Saturday, 21 May 2022 – Hamburg

Pre-Conference Day

IAMIC President Diana Marsh opened the conference by welcoming delegates from over 20 nations; then the theme of ‘Music and Politics’ dominated the day – dictated by the war in Ukraine as well as by the conference venue: the Budge Palace of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg had become the property of the city in 1937 through anti-Jewish legislation. Michael Custodis looked at the politicisation of music from a historical and contemporary perspective. A guided tour and a concert in the Elbphilharmonie made the day complete.

The Budge-Palais of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg
Photo: Torsten Kollmer

Lecture by Michael Custodis at the IAMIC Conference at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg

Sunday, 22 May 2022 – Bonn

Welcome Celebration

The delegates took the train from Hamburg to Bonn on Sunday, where they visited the Schumann grave at the old cemetery in the afternoon. Also the Board met. The evening included a reception at the Hotel Königshof, with a view of the Rhine and the panorama of the Siebengebirge. From the German Music Council, miz director Stephan Schulmeistrat and managing director Stefan Piendl welcomed the international guests. The Felix Langemann Trio, all members of the Bundesjazzorchester, accompanied the meeting with jazz classics they had arranged themselves and their own compositions.

Monday, 23 May 2022 – Bonn, Remagen

Conference Day 1 & IAMIC-Concert

The consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for musical life occupied the delegates on the morning of the first official conference day in the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. Robin Kuchar from the Leuphena University of Lüneburg used the first results of an international study to show how individual the experiences of musicians are. The subsequent presentation on the promotion of music through NEUSTART KULTUR, the German government's 2 billion euro rescue and future programme, attracted much attention. Finally, the delegates exchanged views with President of the German Music Council Martin Maria Krüger and IAMIC President Diana Marsh on the future of musical life after the pandemic. In a thunderstorm-ridden trip along the Rhine, the delegates went to the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in the evening, where a concert awaited them with Trio Abstrakt and The Interstring Project, two young ensembles from the German Music Council's funding project InSzene, who filled the museum rooms with experimental, energetic sounds.

Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck
Photo: Ulrich Pfeuffer

IAMIC-Concert: Trio Abstrakt and The Interstring Project

Photos: Nathan Dreessen / miz

Tuesday, 24 May 2022 – Bonn

Public Conference Day

The centrepiece of the conference was the public conference day with over 20 speakers from the event management, music associations, collecting societies and research institutions. Four panels dealt with strategies for programme planning and audience loyalty, the promotion of contemporary music, new approaches in music communication and copyright in music in the context of globally operating corporations. In keeping with the conference venue, the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, the Eliot Quartet, winner of the German Music Competition, gave a brilliant musical start with Beethoven's String Quartet op. 130.

The event was livestreamed, optionally in English or German. After greetings from Martin Maria Krüger, Ingo Mix, representative of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and Diana Marsh, Holger Noltze asked in his keynote how the availability of music on the internet is changing the modes of aesthetic experience. Following on from this, the programme planners in the first panel emphasised: digital formats cannot replace the live experience - with the self-critical addition that the opportunities of digitalisation have not been recognised for a long time, especially in the classical field, and digital formats should be established as independent projects.

The promotion of contemporary music was the focus of the second panel. In addition to economic aspects, where the importance of collecting societies as a representation of interests for contemporary composers was highlighted in particular, it was also about the cooperation between musicians and composers, which was highlighted as an important impulse for the artistic development of both sides. After the lunch break, the MDR broadcaster's music communication expert Ekkehard Vogler activated the audience with a spoken composition about Beethoven's last words "Schade, schade, zu spät" (Too bad, too late) and presented the MDR Symphony Orchestra's interactive streaming concerts with schools in the panel Music outreach.

The last panel focused on current issues of copyright in music. After an introduction by Jürgen Brandhorst, Director of the Society for Musical Performance and Mechanical Reproduction Rights (GEMA), the debate revolved in particular around a fair distribution of the profits of international streaming providers. Here, representatives from the music industry and collecting societies complained about too little participation by rights holders. The day ended in the Beethoven-Haus with songs by the intercultural band project 5000 Miles.

Photos: Nathan Dreessen / miz

Wednesday, 25 May 2022 – Cologne

Conference Day 3: General Assembly & Cultural Programme

The morning of the third and final day of the conference saw the general meeting of IAMIC at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn. In the by-election of an open position on the board, the decision fell on Radvilė Buivydienė from Lithuania. The rest of the day was filled with a varied cultural programme in Cologne: A visit to WDR broadcaster with a reception by the programme managers of WDR 3 and 5, Matthias Kremin and Andrea Zschunke, a guided tour of the cathedral with master cathedral builder Peter Füssenich and a studio concert with the Ensemble Musikfabrik.

Concert Ensemble Musikfabrik

The Ensemble Musikfabrik welcomed the delegates in its studio in Cologne's Mediapark. After an introduction to the ensemble's current activities and plans by artistic director Thomas Fichter, individual members of the ensemble gave an exclusive concert of contemporary chamber music for the IAMIC, including the world premiere of Isabel Mundry's ‘Neuma’ for solo violin.

The board of IAMIC

After the concert, the old and new board of IAMIC took the opportunity for a group picture beyond the usual zoom tiles: : (front, left to right) Deborah Keyser (Wales), Radvilė Buivydienė (Lithaunia), Diana Marsh (New Zealand), Agnieszka Cieślak-Krupa (Poland), Frank J. Oteri (USA), (back, left to right) Jonathan Grimes (Ireland), Peter Baroš (Slovenia) and Stephan Schulmeistrat (Germany).