The Centre for Intercultural Music Arts (CIMA), a British Charity, was founded in 1988. The Centre aims to promote intercultural music arts and music theatre and to educate the public in their creation and performance. CIMA was inaugurated in response to the challenges posed by composers and performers who are exploring new dimensions in music by integrating elements from different cultures.

CIMA believes that composers from non-Western cultures are likely to become increasingly influential in the world of music and that musical interculturalism and other creative ideas generated from or inspired by non-Western sources will be among the major events of the twenty-first century.

CIMA organises a major international biennial symposium and festival on the theme “New Intercultural Music” and also publishes a series of books under the general title of Intercultural Music and an Intercultural Musicology journal. The editor of the book series and the journal is Robert Mawuena Kwami, and the editor in chief is Cynthia Tse Kimberlin. To find out more on the Centre’s activities, visit its website at: http://ioecima.homestead.com 

CIMA is one of the founding organisations of the International Consortium for the Music of Africa and its Diaspora (ICMAD). One of ICMAD’s objectives is “To promote visibility and expand markets and audiences for all composers of African descent, and for other scholars and educators who advocate and promote African and African-American music, composition and performance”. For more information, visit http://www.africanchorus.org/ICMAD/ICMAD.htm  or contact: Fred Onovwerosuoke, ICMAD Secretariat, 634 N. Grand Blvd., Suite 1143, St. Louis, Missouri 63103, USA. E-mail: icmad@africanchorus.org 

Two academic institutions involved in the management of CIMA are the (1) School of Arts & Humanities, University of London Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL, UK; and (2) Department of Music, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa.

Three other organisations, also associated with CIMA, need to be mentioned. First, the Music Research Institute (MRI), a California based charity, is one of CIMA’s long-time benefactors. The MRI publishes CIMA’s publications, Intercultural Music and Intercultural Musicology. Both academic publications are internationally refereed. MRI is a founder member of the ICMAD. For further information on the activities of the MRI, visit http://www.music-research-inst.org/  or contact: Dr. Cynthia Tse Kimberlin, Music Research Institute, P. O. Box 70362, Point Richmond, CA 94807, USA. E-mail: cyntse@comcast.net 

Secondly, the International Society - African to American Music (IS-AAM), also a founder member of the ICMAD, has been collaborating with CIMA since 2000. The IS-AAM co-organised and hosted CIMA’s international biennial symposia and festivals in 2000, and also the conference on “Composition in Africa and the Diaspora”, which took place at Churchill College, University of Cambridge during August 1-4, 2001. For more information on the activities of IS-AAM, contact: Mike Wright, IS-AAM, 49 Waltham Avenue, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 9QF, United Kingdom. E-mail: mswright@isaam.fsnet.co.uk 

Finally, CIMA has developed links with the Pan-African Society of Musical Arts Education (PASMAE). For more information on the activities of PASMAE visit http://www.pasmae.org/  and / or contact: Professor Caroline van Niekerk, Department of Music, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. E-mail: caroline@libarts.up.ac.za