CIDIM – Italian National Music Council is a non-profit-making musical association, entered in the register of legal persons under D.P.R. 361/2000 as communicated by the Prefettura of Rome on 12 October 2004.
CIDIM was founded in 1978 as “Centro Italiano Di Iniziativa Musicale” by 33 concert associations with the object of providing Italian music institutions with the availability of an association which would act as a reference point at a time when extensive changes were being made in the legislation relative to musical activities and which would coordinate complex musical and cultural activities.
In 1981 CIDIM was recognized by the IMC – International Music Council (NGO maintaining a formal associate relationship with UNESCO ) as the Italian National Music Council.
A precise description of the role of CIDIM requires consideration of the fact that the National Music Councils were created according to international guidelines laid down by the IMC and by the EMC , namely that of being centres of music services with tasks in sectors differing from the normal circuit of the production and distribution institutions which manage and organize musical events (concerts, festivals, courses and competitions) and which therefore benefit from a major visibility. For example, CIDIM promotes talented young Italian musicians recommending them to operators in the music world and coordinating, in partnership with the latter, their circulation both in Italy and abroad. CIDIM’s activity has consequently a social and cultural value which remains however frequently unknown by the general public for the very good reason that it is carried out offstage.
The objective of CIDIM was, and is, to:
- contribute to the development of music culture, classical and contemporary, in Italy and abroad;
- encourage and promote the development and diffusion of information, documentation, data collection and research in the field of music;
- promote the circulation in Italy and abroad of young Italian performers and ensembles;
- support organic and continuative forms of coordination for the production and diffusion of music;
- plan and realize abroad cultural projects initiated by Public and/or Private Bodies, Resident Orchestra Concert Societies, Italian Cultural Institutes abroad and Foreign Embassies accredited in Italy.
Accordingly, CIDIM provides for:
- setting-up and maintaining a working relationship with public bodies (MIBAC , MAE , local government departments, Italian Cultural Institutes and Embassies) and with international institutions (IMC , EMC , IAMIC );
- promoting and facilitating contacts and collaboration between public bodies and music institutions;
- coordinating the music productions of Italian public institutions and supporting their presentation throughout the national territory, including the less well-served areas;
- organizing and realizing cultural projects abroad directed at the promotion of talented young Italian performers;
- promoting research and realizing publications on legislative, musicological and historical themes;
- promoting a major diffusion of contemporary music;
- organizing conferences, seminars, initiatives and participating actively in Italian and European debates on music policies.
Over the years CIDIM has realized a wide-ranging activity, including:
- collection and processing of data for setting-up archives and databanks (BDMI, BDCI , Ethnomusical Archive of the Mediterranean );
- research and publication of material of interest in the fields of music and musicology;
- ideation, realization and coordination of artistic programmes in Italy and abroad;
- role of Operational Secretariat to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage & Activities and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the organization of ministerial interdisciplinary projects in Italy and abroad.
At national level CIDIM has:
- promoted and realized research and in-depth studies on music activities;
- published comments and criticisms of the conditions in which artists and cultural operators have to work, organizing meetings and conferences on this subject attended by representatives of the political and trade union worlds;
- coordinated musical productions destined for the widespread circulation of artists and ensembles throughout the national territory.
At international level CIDIM has:
- initiated numerous contacts with IMC , EMC and other important international dialogists, like IAMIC, which actively advocate the world of music and culture.