research, and international collaboration.

1. Geographic and Institutional Development

• Establish stronger ties with universities, conservatories, and cultural institutions in Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and the Balkans.
• Represent ICTMD at international cultural forums, festivals, and high-level governmental meetings.
• Support regional expansion with priority regions for 2025–2027: Xinjiang, Volga region, Iran, Afghanistan, Balkans.

2. Digital Initiatives

• Multilingual web portal providing access to historical recordings, musical scores, and scholarly resources on traditional music in the region.
• Mobile application (long-term goal): interactive learning of traditional music and dance, with AI-powered tools for archive analysis and transcription.
• Digital Phonogram Archive: collaboration with Vienna, Berlin, and Paris sound archives and regional repositories.

3. Youth Programmes and Academic Support

• Establish the ICTMD Youth Council in the region.
• Launch youth competitions, internships, and cultural exchange programmes.
• Initiate a pilot international scholarship for young ethnomusicologists (in partnership with universities or cultural bodies).

4. Strategic Partnerships and Cultural Diplomacy

• Strengthen cooperation with UNESCO, ICESCO, TURKSOY, National culture commissions, and embassies.
• Provide expert support to new national ICTMD committees in the region.
• Promote links with Turkic and regional diasporas in Europe, North America, and beyond.

5. Publications and Research

• Encourage multilingual publications and academic translations.
• Develop the Encyclopaedia of Turkic Traditional Music (long-term, multi-stage project with academic partnerships).
• Publish an annual regional digest covering project updates and scholarly activities.

6. International Events and Gatherings

• Organise the Annual Forum and Festival of Central Asian Traditional Music (ICTMD).
• Prepare a bid to host the ICTMD World Conference in the region in the coming years.

7. Institutional Development: Regional and National Committees

• Support the establishment of the ICTMD Network for Central Asia and the Turkic World to coordinate initiatives, foster collaboration and ensure long-term sustainability.
• Facilitate the formation of new National ICTMD Committees in countries in the region.

Biography: 

Düsen Kasseinov is a musician, cultural administrator, and international cultural leader from Kazakhstan whose career has spanned music education, cultural policy, cultural diplomacy, and international cooperation. Trained as a violinist, he studied at the Kurmangazy Alma-Ata State Conservatory and completed postgraduate studies at the Moscow State Conservatory.
As Rector of the Kazakh National Conservatory (1987–1997), he contributed to major reforms in higher music education and the integration of traditional musical practices into academic curricula. He later served as Chairman of the Committee for Culture, Deputy Minister, and Minister of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, helping shape cultural policy during the post-Soviet transition.
From 2008 to 2022, Kasseinov served as Secretary General of TÜRKSOY (International Organization of Turkic Culture), where he promoted cultural cooperation, scholarly exchange, and heritage initiatives across the Turkic world while expanding the organization’s international partnerships and strategic cooperation with ICTMD.
Kasseinov played a key role in bringing the 43rd ICTMD World Conference to Astana in 2015, extending the conference’s geographical reach to Central Asia and the Turkic world for the first time, while also marking its first edition hosted in a CIS member state and a Muslim-majority country.
In 2025, he was elected ICTMD Ambassador in recognition of his longstanding contribution to international cultural cooperation, scholarly initiatives, and the safeguarding and promotion of the cultural heritage of Turkic peoples. In his current role as ICTMD Ambassador, he actively supports long-term initiatives dedicated to the preservation, documentation, and international promotion of traditional music heritage, including initiatives such as the Digital Phonogram Archive of Turkic Traditional Music.

Professor Dr. Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco

Mandate Period: 2025–2027

Goals

• To develop academic and cultural ties, and collaboration between the ICTMD and the Arab World, focusing especially on music students, scholars and music and dance institutions (universities, conservatories, dance and folklore institutes), music archives, and cultural institutions.
• To establish effective ties between ICTMD's study groups that address music and dance practices in the region (Music in the Arab World, Maqam and Mediterranean Music Studies) and students and scholars in the region.
• To contribute to the organization of ICTMD events in the region.
• To expand the participation of students and emerging scholars in ICTMD's activities.

1. Institutional Development

• To establish ties between the ICTMD and universities, conservatories, and cultural institutions in the Arab World.
• To represent ICTMD at international cultural forums, and festivals, and government organizations in the domain of culture in the Arab World.
• To establish ties with the Arab Music Academy (https://www.arabmusicacademy.org/). Integrated in the League of Arab States, the AMA aims at preserving, and promoting Arab music heritage.
• To develop joint initiatives between the ICTMD and local music festivals and conferences.
• To organize ICTMD activities in the region.
• To encourage the formation of National and Regional Committees.

2. Music Scholars and Students

• To encourage and enable music scholars and students in the Arab world and its diaspora to become ICTMD members, and to engage in and organize ICTMD activities.

3. Partnerships and Publications

• To develop partnerships between ICTMD and relevant organizations in the region.
• To cooperate with ICTM ambassador Dusen Kasseinov in developing joint initiatives in the region.
• To encourage publications by scholars from the region in Traditions of Music and Dance.
• To announce scholarly events in the region in the ICTMD Bulletin.

Biography: Salwa EL-Shawan Castelo-Branco is Professor Emerita of Ethnomusicology, founder and President Emerita of the Instituto de Etnomusicologia – Centro de Estudos em Música e Dança, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. She received her doctorate from Columbia University, taught at New York University (1979-1982), was visiting professor at Columbia University, Princeton University; Tinker Professor at Chicago University, Gulbenkian Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and Overseas Visiting Scholar at St. John’s College, Cambridge University. She carried out field research in Portugal, Egypt and Oman resulting in publications on: cultural politics, musical nationalism, identity, music media, modernity, heritage, and music and conflict. Past academic responsibilities and awards include: President of the International Council for Traditional Music (2013 – 2021); Vice President of the Society for Ethnomusicology (2007 – 2009) and of the International Council for Traditional Music (1997-2001 and 2009-2013); Vice Chancellor of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa (2007-2009); President of the Portuguese Musicological Society (1996 – 2006). She received the following honors and awards: International Honorary Member of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences (2024), Honorary Member of the International Council for Traditional Music (2023), Scientific Merit Award of the Foundation of Science and Technology, Portugal (2022), Cultural Merit Award, Ministry of Culture, Republic of Egypt (2019), Glarean Award for music research of the Swiss Musicological Society (2013), the Gold & Silver Medals for Cultural merit of the City Halls of Lisbon and Cascais, respectively (2012 & 2007), and the Pro-Author Award of the Portuguese Author’s Society (2010).