Even before the current pandemic, contemporary music existed in a state of crisis. Its structures and institutions struggle to support any minority, let alone artistic practices outside of a narrow Western European style, meaning fundamental change is inexorable if this field is to remain societally relevant. With this issue of OnCurating journal, the curatorial collective GRiNM (Gender Relations in New Music) gathers texts based on its 2019 conference at the Zurich University of the Arts that explore practical and theoretical approaches to opening and diversifying the field. Our intention with this issue is to articulate these voices as central to curating music, and to call its outdated investment in a European monoculture into question. We hope that it serves in the eye of this current storm as the most urgent of demands for fundamental, immediate change.
With contributions by Kajsa Antonsson, Sandeep Bhagwati, Valentina Bertolani, Dahlia Borsche, Sharon Chan, Anke Charton, Lucien Danzeisen, Julia Eckhardt, Gina Emerson, Sine Tofte Hannibal, Anna Jakobsson, Rosanna Lovell, Camille Overgaard, Luisa Santacesaria, Christina Scharff, Susanne van Els, Stellan Veloce, Serge Vuille