International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance

A Non-Governmental Organization in Formal Consultative Relations with UNESCO

The January 2021 issue of the Bulletin of the ICTM is available for download

A new issue of the Bulletin of the ICTM (Volume 145, January 2021) is available for download, directly from the following links:

  1. Bulletin of the ICTM Vol. 145 (January 2021), good quality (5.1 MB). Recommended for reading on screen only, and for users of slower Internet connections. 
  2. Bulletin of the ICTM Vol. 145 (January 2021), best quality (9.9 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. 


First of all, I wish you a healthy and successful Happy New Year! Although the world is not what it was, and we are all still fighting with the outcomes of the pandemic, in this Bulletin you will find a lot of hopeful developments, at least concerning ICTM. 

The outstanding feature of this January Bulletin is the amazing quantity of reports from National and Regional Representatives, among them one from Haiti, which appears in a Bulletin for the first time. I think this is a sign of the liveliness of our society, in spite of a world still being in the grip of the pandemic; and I am happy to see that our members are not giving in. 

The World Network is a very vibrant body within ICTM, and there is some news. I want to welcome the new Chair of the ICTM National Committee for France, Elina Djebbari, who succeeded Susanne Fürniss; the new Chair of ICTM National Committee for Chile, Javier Silva-Zurita, who succeeded Jacob Rekedal; and the new Chair of ICTM National Committee for Japan, Fukuoka Shota, who succeeded Uemura Yukio. Thank you to all the outgoing chairs, and good luck to the new ones. 

Regarding Liaison Officers I would like to especially mention the new Liaison Officer for Jordan, Fadi Al-Ghawanmeh, as this is the first time that Jordan is represented in ICTM! The others are the new Liaison Officer for Iraq, Farah Zahra, who succeeds Scheherazade Q. Hassan; and the new Liaison Officer for Mexico, Miguel Olmos Aguilera, who succeeds Carlos Ruiz Rodriguez. My sincerest thanks to the outgoing repre-sentatives and a warm welcome to the incoming.

There is more proof of the Council’s liveliness. Following the inevitable postponement of the 46th World Conference to 2022, it is good to see that a lot of other activities have been scheduled for 2021. 

Because of covid-19, most Study Group symposia originally scheduled for 2020 have been postponed to 2021, so this year is going to be busy for Study Groups, something that I appreciate very much. As you will read in the Reports section, some Study Groups have already adapted to the situation and used new online tools to successful hold their meetings. 

There are other creative ways to overcome the obstacles of covid-19 while at the same time take steps towards decolonizing our discipline: the Call for Participation to the ICTM Dialogues was very successful, thanks to Tan Sooi Beng and the whole committee in charge of it, and thanks to the commitment of our membership. There will be 24 roundtables held online during the whole of 2021, thereby enabling participation from every part of the world, especially important for those people who had been excluded from former onsite events due to travelling costs and other restrictions (see report by Tan Sooi Beng on page 4). 

In order to be more inclusive at the organizational level, the ICTM Secretariat has created a webform that people can use to apply for a supported ICTM membership in 2021. The possibility of applying is not new, but it has now been formalized and made more accessible. To those of you who can afford it, please renew your membership or join ICTM using this link. Most of the Council’s income comes from membership fees, and because of the pandemic, our financial situation is not as promising as it used to be.

The 2020 issue of the Yearbook for Traditional Music has been published recently, and printed copies are on their way. As always, the online version can be accessed by all current members of ICTM (see instructions here). I think the cooperation established in 2019 with Cambridge University Press has worked well, and I am grateful to both the General Editor, Lee Tong Soon, and CUP for endeavouring to continue to make the process more smooth.

Concerning the 2021 Elections, I would like to mention that there will be an extension of the nomination period for the position of President (see announcement on pages 3–4).

I want to thank our members for taking part in the Second General Survey of ICTM Members, which concluded on 17 December 2020. Participation was higher than with the previous survey, with 33% of the eligible members having responded. The President addresses this topic in her message. 

Again there is a sad note in this Bulletin, as two very outstanding ICTM personalities have left this world. Mwesa Isiah Mapoma was the leading ethnomusicologist in Zambia, most influential in developing the discipline and in education. His dedication to ICTM was proven by his service in the Executive Board and as Liaison Officer for many years. Kwon Oh-Sung served as the Chair of the National Committee of Korea for a long time, and was a leading figure for the second generation of musicologists in South Korea. 

Both of them were doing amazing work in very different parts of the world, and both were part of the ICTM family—a truly worldwide network. People from all over the world mourn their deaths, and I join in sending my condolences to their families.


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