CDMC. Presentation

This body forms part of the National Institute for the Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), which is an Autonomous Body attached to the Ministry of Culture. The CDMC is entrusted with creating and implementing activities aimed at boosting the development of contemporary musical creation.

In fulfilling its remit, it has traditionally staged a series of concerts in Madrid, the city where the body is based, as well as managing the Music Festival of Alicante and the Laboratory for Computer-Based and Electronic Music (LIEM). At the same time, it has a series of collaboration agreements with different institutions, mainly through the auspices of the Spanish Regional Governments. It also takes part in specific measures with different institutions, such as the Cervantes Institute, the Youth Institute (INJUVE), the Spanish College in Paris, La Casa de Velázquez, etc.

The CDMC has carried out its season of concerts in Madrid at Auditorio 400 at the Reina Sofía National Art Centre Museum (MNCARS) since the 2005/2006 Season. The concerts take place every Monday, between October and July. The Music Festival of Alicante has just staged its twenty-second edition. The CDMC also stages an annual festival devoted to the new musical technologies, its Conferences on Computer-Based and Electronic Music (JIEM), which have reached their thirteenth edition and take place at MNCARS at the end of each concert season. Within the framework of the activities organised by LIEM, two or three annual programmes of courses, conferences and demonstrations take place, to which a number of outstanding figures from the field of musical technology and electro-acoustic creation are invited. For its part, LIEM regularly welcomes advanced composers and composition students so that they can carry out musical projects at its facilities, located at MNCARS.

The CDMC aims to influence the entire sector that revolves around musical creation: composers, performers, the public, as well as related companies and institutions. In this respect, its main purpose is to plan activities, which is why it must balance the different interests that exist within each field.

With a view to supporting composers, the CDMC offers around twenty commissions a year, pieces of work that are premièred at its concerts. It maintains the maximum number of Spanish creators on its programme, creators that come from all generations, artistic trends and regions of origin, with a view to promoting the prestige of Spanish music today, whose progress is linked to that of the CDMC.
With regard to the performers, the CDMC aims to promote and enhance the prestige of all Spanish or resident groups and soloists on its programmes who are committed to a contemporary repertoire, placing the emphasis on the most professional groups and those that focus their musical repertoire on a cutting-edge approach.
In relation to the public, the CDMC maintains a programming balance that provides a complete insight into the main trends and currents, both national and international, whilst demanding the highest levels of quality and prestige among the groups involved in its programmes. Through this approach the CDMC aims to help the public to gain a knowledge of the leading international trends, whilst, at the same time, confronting Spanish performers with the current international scene, an enriching experience free of any kind of paternalism that might distort Spain's role within an international context.

The CDMC has been based at MNCARS since 1986 and has collaborated periodically in numerous activities with this emblematic museum, whether it be through the staging of thematic concerts organised to complement the Museum's exhibition programmes or by placing its knowledge and experience at the disposal of MNCARS various departments.

Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea

Ministerio de Cultura. Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música

CDMC. Presentation