Shanghai Conservatory of Music President Lin Zaiyong met with Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco, president of the International Council for Traditional Music, on October 19, 2016.

Liu Yan, deputy Party secretary of the SHCM, and Professor Xiao Mei were present at the meeting.

The International Council for Traditional Music is a non-governmental consultancy for the UNESCO. Castelo-Branco was in Shanghai to attend a seminar on lute music along the Silk Road.

Lin said the seminar is part of the Silk Road Forum of Deans of Music Conservatories initiated by the SHCM in April. It will contribute to academic research of music, arts and culture in Eurasian countries along the Silk Road.

He told the ICTM leader that the Shanghai conservatory is designing music and dance curriculum programs and building a strong faculty team. He said music and dance are artistic expression of human feelings and have an influence on other human activities.

Castelo-Branco thanked the SHCM for its support to the ICTM and hoped the papers read at the seminar can be published in top-class academic journals as a gift for the conservatory as it celebrates its 90th anniversary in 2017.

She agreed with Lin that music and dance education should be discussed in the same context. Her organization wants to cooperate with the SHCM in this area.