Kia ora koutou,
The double festival of ISCM World New Music Days and Asian Composers League Festival is cancelled for 2020. This decision was made in response to global developments in relation to COVID-19.
We were very much looking forward to presenting this ambitious double festival for the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Composers Association of New Zealand (CANZ) has been asked by the ISCM to postpone the World New Music Days in New Zealand by two years, which would mean hosting the festival and General Assembly meetings in the year of the ISCM’s Centenary. CANZ is very hopeful that this will be possible, and that insofar as it is possible, the musical works that were carefully submitted and selected for performance this year will instead be presented in 2022.
Similarly, we are delighted to say that ACL has also expressed a desire that the ACL part of this festival is also postponed until 2022. So we hope to present the full double festival (ISCM and ACL) in 2022.
In the meantime, we wish you health, strength, and new ways to engage with the music and culture of our wonderfully diverse regions, and look forward enthusiastically to welcoming you to the festival in 2022.
Glenda Keam, Festival Director
Partners
The Festival
In April 2020, composers, performers and music presenters from around the world will join New Zealand audiences at the World New Music Days: ISCM 2020. The festival will include concerts by local and international professional performing orchestras and ensembles, soloists, Māori performers, informal ensembles and collaborations, presenting a diverse range of contemporary music by New Zealand composers alongside new works contributed by the international members of the ISCM. An Asian Composers League (ACL) festival will run concurrently with the latter part of the ISCM event, and have a particular focus on the music of the Asia-Pacific region.
Festival events take place concurrently with the ISCM General Assembly meetings. Here delegates from over fifty member countries meet to discuss issues facing new music around the world and trends in international contemporary composition, and to plan ISCM events.
CANZ’s formal bid to host the festival and meetings was approved in November 2017, at the ISCM General Assembly meetings in Vancouver. This will be the first time since the ISCM was established in 1922 that these annual events will occur in New Zealand, and only the second time it has been held in the southern hemisphere.
Key Dates & Locations
21-26 April 2020
Auckland
World New Music Days Festival (see our Concerts page for more details)
ISCM General Assembly meetings
Conference (24 & 25 April)
27 April 2020
Travel to Christchurch
27-30 April 2020
Christchurch
World New Music Days Festival (continued)
Asian Composers League Festival and General Assembly (to 2 May 2020). Please refer to our Concerts page for more details.
The ISCM
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a forum for the advancement, dissemination and interchange of new music from around the world. Through the ISCM, members promote contemporary music in all its varied forms, strengthening musical life in their local contexts and making their music and its creators known to world.
The annual ISCM World New Music Days festival is the principal vehicle through which the ISCM pursues their mission. Organized each year by a different host, the festival presents music from each member section, showcasing the diversity of musical practice in our time. Recent festivals have taken place in Hong Kong, Lithuania, Sweden, Australia, Croatia, Belgium, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Slovenia, South Korea, Canada, China, and Estonia.
Since its founding in 1922, the ISCM network has grown to include more than 60 organizations in over 50 countries, on every continent.