The 31st IMSE World Conference was the first held in Latin America, hosted at the Federal University of the Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre in partnership with ABEM, the Associação Brasileira de Educação Musical.

The conference theme "Listening to the musical diversity of the world" provided an opportunity for the music education community to celebrate the immense diversity of music-making that exists across the globe.

The 31st ISME Conference on Music Education aimed to ...

• promote cultural, scientific and artistic exchange amongst more than 2000 people from different countries;
• promote the socialization and the debate of research and practices in the various fields of music education;
• foster the interaction of researchers who work with similar themes;
• contribute with the education of music teachers, of artists and of researchers in the area of music education;
• bring to Brazil a broad spectrum of international musical cultures experienced through the 80 concerts that will be held during the week of the event, counting on the participation of more than 50 musical groups from the diverse cultures of the world;
• contribute the strengthening of the musical education in Brazilian schools;
• present the musical and cultural diversity of Brazil to the participants of various parts of the world