This year has been filled with wonderful opportunities to meet, share and be inspired by ISME members from around the world. We have heard countless stories of the quality and diversity of members’ work and dedication, often in challenging circumstances, to further our goals of bringing quality music education to the many communities we lead and serve. On behalf of the ISME Board and Management team, we thank those of you who approached us in Baku and other places to introduce yourselves and share your work, ideas and insights. It is always very much appreciated and a pleasure to meet you!
Meeting members and hearing about the work you do each day reinforces to me what a remarkable profession we work in. As research continues to show the many benefits of music, my vision for ISME this biennium is to make our work as music educators more visible — to lift up and amplify the meaningful connections we make with our communities and the impact of our work. This is critical to ISME’s future and the future of music education in our countries.
This year, we have made progress on numerous initiatives to help us make our work more visible, including these five accomplishments:
- Showcasing the 33rd World Conference in Baku through a website that has been visited by nearly 5,000 people.
- Growing the ISME Journal by 25% to make room for more members to share their work in a highly regarded peer-reviewed publication.
- Bringing RIEM into the contract with Sage to make that journal more visible and accessible to Spanish-speaking people worldwide.
- Completing two books as part of the new Routledge Book Series, providing new opportunities for members to share the impact of their scholarship and practice.
- Announcing the first recipients of the new ISME Grants Program, awarding nearly US$40,000 in total to members from 8 countries.
Next year the fast pace continues. The call for papers for Helsinki 2020 will open in the first quarter, new issues from the two journals will be forthcoming, and the Routledge Book Series will continue to produce high quality publications. There are five ISME regional conferences taking place in 2019 in Europe, Pan Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America and South Asia, and an ISME legacy conference in Istanbul. I’m looking forward to participating in many of these conferences and to meeting members and hearing about your work and aspirations for ISME.
A major initiative for 2019 will be the consultation and planning process for ISME’s Six-Year Strategic Plan. The plan will articulate a broad set of priorities that will give direction and inspiration to ISME’s activities over the next six years. There will be opportunities throughout the year for ISME members to tell us what they would like ISME to focus on in order to build on the past while being grounded in the present and visionary looking forward. The Board looks forward to working with you to articulate ISME’s goals for the future.
With the holiday season upon us, and within the many different ways we celebrate, it is my hope that you are able to find some time to take pride in your accomplishments this past year, and to recharge your batteries for the work that it is to come.
May the holidays bring peace and joy to you and those under your umbrella of care.
Susan
Susan O'Neill
President, ISME
