The Independent Society of Musicians (ISM) is the UK and Ireland's professional body for musicians representing over 11,000 individuals across all areas of the music industry. The ISM is also a subject association for music education and is an independent non profit-making organisation.
History
The ISM was founded in 1882 to promote the importance of music and protect the rights of those working within music. It is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation which has almost 11,000 individual members and over 180 corporate members. It protects and supports its members by providing them with expert advice, insurance and specialist services as well as access to a community of like-minded professionals and the status that comes with being a member of a professional body. Originally called the Incorporated Society of Musicians, it changed its name in October 2022 to coincide with its 140th anniversary.
Members
The ISM has a membership of over 11,000 music professionals including performers, composers, music teachers, music administrators, music technology professionals and portfolio musicians, and provides different levels of membership for students and graduates, orchestras, education bodies and those who are interested in supporting their work.
Notable members
The ISM's current members include
Sir Simon Rattle,
Sir Mark Elder,
Sir James Galway,
Dame Felicity Lott,
Judith Weir CBE,
Betty Roe OBE,
Julian Lloyd Webber
Julian Lloyd Webber (born 14 April 1951) is a British solo cellist, conductor and broadcaster, a former principal of Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the founder of the In Harmony music education programme.
Early years and education
Julian ...
,
Julian Bream, Andy Boyd, Paul Harris,
John McCabe,
Gerald Finley, and
Craig Ogden.
Services
The ISM supports members through expert legal assistance from a specialist in-house legal team and a 24-hour legal and tax helpline, comprehensive insurance including public liability insurance, legal expenses insurance, and discounted musical instrument insurance; practical advice ISM's staff team and access to online advice pages; free promotion through the ISM Music Directory, the UK's only online directory of professional musicians; professional development events including seminars, webinars and conferences.
Campaigns and surveys
In its work to protect musicians' rights and support the profession across the sector, the ISM campaigns and lobbies to make their views known to policy makers.
The ISM led a successful campaign to secure the place of music in the
English Baccalaureate as part of a sixth pillar of creative and cultural subjects. The campaign achieved nearly 50,000 signatures to a petition and support from over 110 organisations. On 7 February 2013 the Government withdrew its EBC proposals and introduced a new performance measure for schools that will include creative subjects.
In 2015, the campaign was relaunched in response to the Department for Education's proposal to implement the English Baccalaureate as a headline accountability measure in schools. The campaign is supported by 100,000+ individual signatories and over 200 organisations from across the creative industries including
Aardman Animations,
Shakespeare's Globe, The
BRIT School
The BRIT School is a British performing and creative arts school located in Selhurst, Croydon, England, with a mandate to provide education and vocational training for the performing arts, music, music technology, theatre, musical theatre, dan ...
, The
Design Council
The Design Council, formerly the Council of Industrial Design, is a United Kingdom charity incorporated by Royal Charter. Its stated mission is "to champion great design that improves lives and makes things better".
It was instrumental in the pro ...
and more. The campaign has recently debated the issue of the EBacc and its exclusion of creative subjects in the Houses of Parliament.
In 2014, the Government launched a consultation on the new GCSE, AS and A level in music. While the aims of the reforms were positive, the Government defined only one area of study: ‘music composed in the western classical tradition between 1700 and 1900.’ The ISM stated, 'not only does this artificial time-frame make no musical sense but musicians of the future will only be able to study classical music written before 1700 and after 1900 if they take this as a separate area of study, and the overall effect of the reforms will do little to support and encourage musicality. And it could even have a detrimental effect on musicianship and the study of musical genres.' The ISM subsequently the 'Beyond 1990' campaign, urging the music sector to respond to the consultation.
In 2013 the ISM launched the campaign Protect Music Education calling for confirmed funding for music education hubs from 2015, and for the Government to drop its proposal advising local authorities to cease funding music education. It united the music sector, gaining the support of 134 organisations from across the music sector, 5,000 individuals and many distinguished musicians.
On 22 July 2014, the campaign was deemed a double success, with £75million of funding for music education in 2015/16 secured, and the Government backing down on its proposal.
The ISM has an ongoing campaign to help musicians travel by air with confidence, taking fragile, hand-held instruments in the cabin as part of hand baggage allowance.
easyJet
EasyJet plc (styled as easyJet) is a British multinational low-cost airline group headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled services on 927 routes in more than 34 countries via its affiliate airli ...
announced a more musician-friendly hand baggage policy following discussions with the ISM.
A survey by the ISM in 2017 found that 60% of the respondents had experienced
sexual harassment.
Affiliations
The ISM holds memberships with many industry bodies, including the Council for Subject Associations, Creative Coalition Campaign, Creators' Rights Alliance, Educational Recording Agency, National Campaign for the Arts and the National Music Council.
Awards
In 1976, under President
Ida Carroll, the ISM established the Distinguished Musician Award to acknowledge outstanding contributions to British musical life.
Recipients have included:
Malcolm Arnold,
Janet Baker,
Nicola Benedetti,
Sarah Connolly,
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music.
Born in Mon ...
,
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in Londo ...
,
Julian Bream,
Janet Craxton,
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (8 September 1934 – 14 March 2016) was an English composer and conductor, who in 2004 was made Master of the Queen's Music.
As a student at both the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Mus ...
,
Colin Davis,
Norman Del Mar
Norman René Del Mar CBE (31 July 19196 February 1994) was a British conductor, horn player, and biographer. As a conductor, he specialised in the music of late romantic composers; including Edward Elgar, Gustav Mahler, and Richard Strauss. He ...
,
Jacqueline du Pré,
Mark Elder
Sir Mark Philip Elder (born 2 June 1947) is a British conductor. He is currently music director of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England.
Life and career
Elder was born in Hexham, Northumberland, the son of a dentist. He played the ...
,
James Galway,
Alexander Gibson,
Evelyn Glennie,
Reginald Goodall,
Charles Groves,
Christopher Hogwood,
Witold Lutosławski
Witold Roman Lutosławski (; 25 January 1913 – 7 February 1994) was a Polish composer and conductor. Among the major composers of 20th-century classical music, he is "generally regarded as the most significant Polish composer since Szyma ...
,
Charles Mackerras
Mackerras in 2005
Sir Alan Charles MacLaurin Mackerras (; 1925 2010) was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. He was long associated with the Engl ...
,
George Malcolm,
John McCabe,
Antonio Pappano,
Peter Pears,
Simon Rattle
Sir Simon Denis Rattle (born 19 January 1955) is a British-German conductor. He rose to international prominence during the 1980s and 1990s, while music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980–1998). Rattle was principa ...
, John Stephens,
Michael Tippett,
William Walton,
Fanny Waterman
Dame Fanny Waterman (22 March 192020 December 2020) was a British pianist and academic piano teacher, who is particularly known as the founder, chair and artistic director of the Leeds International Piano Competition. She was also president of ...
,
Judith Weir,
David Willcocks,
Julian Lloyd-Webber and
Oliver Knussen
References
External links
Independent Society of Musicians
{{Authority control
1882 establishments in the United Kingdom
Education in the City of Westminster
Music education in the United Kingdom
Music education organizations
Music organisations based in the United Kingdom
Organisations based in the City of Westminster