Twenty seven IAML conferences ...
Episode 2: 2001-2011
2001 Périgueux (France)
My trip to the Périgueux conference began in Paris. Michael Fingerhut kindly organized a IAML visit to IRCAM, a research institute of great importance for avant garde electro-acoustic music. While there we were able to enter and experience the anechoic chamber and to visit the conference hall with its continuously adjustable acoustic.
Following that I walked across Paris to my hotel which was near to Gare d'Austerlitz ready for the next day's journey. After booking into my room it was my intention to head straight back to the centre to meet a friend who was also heading for IAML Périgueux. I was already running a little late when I found that the adjacent Métro station was for some reason not selling any tickets so I had to walk back into the centre. This of course was a time before most of us habitually carried around mobile phones. After a pleasant evening and not at all late, I discovered that the Métro had already stopped running ... so I had to walk back again to my hotel.
My train arrived in Périgueux the following afternoon where I had booked a room in a hotel that was right opposite the railway station. An 'interesting' choice as it turned out.
The opening ceremony at the Odysée Théâtre included an excellent concert by the Viellistic Orchestra – a sextet of hurdy-gurdies with double bass and percussion.
Afterward many of us met in large friendly groups at outdoor restaurants until late into the evening. Three of us then separately made our way back to the hotel, arriving to find that the front door was locked and that nobody was on duty. At registration earlier the proprietor had not made it at all clear that the outside door would be locked after a certain time and that a security code would be required for out of hours access.
While we collectively wondered what to do, a member of the local Organizing Committee came by – after midnight – to check whether any stragglers had arrived at the station on the last train. There were none, but fortunately he found us and drove us back to the conference office. After a little while he drove us to his own home where he and his wife very generously put us up for the night.
The next morning, we were driven back to the hotel, where the proprietor seemed not in the least concerned about our having been locked out. On reaching my room I found that my shower didn't work. A return to reception garnered the simple information: 'Le pistolet' with gestures – it seemed that one had to press a trigger on the shower head to get any water out of it. Even then, the flow at the end of a long corridor turned out to be slow and almost cold by that time.
Most unusually the conference had arranged for simultaneous translation, French-English and English-French in many of the sessions. This led to a rather amusing result in one session that I was chairing. A venerable Italian professor sitting in the front row had been listening intently to a French translation of a presentation read in English by a Russian speaker. He asked if he could pose a question in French and my French co-Chair readily agreed. His question turned out to be rather more of an essay than a question as she frantically scribbled key points that she was eventually able to pass on to the speaker in English translation. The speaker and her colleague then had a brief discussion in Russian before coming back with a single 'yes' or 'no' reply – I don't recall which.
An evening reception and concert celebrated IAML/AIBM/IVBM's 50th birthday with a performance by Proxima Centauri of a specially commissioned work: Cris de cerise, by François Rossé, for contralto voice and 5 instruments. We each received a copy of the full score in our conference pack.
My Wednesday afternoon tour was to Brantôme in the Dronne valley and Puyguilhem Château where I met a sad but very friendly cat with a serious case of mange. The following day fortunately I was able to ask someone from the organizers to report it to a local animal welfare group.
The Friday dinner took place in a barn at the Château de La Chapelle-Faucher, and ended with dancing and late coach departures.
The following morning as we variously left that hotel for our trains we learned that it was imminently closing down for extensive renovations, so it seems we were its last victims.
2002 Berkeley (California, United States)
Having not previously visited the US I decided to make a short stopover in New York on the way to Berkeley. At Newark airport arrivals a hot one-hour-plus snaking queue was not an auspicious start to my visit. Emerging from Penn station my initial impression was it was all too tall, too noisy and too hot (33℃). The taxi driver to my hotel short-changed me despite receiving a tip and nearly drove away with my luggage, then at the hotel I upset the porter by insisting on finding my own way to my room. A fine thunderstorm while in my room cleared the air a bit for evening.
I spent the next day wandering around the city, managing to visit the impressive NYPL and the Empire State Building despite the heat and along the way I nipped into some of the big stores largely to take advantage of the air-conditioning.
The following morning I set off on foot for Penn Station, where one ticket machine after another refused to accept my payment card. Finally, at Newark Airport some security staff were decidedly unpleasant and unhelpful.
It was a relief therefore to arrive in San Francisco, to find the BART line toward Berkeley, and finally to arrive at the college. My single room turned out to be a spacious 3-bed dormitory with, fortunately, no other occupants.
There was an excellent concert by the Kronos Quartet that included Steve Reich's 'Different trains' – alas, I find minimalism to be of minimal interest. On another evening we were treated to a fine harpsichord recital by Davitt Moroney.
The Wednesday afternoon tour took us across the Golden Gate Bridge to the Muir Woods. To spend an hour or two among the Giant Redwoods was probably one of the best ever Wednesday tours.
One evening I joined a sizeable group mostly of Scandinavians for dinner in a local restaurant. Quite late in the evening as we we were leaving, the proprietor discovered that there were Swedes present. He had previously spent some time in Sweden, and came out to the street offering around glasses of sparkling wine while the Swedish ladies sang traditional songs for him.
The closing dinner took place in the foyer of the San Francisco Opera House where the UN Charter was signed in 1945.
2003 Tallinn (Estonia)
The Tallinn conference was the first one that I attended with my partner. We flew to Helsinki and stayed overnight before catching the jetfoil service across to Tallinn. I already had some limited familiarity with Tallinn, having been there in 1999 for a Balto-Nordic IAML conference.
The conference and accommodation were based in the Reval Hotel Olümpia, a modern hotel that was just a short walk from the delightful old town.
One evening there was a curious concert of music for trumpet or electric guitar with organ – all the instruments were played from high up in the organ loft. The programme also included a piece by renowned Estonian composer Urmas Sisask who was also present in the organ loft and played drum and didgeridoo.
For us a more interesting concert took place on another evening when the superb Estonian Philharmonic Chorus, conducted by Paul Hillier, presented a concert of music by Arvo Pärt and others.
We were all invited to an evening reception in the brutalist-style Soviet-built national library.
The Wednesday afternoon tour started with a visit to the 'observatory' at Urmas Sisask's home where, with lights dimmed, he spoke, before playing for us on an upright piano decorated with luminous astrological symbols and we were able to observe the luminous heavens that he had painted on the ceiling.
After a meal nearby we then moved on to walk along boardwalks in a decidedly damp forest. Some utterly ferocious biting insects managed to get at quite a few of us while there. I have nice photos – not included here – of the then President and others dressed in black bin-bags for want of waterproofs.
After the conference finished we took a coach trip south via Riga (Latvia) to visit friends in Vilnius (Lithuania). We were wonderfully looked after by the lovely and sadly deceased Antanas Auškalnis from the Lithuanian Sound Archive. He drove us out on trips around Vilnius to Trakai and to the place of the Song Festival, as well as introducing us to the stomach-distending cepelinai in a local restaurant. The return trip mirrored the outward journey with another day in Helsinki that allowed us to take a sunny boat trip through the archipelago to Porvoo on the J L Runeberg.
2004 Oslo (Norway)
Oslo was a joint conference with IASA. I stayed at an apartment hotel near the Slottsparken – the park that contains the royal residence. Conference and registration took place at the university campus in Blindern to the north. It was Sunday afternoon so I decided to walk there, which was a bit of a mistake on a rather warm day, then compounded by getting temporarily lost wandering through the grounds of the neighbouring hospital.
After registering I decided to walk back to the hotel, but this time following the tram line. That turned out to be a rather longer route than necessary past some very up-market residences. Needless to say, I used the tram on subsequent trips!
The opening ceremony took place in the Rådhus – the City Hall – with its large wall paintings in the Main Hall that seemed almost socialist realist in conception. A work for trombone with electronics by Arne Nordheim was performed, and we had a tour of the building.
The Wednesday trip took us first to the picturesque town of Drøbak situated on the Oslofjord. After that the coach took us to what was probably the strangest of all Wednesday tour experiences. We arrived at Galleria Finsrud where first, the artist gave a presentation to introduce himself and his art. After that we descended to the basement where various of his smaller sculptures were on display and maybe available for purchase. It was something of a surprise though to find that he seemed to have a major obsession with the human phallus in many shapes and sizes.
A most enjoyable concert took place at Gamle Loge with performances that included: a Hardanger fiddle solo, pieces by the Norwegian Girls' Choir, some string quartets, and some jazz from the Tord Gustavsen Trio.
The closing dinner took place at the university.
During the week I took some time out to visit the Viking ship museum which houses the preserved hull of a beautiful Viking longship along with many carvings and other items recovered from the same dig.
One evening I found time to visit the Vigeland Sculpture Park.
The day after the conference ended I took the spectacular train journey through the mountains across Norway to Bergen to meet my partner who was already there.
2005 Warsaw / Warszawa (Poland)
The start of this trip was rather overshadowed by the co-ordinated terrorist attacks on public transport in London which had taken place just two days before we set off. In Warsaw there were some signs of official caution that an attack might happen there as well but there were no further problems.
Much of Warsaw had been authentically reconstructed after World War 2 bomb destruction. In a spectacular golden hall at the Royal Castle we had a memorable baroque concert directed by Simon Standage.
The Wednesday coach tour took us first on an unscheduled visit to Chopin's birthplace before we eventually arrived at the intended destination: the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum in Sochaczew ... which was unfortunately closed to visitors. The train that was supposed to take us onward to Wilcze Tułowskie on the fringe of Kampinos Forest was not there either. So, back on the coach we eventually arrived as intended at a gathering in the forest for horn tooting in traditional dress together with campfire-cooked bigos and sausages with beer.
The closing dinner was an 'interesting' and unforgettable experience. It took place at the Hotel Mazurkas outside Warsaw where it seemed as if the hotel had perhaps mixed us up with a large wedding party. The evening opened with a lively cabaret on stage. Plentiful food kept arriving throughout the evening including choreographed plate revelations by waiters at each table. Part way through the evening an antique car was driven into the middle of the dining area with two members of the organizing committee onboard.
Following the conference we caught trains south through Kraków to Zakopane in the Tatra mountains for a couple of days. It was really surprising to see how popular steep hill climbing was with entire families from grandparents down to toddlers, and even groups of nuns in full habits and trainers. Then back to Kraków for another couple of days.
2006 Gothenburg /Göteborg (Sweden)
This was a joint conference with IMS and IAMIC, held at our current President's own institution, Artisten. We were staying at a hotel that was quite near to the Liseberg fairground where some of our more adventurous colleagues apparently ventured onto some rather hair-raising rides.
Early in the week we took time out for a morning canal and harbour tour that took us under some very low bridges – heads had to be kept well down.
An interesting Wednesday trip took us on a coach journey to the Vitlycke open air museum not far from the border with Norway where we were able to view Bronze Age rock carvings.
We had a concert of contemporary Swedish music in the Konserthuset. There was also a baroque concert in Örgryte Nya Kyrka that included a brief organ recital on the newly built baroque organ.
The closing dinner took place at Kajskjul 8 near the harbour where we were regaled by Martin Bagge – something of a Carl Michael Bellman tribute act. At one point he was joined by an impromptu choir of attendees who had been practising Swedish folksongs during the week.
When in Sweden, one must of course visit Stockholm, so after the conference we took a nice fast train across Sweden. Stockholm's old town – Gamla Stan – is an inevitable tourist magnet but with quieter back streets. The Vasa ship museum houses the preserved 17th century ship that sank just after its launch – a lesson in hubris that few of our politicians ever seem to learn. We also visited Drottningholm with its extended park and gardens as well as a guided tour of the Drottningholms Slottsteater – a preserved baroque theatre – where I got the chance to turn the offstage wind machine.
2007 Sydney (Australia)
The Sydney conference was something of a curiosity as we arrived in the middle of Australia's winter. Daytime temperatures though were a respectable 12℃-14℃ but the locals, out and about in thick coats, scarves and boots, looked askance at these weird people in shorts and T shirts. We were booked into a central hotel with breakfast ... of a kind. During the afternoon a chambermaid deposited packages of bits and pieces in the room's fridge for breakfast consumption the following morning.
The conference venue was the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, quite close to the Opera House and the famous harbour bridge.
There was a park nearby where we were able to see enormous fruit bats roosting, and on the way from our hotel we passed a statue to Captain Cook's cat.
On the Wednesday afternoon tour we joined a trip up one of the towers of the harbour bridge with excellent views, including of small groups traversing the bridge's superstructure.
We took some time out one morning for a tour inside the opera house. Concerts included music by veteran Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe, virtuoso didgeridoo player and composer William Barton, a Balinese gamelan with dancers, and minimalist Elena Kats-Chernin engaged in some loud piano bashing.
Having travelled all that way to Australia it made sense after the conference to spend a few days at a small coastal town in the vicinity of the the Great Barrier Reef.
2008 Naples / Napoli (Italy)
We had some initial reluctance to go to the Naples conference, considering its reputation for crime, but apart from the heat we found it to be a most enjoyable conference. The journey, both there and back was by Eurostar to Paris and sleeper train to Rome, with another train onward to Naples. The outward sleeper had impressive mountain views as we crossed northern Italy but was around two hours late into Roma Centrale, missing our onward train. Fortunately though helpful Trenitalia staff got us onto another train.
On the day before the conference we managed to take a trip up to the crater of Vesuvius.
A minibus drove us halfway up the volcano past huge farms of pomodori (tomatoes), some of them undoubtedly destined for use in the very fine pizzas we experienced on other days. The journey back down was a little hair-raising since the driver was in deep conversation with, and mostly looking toward, his front seat passenger as we took one after another of very sharp bends.
The conference mostly took place in a conference centre at the harbour which was air conditioned, and given the outside temperature thankfully a fairly short walk from our hotel.
For the Wednesday afternoon tour we were all taken by coach to nearby ancient city of Pompeii that was buried in volcanic ash after a major eruption of Vesuvius in 79CE.
The day following the end of the conference we took the ferry to the nearby island of Ischia to stay for a couple of days. While there we were able to visit William and Susana Walton's famous garden 'La Mortella' and saw the memorial to the composer.
2009 Amsterdam (Netherlands)
This was a joint conference with the IMS so there were opportunities to hear more musicological content than usual. The conference took place in the brand new Conservatorium building. Alongside stands a spectacular new public library building whose top floor accommodates a fine café/restaurant with an open gallery and excellent views across the city. The opening reception took place there.
The conference took place at a time unfortunately when the Rijksmuseum was largely closed for major renovation, but there was still a small selection of works by Rembrandt and Vermeer on display for visitors.
Conference sessions included two plenaries, one with Ton Koopman, and another with Louis Andriessen. A concert in the nearby Musiekgebouw aan't IJ included works by Andriessen.
The Wednesday afternoon tour took us first to a working paper-making windmill – De Schoolemester, then on to Zaanse Schans, a preserved working village.
While in Amsterdam, we discovered the bulb market, as did other conference attendees. We were not the only ones returning home with bags full of large tulip bulbs.
2010 Moscow / Москва (Russia)
A memorable conference in many ways and it is so fortunate that it was organized to take place long before Vladimir Putin's regime made an unprovoked attack on Ukraine. I'm sure it was largely due to the redoubtable Emilia Rassina's efforts that it took place at all.
Problems started on our arrival at the airport when the cash machine was unwilling to issue more than a small amount of roubles which were of course not available for exchange outside Russia. That later turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
We had initially considered travelling to Moscow by train but that added too many complications. It would have been interesting to cross the Poland/Belarus border where each carriage, complete with occupants, is lifted off one set of bogies (wheels) onto another for a change of gauge.
Taxis had been arranged to transport groups of conference arrivals from Domodedovo airport to the conference venue at RAPA (Russian Academy of Public Administration). That journey was sometimes deathly slow in heavy traffic and at other times almost hair-raisingly fast with multiple lane changes at speed. When we arrived at RAPA, as we left the taxi it was a little unnerving to see a guard at the gate armed with a machine gun. Our accommodation was on the 12th floor of a tower block with a very slow and temperamental lift. The window was large and, having no safety rail, would be alarmingly easy for self-defenestration.
After registering we went out in search of a local supermarket to buy water, having been informed before travelling that the tap water should not be considered safe for drinking or even for cleaning teeth. Given how hot Moscow was we were getting through a 5 litre bottle of water most days of the week. In fact, the city was so hot that only a week or so after we left it was surrounded by forest wildfires and international news bulletins were showing Red Square enveloped in smoke.
Breakfasts were frugal with just two thin slices of dark rye bread available and little else desirable on offer, all policed by a stern attendant. By the second morning various people arrived at breakfast with pots of jam acquired from the nearby supermarket.
One particular joy was the Moscow Metro which was fast and efficient, with the nearest (Yugo-Zapadnaya) station around 10 minutes walk away, on the red line that would take us directly into the centre and to Red Square. Toward the end of the week we took the opportunity to explore some of the stations that are renowned for their decoration.
The Wednesday afternoon tour began with a trip by Metro to Red Square. Our guide took the group on a leisurely amble toward St Basil's Cathedral where, on arrival we found we had just 15 minutes to visit a series of small rooms inside. There was one real highlight when we encountered a group of four young men, one of whom was a true basso profundo, singing orthodox chant. After that we had to prepare to enter the Kremlin museum which included passing our possessions through airport-style X-ray machines. The highlight there among much Tsarist paraphernalia was the Fabergé eggs.
Lunchtimes tended to be spent at a small restaurant just up the road from the conference venue for pancakes and often a litre of Russian beer as a way to stay hydrated in temperatures that probably didn't fall below 30℃ for the whole week.
Concerts took place at the Concert Hall of the Russian State Library, and in the small hall of the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
On more than one evening we ended up eating at a decent pizzeria not far from Red Square, and for us that included the evening of the closing dinner. It had turned out that bureaucracy had worked alongside my inability to withdraw sufficient cash on arrival so that we were too late to register for the closing dinner. While we had an enjoyable meal at the pizzeria we heard later that the closing dinner had been a decidedly odd occasion with vodka particularly free-flowing.
Two post-conference tours had been organized. One of them left for St Petersburg by train on the Friday evening. We registered to join the Saturday trip to the Tchaikovsky State House-Museum at Klin, north west of Moscow. Even on this occasion bureaucracy almost prevented our trip. Although booked and paid in advance we were not listed as passengers and the minibus was one seat short. President Martie Severt was the hero of the moment when he insisted on sitting on the floor of the minibus for the entire journey. Fortunately he did get a seat on the return journey.
The Moscow conference marked the start of my first three year term on the IAML Board.
2011 Dublin / Baile Átha Cliath (Ireland)
The Dublin conference was destined to be a very busy one right from the outset. Planning had started three years earlier when I spotted that previous UK hosting had tended to follow a roughly 11 year cycle so following Edinburgh 2000, the year 2011 seemed an apposite one to choose. As we were now a joint Branch with Ireland, Dublin would be an appropriate venue to host the next conference. Thus I ended up chairing the Organizing Committee, but with vital on-site assistance throughout from Roy Stanley who was based at our chosen venue TCD (Trinity College Dublin).
Early on the Thursday morning I set out from home for trains to the Holyhead ferry terminal to take me across to Dublin. By Friday I found that Roy had already done most of the bag stuffing single-handed. The remainder of pre-conference admin was completed that day with others and we had an organizers' meal that evening. Saturday was the day of the Board meeting, followed in the evening by the Board dinner.
Sunday began with assisting at registration in the morning. The first Council meeting of the week took place in the afternoon then the opening ceremony was at City Hall in the evening.
Monday was an especially busy day, starting with the Newcomers' session which members of the Board are encouraged to attend. Next up was chairing of the opening plenary session, followed by co-chairing a joint Publications/IT Committee that was largely discussing the IAML website. In the afternoon I was again chairing a session on behalf of the Programme Committee.
Tuesday fortunately was calmer with only a Programme Committee lunch that I needed to attend. The last session of that day I found the most interesting: Christopher Hogwood – who was patron of the conference – and Douglas Woodfull-Harris discussed urtexts and orchestral performing editions. All of this was followed by an evening concert in the TCD Exam Hall with music for cello and piano.
Wednesday began with a Board breakfast meeting to discuss the way forward with IAML's restructuring prior to the second Council session. For the afternoon's excursion I was shepherding a full coach to Brú na Bóinne (Newgrange) neolithic passage tomb. At the tomb we had to enter, crouching, because of the low ceiling to the passage, before reaching an inner chamber where we were told about the history of the tomb. Then a warning was given for anyone who might be likely to panic that the lights would shortly be turned off so that, in total darkness, we could gain an impression of the sun showing through a slit at the winter solstice.
Thursday turned out to be another ridiculously busy day starting with attendance at the round table for national representatives. Following that I was chairing sessions before and after the lunch break, with the Council meeting at the end of the afternoon. The evening concert again in the TCD Exam Hall was of Irish traditional music.
Friday morning started with chairing yet another session – fortunately the last one for me of this week. The second session proved an interesting challenge and maybe a first for a IAML conference. A paper on the composer and artist M K Čiurlionis had been proposed by Darius Kučinskas of Kaunas University of Technology but some time prior to the conference he realised that he would be unable to attend so he arranged for his paper to be read by another Lithuanian attendee. Just before the conference it turned out that she also would be unable to attend.
Darius planned instead to do a live-stream but found as late as Wednesday that some of the equipment that was needed would not be available. He therefore made a pre-recorded video presentation and posted it late Thursday when I was able to verify that it played correctly. It was downloaded overnight by the very helpful TCD tech support assistant to ensure that we would not have to rely on a live connection. Just prior to the session itself we discovered that the recording could not be played on the lecture theatre PC without the most up to date version of Flash software which was of course not currently installed, and could not be downloaded because of TCD's network security. This left me with one last option: to run back to my room to retrieve a video-to-VGA connector so that I could run Darius's presentation over wifi from my MacBook Pro, which fortunately was a success. His presentation did not include any music examples so with some extra time available at the end of the session I was in a position to play a recording of Čiurlionis's Jura from my own resources.
In the afternoon we had the General Assembly and Closing Session which for me was followed by the last (short) Board meeting of the week before the closing dinner.
Up early the following morning I headed for the ferryport and a 'Swift' ferry to Holyhead, a train to London then another toward home by early evening.
Quite why did I end up chairing so many sessions? This resulted partly from being already Chair of Cataloguing Commission and the IT Committee, compounded with being Chair of the conference Organizing Committee. There were just two others for which I can only conclude I volunteered without realizing how many I already had.
All photographs © Antony Gordon. Used with permission.
