A new issue of the Bulletin of the ICTM (Volume 139, January 2019) is available for download, directly from the following links:

1. Bulletin of the ICTM Vol. 139 (January 2019), good quality (3.1 MB). Recommended for reading on screen only, and for users of slower Internet connections. 
2. Bulletin of the ICTM Vol. 139 (October 2019), best quality (7.7 MB). Recommended for those intending to print the Bulletin.

As always, both editions are completely identical as content is concerned. The only difference resides in the quality of the inline images. The Bulletin is formatted as a PDF document, so please make sure your device has an updated PDF reader installed, or you may experience difficulties while reading and/or printing it. If you are unsure, you can try downloading Adobe Reader, one of the most popular PDF-reading software, directly from this link.

Below you will find the Message from the Secretary General, written by Ursula Hemetek, as included on page 2 of the issue. 

We start the new year 2019 with much energy and the very best wishes to all of you. It is going to be an active ICTM year, as the World Conference in Bangkok next July will hopefully bring together many members of the big and diverse ICTM family. Many colleagues are very busy preparing the event, and I want to thank the Programme Committee, co-chaired by Tan Sooi Beng and Keith Howard, for their excellent work on the evaluation of abstracts. It was a huge job, because there were indeed many more proposals than could be accommodated in the programme. It is wonderful that the number of proposals continues to grow from conference to conference, and it underscores the great importance of ICTM World Conferences. On the other hand, to ensure the quality of the programme this strictly anonymous evaluation process inevitably produces rejections. This can raise some difficulties in terms of funding for those colleagues whose proposals were not accepted. While rejections are unfortunate, please note that the Secretary General is not at all involved in the evaluation process, and neither is the Executive Board. This is a very common practice that guarantees independence and transparency.

Two very important ICTM bodies have been enlarged since the last Bulletin.

First, I want to welcome the new ICTM Study Group on Sound, Movement and the Sciences, which was recently approved by the Executive Board, and highlight that the Study Group on Musics of the Slavic World changed its name to Study Group on Music and Dance of the Slavic World, thereby specifically including dance in its title.

Second, I want to greet the following new representatives in our World Network: Mirwais Sidiqi (Afghanistan), María José Rivera (Bolivia), Irena Miholić (Croatia), Þorbjörg Daphne Hall (Iceland), Nicholas Ssempijja (Uganda), Gregory Barz (USA), and Kapambwe Lumbwe (Zambia). These new members raise the number of countries and regions with official ICTM representation to 129.

Handling this increasing number is not easy, however. Following the suggestion by the Secretariat to have more official agreements signed between the Council and its national representatives, a document was created that clearly states the character of the relationship, outlining the duties and benefits of both parties. This agreement was approved by the Executive Board, and is now in use.

Besides the Programme Committee another team is very busy at the moment: my sincerest thanks go to the Local Arrangements Committee of the 2019 World Conference. Bussakorn Binson and her team, especially Paphutsorn Koong Wongratanapitak, are working very hard to prepare a wonderful event for all of us.

Due to an insurmountable issue, however, the registration website for the conference could not be ready by the time of this Bulletin’s publication. We will notify via e-mail all our members as soon as the website will be ready to take registrations. The deadline for receiving applications for funding travel to the World Conference will be extended accordingly.

The ICTM elections are approaching. As democracy and transparency are very much on my agenda as Secretary General, I am very happy to announce that the nomination process has now concluded successfully. I want to thank the Nomination Committee, especially its convener Made Hood, for the work done and the work to come. The candidates will be presented in the April 2019 Bulletin. Please keep in mind that on-site voting will not be allowed during the Bangkok conference, so you will have to vote electronically. The voting process will be outsourced to a third party to guarantee maximum objectivity and transparency. The other step towards increasing democracy is the implementation of the First General Survey of ICTM members. Our president will comment about that in her column.

As always, in this Bulletin you will find many very interesting country and Study Group reports.

There is a sad note in this Bulletin as well, because we have three obituaries for three very prominent members of ICTM—Rudolf Brandl, Burt Feintuch, and Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin—two of whom were keynote speakers at past World Conferences. I want to express my sincerest condolences to their families.

In the end, one joyful remark—ethnomusicology was again awarded with an international prize. Ana Hofman (Slovenia) received the Mid-Career Award of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe for her outstanding work in ethnomusicology and gender studies, in Bratislava in November 2018. In her remarkable speech she mentioned the inspiration she had through international networks like the ICTM, and she emphasized the role of women in supporting her career. Congratulations on this achievement! You can read more about the ceremony on page 23 of this Bulletin.

Hoping you will enjoy reading the many reports, announcements, calls for proposals, reviews and other news, I kindly remind you that the Bulletin of the ICTM is not attached to any membership or subscription, so you are very welcome to forward this e-mail to your colleagues.

While we always strive to make the Bulletin richer and more useful, it is a task which cannot be done alone — so I warmly invite you to send your opinions, comments, suggestions, ideas, or any other kind of feedback, so we can make together a better Bulletin for everybody.

Carlos Yoder
Editor, Bulletin of the ICTM