World Music Days 2015
Archival article
The ISCM World Music Days 2015 edition was hosted in Slovenia. The annual ISCM World Music Days Festival is organized each year by a different host. See the External links below for the ISCM World Music Days updates, and the archival article below. The contacts are no longer valid.
World Music Days in Ljubljana
The migrating festival called ISCM World Music Days, which has been annually taking place all over the world since 1923, had its second stop in Slovenia in 2015 (the first one was in 2003). Organised by the Society of Slovene Composers and the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), World Music Days 2015 showcased works by contemporary composers from all over the world, with the presented pieces being based upon an open call, then chosen by an international jury and in the end programmed by the organisers. The festival was held in Ljubljana between 26 September and 2 October 2015 and predominantly took place in the hall of the Slovene Philharmonic. A part of it was also held in the Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana, the Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory and Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre.
The artistic director of the festival was the composer Pavel Mihelčič (who is also a pedagogue, writer and the artistic director of Unicum Contemporary Music Festival). He was the driving force for Slovenia being chosen for the organisation of both the 2003 and 2015 editions.
The final programme features RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, SToP Slovene Percussion Project, Slowind Quintet, Slovene Philharmonic String Chamber Orchestra, Slovene Chamber Choir, Saxophone quartet 4saxess, Slovene Philharmonic Orchestra, MD7 Contemporary Music Ensemble, Dissonance quartet and numerous other musicians performing about 90 works by composers from all over the world.
The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)
ISCM, which was founded in 1922, is a network of organisations (more than 60 organisations from over 50 countries) dealing with the various strains of contemporary composed music and acts as a forum for "the advancement, dissemination and interchange of new music from around the world", with the aim to strengthen "musical life in their local contexts and make their music and its creators known to world".
The World Music Days festival is the main vehicle for this, with the recent editions held in Hong Kong, Lithuania, Sweden, Australia, Croatia, and Belgium.
World Music Days 2003
The organisation of the first World Music Days in Slovenia dates back to the mid-1990s, with the organisation of the festival finally being granted in 1998. Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre was then an active co-producer throughout the process of preparing and enacting the festival, which lasted for 8 days and consisted of 40 separate events, alongside the concerts were also film projections, exhibitions, musical installations, a symposium, and a music fair. It took place all over Slovenia, in the cities and towns of Ljubljana, Maribor, Postojna, Portorož, Bled and some others as well.
Some of the artists involved were the Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble Modern from Köln, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Singers, Klangforum Wien (led by Vinko Globokar) and Irena Grafenauer.
See also
- Society of Slovene Composers
- Slovene Philharmonic
- Slovene National Theatre Opera and Ballet Ljubljana
- Ljubljana Music and Ballet Conservatory
- Cankarjev dom, Cultural and Congress Centre.