World Music Days/Journées mondiales de la musique

World Music Days/Journées mondiales de la musique

World Music Days/Journées mondiales de la musique. Annual event of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), founded in 1922 in Salzburg by famous composers. Because of the ever increasing number of contemporary music concerts held around the world, the ISCM decided in the early 1970s to present its annual festival of concerts under the banner of World Music Days.

In 1970 the Canadian Music Council became the Canadian Section of the ISCM and began to participate in its activities, through the efforts of a joint commitee appointed by the CLComp, the Canadian Music Centre and the CMCouncil. The new committee soon became involved in ISCM business. An important step was the organization of a performing ensemble made up of the best players of the SMCQ and of the NMC to present two concerts at the 1976 World Music Days in Boston and six more in major Canadian cities.

The ISCM General Assembly in Brussels in 1981 confirmed Canada's invitation to hold the 1984 World Music Days. A Canadian national committee was set up under the joint presidency of Serge Garant and Alex Pauk. Members were Michel-Georges Brégent, Karen Kieser, John Miller, Rosemarie Bastarache, Patricia Tompkins, and Guy Huot. The festival opened in Toronto on 21 September with Laboratorium by Vinko Globokar and ended on 3 October in Montreal with a presentation of Transit, a 'musical play' by France Théoret and Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux. In between a large number of works by composers from member countries of the ISCM were performed, including some by Canadian composers such as Serge Arcuri, John Burke, Brian Cherney, Denis Gougeon, John Rea, and several others.