The International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) is a UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

-recognized NGO, an academic organization focused on musicology

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

 and dance research

Dance research

Dance research is an umbrella term for studies of dance. It includes the following areas:*Dance history*Ethnochoreology*Dance theory*Dance science the scientific study of dance and dancers, as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance, similar to sports science...

. Founded in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 on September 22, 1947, it publishes the Yearbook for Traditional Music

Yearbook for Traditional Music

The Yearbook for Traditional Music is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the subjects of music and dance research. It is published by the International Council for Traditional Music, once a year in December...

once a year, and a twice-yearly bulletin. Since 2005, its President has been Dr. Adrienne L. Kaeppler

Adrienne L. Kaeppler

Adrienne Lois Kaeppler is an American anthropologist, curator of Oceanic Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Since 2005, she has been President of the International Council on Traditional Music...

, curator of Oceanic Ethnology

Ethnology

Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...

 at the American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

 of the Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

. The organization was previously known as The International Folk Music Council (IFMC). In 1949, it helped founded the UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 International Music Council

International Music Council

The International Music Council was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization...

.

Conferences

Since 1967, the ICTM has hosted a biennial conference. In 2009, it was in Durban, South Africa, and in 2011 it will be in St. John's Newfoundland.

Publications

• Yearbook for Traditional Music
  Yearbook for Traditional Music
  The Yearbook for Traditional Music is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the subjects of music and dance research. It is published by the International Council for Traditional Music, once a year in December...
  
  (originally known as the Journal of the International Folk Music Council from 1949–1958)
• Bulletin of the ICTM (originally known as Bulletin of the IFMC)

Study groups

The ICTM hosts several study groups which focus on a particular aspect of music or dance research. As of 2010, the groups are:

• Anthropology of Music in Mediterranean Cultures
• Applied Ethnomusicology
  Ethnomusicology
  Ethnomusicology is defined as "the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts."Coined by the musician Jaap Kunst from the Greek words ἔθνος ethnos and μουσική mousike , it is often considered the anthropology or ethnography of music...
  
  
• Computer Aided Research
• East Asian Historical Musical Sources
• Ethnochoreology
  Ethnochoreology
  Ethnochoreology is the study of dance through the application of a number of disciplines such as anthropology, musicology , ethnography, etc. The word, itself, is relatively recent and means, literally, “the study of folk dance”, as opposed to, say, the formalized entertainment of classical...
  
  
• Folk Musical Instruments
• Historical Sources of Traditional Music
• Iconography
• Maqam
  Maqam
  - Musical structures :* Arabic maqam, melodic modes* Mugam genre of Azeri-speaking cultures* Maqam al-iraqi genre of Iraq* Weekly Maqam prayer services of Sephardic Jewish culture* Makam, melody types of Turkey* Muqam, melody type of Uyghur culture...
  
  
• Multi-Part Music
• Music And Dance In Southeastern Europe
• Music and Gender
• Music and Minorities
• Music Archaeology
• Music of the Arab World
• Music of the Turkic Speaking World
• Musics of East Asia
• Music and Dance of Oceania
• The Performing Arts of South East Asia

Presidents

• Ralph Vaughan Williams
  Ralph Vaughan Williams
  Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
  
  , first president
• Jaap Kunst
  Jaap Kunst
  Jaap Kunst was a Dutch ethnomusicologist, particularly associated with the study of gamelan music of Indonesia...
  
  
• Zoltan Kodaly
  Zoltán Kodály
  Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
  
  
• Willard Rhodes
  Willard Rhodes
  Willard Rhodes was an American ethnomusicologist. He is known for his extensive recording of American Indian music between 1939 and 1952....
  
  
• Klaus P. Wachsmann
• Poul Rovsing Olsen
• Erich Stockmann
• Anthony Seeger
• Krister Malm
• Adrienne L. Kaeppler (since 2005)