The 2015 International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) World Music Days festival, an annual fixture in the contemporary music calendar, was held in Ljublijana, Slovenia, and New Zealand was once again well represented thanks to the Composers Association of New Zealand (CANZ), which holds New Zealand’s membership to the ISCM.

Each year, provided that certain criteria are met, CANZ is guaranteed a performance in the World Music Days festival of at least one work submitted in the annual call for scores. New Zealand’s represented composer for 2015 was Chris Cree Brown. The standard of performances, given by Slovenia’s top ensembles and comprised almost exclusively of Slovenian performers, was extremely high. Chris Cree Brown’s piece Sound Barrel, for euphonium and electronics received an outstanding performance by Luka Einfalt and contributed to a particularly strong field of works with electroacoustic components.

Together with the festival itself, ISCM World Music Days is also the setting for the ISCM General Assembly meetings. CANZ President Glenda Keam is currently serving a two-year term on the ISCM executive committee and CANZ Committee member Mary Binney attended as New Zealand’s delegate in the General Assembly, representing and voting on behalf of New Zealand in these meetings.

For several year now, CANZ has been discussing the possibility of hosting the 2020 World Music Days festival in New Zealand. Mary gave a presentation on behalf of CANZ by way of an update to the General Assembly and this was warmly received.

The CANZ Committee gratefully acknowledges the generous support of Creative New Zealand in enabling Mary and Chris to attend this year’s World Music Days, and looks forward to the 2016 festival in Tongyeong, South Korea, at which event Neville Hall will be New Zealand’s represented composer.