Mission - The Institute of Musical Traditions (IMT) is an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization which preserves and promotes folk music traditions, and nurtures new music styles evolving from these cultural roots, by presenting concerts, workshops, and educational programs.
2. Cause - Founded in 1981 by David Eisner, IMT provides the Washington DC regional community with a venue where traditional music from the United States and around the world can be showcased and explained, with audience participation encouraged. Through in-person concerts, professional videos of live performances, and hands-on instrumental workshops, traditional music is preserved and passed on to younger generations.
3. Goals -
1) To present public performances featuring a broad range of music genres, dance, and storytelling, with special emphasis on American folk and International cultural traditions, in order to foster a greater awareness and appreciation of folk music and the arts in general. IMT presented 25-30 in-person concerts each year and 2-5 instrumental workshops before COVID-19. After in-person concerts were cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, IMT hosted streaming concerts starting in April 2020 and continuing into 2021.
2) To record and disseminate high quality and ethnically diverse cultural musical performances, workshops, and instructional videos to a broad range of audiences. Our concert performance videos are available online for national and international viewing.
3) To preserve and promote traditional music as a tool to serve as educational and community building resources. In 2018 and 2019, IMT partnered with Melodic Planet to produce and record traditional music videos with lesson plans for grade school students.
4) To financially support touring, national, and international artists in traditional music. All our artists, whether performing at in-person or online concerts, are paid.
