The Israel Music Institute (IMI) is the first publicly owned music publishing house in Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. It is devoted primarily to the publication of Israeli art music, but also publishes books and booklets on Israeli music and composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

s, CDs of Israeli art music

Art music

Art music is an umbrella term used to refer to musical traditions implying advanced structural and theoretical considerations and a written musical tradition...

, and a periodical, IMI News. It is a non-profit organization supported by the Israel Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.

The Institute was established in 1961 by the Israel Council for Culture and Arts for the purpose of publishing and promoting serious Israeli music by all means possible. Its first director and editor in chief (1961-1989) was William Y. Elias. The current director and editor in chief

Editor in chief

An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...

 is Paul Landau, appointed in 1989. The current Chair of the Board is Daniela Rabinovitz.

Since its establishment, IMI has acquired the rights to more than 2300 compositions by some 185 Israeli composers. About 85% of the works under IMI copyright have already appeared in print. IMI publishes compositions by virtually all important contemporary classical Israeli composers working in Israel since 1920. The Institute’s catalogue encompasses orchestral music, chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, solo instrumental music and vocal music

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...

 (ranging from solo song to choral and choral-orchestral music), electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

, several opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s and ballet

Ballet

Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...

 scores, and music for educational purposes.

The Institute has also published several musicological studies

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

 and promotional materials on Israeli composers. Since 1990, the Institute has been publishing a comprehensive bulletin, IMI News, which provides news and information on performances of Israeli music, both in Israel and around the world (including new recording

Recording

Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....

s of Israeli music), and articles on recently-performed or recently-published works and on major issues in Israeli musical life. A list of performances of Israeli music is also available on the Institute’s website, which also lists IMI’s complete catalogue and contains several articles on Israeli music drawn from the Institute’s publications.

The Institute has also produced several CDs of Israeli art music, both on its own label and in cooperation with several other non-profit musical institutions in Israel, as well as marketing CDs of Israeli art music produced by other labels.

IMI collaborates with major orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

s, choir

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

s, chamber ensemble

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

s and musical education institutions in Israel, as well as with numerous musical bodies around the world. It is also involved in several major musical events taking place in Israel, including the Paul Ben-Haim

Paul Ben-Haim

Paul Ben-Haim was an Israeli composer. Born Paul Frankenburger in Munich, Germany, he studied composition with Friedrich Klose and he was assistant conductor to Bruno Walter and Hans Knappertsbusch from 1920 to 1924...

 Competition – Young Artists Play Israeli Music (organised by Jeunesses Musicales

Jeunesses Musicales

Jeunesses Musicales International is the largest youth music NGO in the world, created in Brussels, Belgium in 1945 with the mission to "enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries"...

 Israel http://www.youth-music.org.il); the Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein

Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...

 International Piano Master Competition http://www.arims.org.il; The International Harp Contest in Israel http://www.harpcontest-israel.org.il/; Zimriya http://www.zimriya.org.il, the World Assembly of Choirs in Israel; and others. Since 2006, IMI has been producing the Israel Music Celebrations, an annual three-day festival of Israeli music held in Jerusalem and other cities of Israel.

In addition to its role as a publishing house, IMI serves as the Israel Music Information Center (IMIC) and is a full member of the IAMIC, the International Association of Music Information Centres http://www.iamic.net, maintaining reciprocal ties with over 40 member countries. It is currently in the process of creating a central library for Israeli music, which aims to make music by all Israeli composers available to musicians for perusal and consultation, both in scores and (where possible) in recordings.

Israel Music Institute is represented by leading publishers abroad, as listed on its website.