Marking the passage of time (2003–2013): Reflections on ISME at its 60th anniversary

Abstract

The International Society for Music Education (ISME) celebrated its 60th anniversary on July 7, 2013. This article documents a history of the Society in its sixth decade (2003–2013). Two interrelated perspectives, consolidation and expansion, are used to synthesize patterns of development. Various partnerships created and sustained by ISME enabled and facilitated the internal work of structural consolidation and the external work of global expansion. These patterns of development are set in the context of three themes used in an earlier history of ISME – democracy, diversity, and dialogue – to lend continuity to the ongoing documentation of the Society’s history.