5th IMC World Forum on Music: Sustaining music, engaging communities

This is our vision for what will happen in November 2013…

 Over 1,000 music professionals and other enthusiasts from all over the world descend upon the heart of the cultural precinct on Brisbane’s South Bank to discuss, plan, be part of, and experience the future of music on this planet: musicians, producers, managers, administrators, festival directors, journalists, scholars, educators, facilitators, activists, policy makers and other lovers of the art in its myriad forms and contexts.

 This is more than a conference. A session entitled ‘orchestral futures’ features a symphonic performance rudely interrupted by an official who reads out a mock obituary of the western orchestra. Planted members of the audience get up and voice rebuttals before the orchestra continues and ends quite differently from how it began. Next, parallel sessions offer Chinese traditional music in the courtyard, jazz on the outdoor stage, or an in-depth conversation on the achievements and challenges of music psychology in leather fauteuils in the library, the intellectual heart of the event.

 While a video installation continuously offers views and concerns about the future of music, a wall fills with the most successful music advocacy arguments internationally. An interactive demonstration of how mobile phones are increasingly shaping people’s musical lives  –from ringtones to downloads to finding live music and learning to play an instrument– is followed by a diner chantant under the stars featuring amazing voices from the worlds of opera, jazz, musical theatre, Tibetan overtone singing and Azerbaijani mugam.

This whets the appetite for the music theatre production performed by 12 music luminaries who arrived two weeks earlier to work with a celebrated opera director offering their view of musical futures. While you are here you might want to look at the list of top 10 online poker websites in the world. Visit this website to view list of top 10 poker websites. On the way, a community music production brings together 100 voices and instruments from all over Queensland. After these events, there is the music bar to network and relax, or the music world café, which has ongoing large screen video links to music communities in Asia, Africa and Latin America who could not attend.

 But the global dialogue starts long before that. Between July 2012 and November 2013, over 1,000 individuals involved in music are asked to speak on camera for no more than five minutes on what they see as the greatest challenges or opportunities for music in their particular field of music -whether it is music libraries or the world stage. These videos are made available online on a dedicated website, and set the agenda for the Brisbane gathering. At the conference, they will be playing continuously in the foyer of the conference venue, while five of the most outspoken voices from different continents will lead a debate on key issues for global musical futures.

The effects of the 5th World Forum on Music will resonate well beyond its time and place. Key events will be live streamed throughout the event and vodcast after. Physical and online participants will be invited to identify key issues that arise, while seven carefully selected rapporteurs will make notes during sessions and in the corridors. These will feed into The Brisbane Declaration , an action agenda approved by the 35th IMC General Assembly immediately after the Forum to set some of the key priorities and actions for the world of music globally towards 2020. These will be subsequently disseminated widely and proactively to help shape sustainable, engaged music practices across the planet.

 We count on you to work with us to make this vision become a reality!

 We call upon you to bring as many members of your network as possible to Brisbane!

 The 5th IMC World Forum on Music will be co-organised by the International Music Council, the Music Council of Australia and Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre, Griffith University.