Wim van Zanten

Wim VAN ZANTEN
graduated in theoretical physics and taught mathematics at the University of Malawi (1967-1971), where he also investigated the music of southern Malawi. He taught Statistics for the Social Sciences at the Department of Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands, from 1971-2007 and at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Indonesia, Jakarta, from 1976-1979. His PhD dissertation was on Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music of West Java (1987) and he also taught Anthropology of Music at Leiden University.

Research
Most of his publications are based on his fieldwork in Malawi and Indonesia and some are about methodological issues in anthropology and ethnomusicology, including statistics for the social sciences. Filming for documentary purposes has been part of his fieldwork since 1976 and he published two films about Minangkabau performing arts in West Sumatra. His present research is mainly concerned with music of West Java, Indonesia, such as Cianjuran music and music of the Baduy minority group.

ICTM
Wim van Zanten was member of the Executive Board of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM) from 1996-2004 and 2009-2011, and one of its Vice Presidents from 2005-2009. From 2004-2010 he was the ICTM editor for the UNESCO Collection of Traditional Music of the World, a programme that has been closed down by UNESCO and has been continued by Smithsonian Folkways (USA) since 2010. He was Programme Chair for the ICTM world conferences in Nitra, Slovakia (1997) and Vienna, Austria (2007) and Durban, South Africa (2009). He became honorary member of the ICTM in 2013.

UNESCO
In 2002 Wim van Zanten edited the Glossary Intangible Cultural Heritage/ Glossaire patrimoine culturel immatériel for Unesco, and in 2002-3 he was governmental expert for the Netherlands at the three Intergovernmental meetings of experts on the preliminary-draft convention for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, Paris, Unesco Headquarters. From 2006-2012 he represented the International Council for Traditional Music, an UNESCO-affiliated NGO, at the meetings of the Committee and the General Assembly of the 2003 Convention of the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage since Algiers (2006) until Paris (June 2012). Since 2014 he has been supplying technical assistance to the preparation of proposals for internation assistance from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund.

He was invited to give presentations or keynote addresses at conferences about matters concerning the 2003 UNESCO convention, for instance, in Beijing, China (November 2004), Delhi, India (March 2007), Geneva, Switzerland (for WIPO, June 2007), Oaxaca, Mexico (January 2009), Baku, Azerbaijan (March 2009), Paris, France (at UNESCO Headquarters, April 2009), Tokyo, Japan (March 2012 and January 2013) and Paris, France (June 2012).

Other editorial and organisational work
- editor of the books Oideion; Performing Arts World-wide; may be downloaded from Oideion 1 (1993), Oideion 2 (1995) and Oideion 3 (2003). A multimedia version, including also new articles, appeared on the WWW Oideion; Performing Arts Online from 1997-2007. See mirror of Oideion; Performing Arts Online on this site.
- programme director of the 'Performing Arts in Asia; Tradition and Innovation' (PAATI) research programme (1997-2001) of the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden.
- president of the Dutch Society for Ethnomusicology "Arnold Bake", the national committee of the International Council for Traditional Music, from 1991-1997;
- member of the Coordinating Board of the European Seminar in Ethnomusicology (ESEM; 1994-1995 and 2000-2001).

Dangiang Parahiangan
The music group Dangiang Parahiangan, playing Tembang Sunda Cianjuran music of West Java is lead by Wim van Zanten.