Executive Board Members

Chair
Marie Martens (she/her)
Musikmuseet / The Danish Music Museum
Rosenørns Allé 22, DK-1970 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
email: cimcim.president (at) gmail.com

 

Marie Martens is the curator of The Danish Music Museum – Musikhistorisk Museum & The Carl Claudius Collection in Copenhagen. She is a musicologist from the University of Copenhagen.
For the terms 2019–2022 and 2022–2025, she served as Secretary of CIMCIM / ICOM MUSIC and in April 2025 stepped up as interim Chair of the committee. Hence, Marie has been involved in many activities for ICOM and ICOM MUSIC, including ICOM’s New Museum Definition and the revision of the ICOM Code of Ethics, our IC’s Annual Meetings, Business Meetings, Provenance Panels, and the editorial coordination of ICOM MUSIC’s Conference Proceedings volumes.
Effective per May 2025, Marie is an alternate Board member of ICOM Denmark.
As Chair of ICOM MUSIC, Marie will continue to represent and promote ICOM MUSIC to fulfil the goals of the Strategic Plan as well as our IC’s obligations to ICOM, all in a close teamwork with the Board.

 

Vice-Chair and Webmaster
Emanuele Marconi (he/him)
Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung
Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SIMPK)
Tiergartenstrasse 1, 10785 Berlin, Germany
email: cimcim.vicepresident (at) gmail.com

 

Organologist and Curator, Emanuele Marconi holds a diploma in Musical Instruments Restoration (Civica Scuola di Liuteria, Milan), a MA in Conservation (Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) and a PhD in Music and Musicology (Sorbonne Université). He has worked at the Milan Museum of Musical Instruments, the Correr Museum in Venice, the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva, the Musée de la musique in Paris, the National Music Museum in Vermillion (USA), the Wind Instruments Museum of La Couture Boussey (France) and taught Musical Instruments Conservation and Organology at the University of South Dakota, at the École du Louvre, and at the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Since July 2024 he is Director of the Musikinstrumenten-Museum of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin. He has served as CIMCIM board member 2019-2022.
Research interests include the History and Philosophy of Restoration, through the study of the written and sources, and investigating all aspects related to the understanding of the relationship between society, culture, technical evolution, and aesthetic perception, as wells and analyzing myths and symbolism related to musical instruments.

 

Secretary
Sarah Deters (she/her)
The University of Edinburgh
50 Niddry Street, EH11 1SL
email: cimcim.secretary (at) gmail.com

 

Sarah Deters is the St Cecilia’s Hall curator where she is responsible for museum interpretation, display, and visitor engagement at The University of Edinburgh’s musical instrument museum. At St Cecilia’s Hall, Sarah also shares responsibility for cataloging, researching and managing the more than 5,500 musical instruments in the Collection.
Sarah completed a PhD in organology from The University of Edinburgh in 2017. As a researcher, she has a particular interest in examining the history of musical instrument collecting and the display of musical instruments and their interpretation. Additionally, Sarah researches 20th-century musical instrument manufacturing and how socio-economic issues, such as war and labour movements, affect musical instrument making.
Prior to moving to Scotland in 2011, Sarah was curator of musical instruments at the National Music Museum at The University of South Dakota, Vermillion, and she has worked as a classroom music teacher in her home state of West Virginia.

 

Treasurer
Christian Breternitz (he/him)
Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Musikinstrumenten-Museum
Tiergartenstraße 1, D-10785 Berlin, Germany

 

 

Christian Breternitz is research associate and curator for wind and percussion instruments at the Musikinstrumenten-Museum of the Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin since June 2020. He studied musicology, education and psychology in Weimar and Jena. In 2019, he completed his doctorate at the Universität der Künste Berlin on “Berliner Blechblasinstrumentenbau im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert”. His research focus is on wind and percussion instruments and the biographies of their makers as well as the cultural transfer processes in musical instrument making. As a board member, Christian would like to contribute to the topics of sustainability in exhibitions and collections as well as colonial heritage of musical instrument collections.

 

 

Board Members

Esther Kabalanyana Banda (she/her)
Zambia Hands on Training Institute
Ngwezi Road, Plot 11068, Lusaka, Zambia

 

 

 

Esther Kabalanyana Banda, holder of a Master’s degree in Transformative Community Development; a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies, and a university Diploma in Management Studies and this makes her a highly motivated and experienced museum Administrator and Researcher – curating ethnographic collections which included Zambian traditional musical instruments –  with over 30 years in museum work. She has a proven track record of facilitating the planning and conducting of relevant field research, acquisition of collections, documenting and provision of curatorial services, as well as planning of exhibitions in order to enhance preservation and dissemination of knowledge to the public.

Her professional background further includes writing scholarly works, collaborating with communities in outreach programmes.  She is committed to fostering dialogue between museums in Zambia in safeguarding intangible and tangible cultural heritage and advocating for the collection of musical heritage and music of all kinds, ensuring that the musical heritage receives the visibility it deserves. Through this experience Ms. Banda is eager to contribute her skills and experience to support ICOM MUSIC’s goals – as an Advisory Board Member – of promoting and contributing to the preservation of the diverse musical expressions in museums.

 

Iris Verena Barth (she/her)
Norwegian Museum of Music – Ringve and Rockheim
Lade allé 60, 7041 Trondheim, Norway

 

 

Iris Verena Barth is Senior Curator at the Norwegian Museum of Music in Trondheim.
She earned her PhD at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, researching the trumpet as a solo instrument in European art music since 1900, and carried out her postdoctoral research at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow on gender connotations in the trumpet field. Her current research interests include gendered instrument practices in religious communities.
Verena leads the Norwegian music museum network and serves in the Norwegian export network, in charge of its music section. She has worked to elevate minority music
(particularly Sami) at Ringve.
Verena is currently engaged in an interdisciplinary collaboration project (Museum Interplay) for the safeguarding vulnerable instrumentmaking traditions.

 

 

Sabari Christian Dao (he/him)
Musée National du Burkina Faso
Secteur 23, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

 

 

Sabari Christian DAO holds a master’s degree in museology and a degree in project management. He specializes in the creation of digital content. Artist and author of several publications, Mr. DAO’s work focuses on the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in Burkina Faso, in particular elements related to traditional musical instruments. Agent of the Ministry of Culture since 2010, he is currently Director of Communication and Marketing and Member of the Scientific Council of the National Museum of Burkina Faso. He is also a founding member of the Association of Museum Professionals of Burkina Faso (APMBF) created in 2016. He has been a member of ICOM and CIMCIM since 2011. In September 2021, Mr. DAO was elected President of the Burkinabe Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). He was a member of the Resolutions Committee created on the occasion of the ICOM Prague 2022 General Conference.

 

Sara Kariman (she/her)
Saad Abad cultural & historical complex
Tehran Province, Tajrish, District 1, Taheri St, Iran

 

 

 

Graduated with an M.A. in Art Research from the Science and Culture University of Tehran in 2016, I have been working with museums since 2010 and have collaborated with several institutions in Tehran. My longest collaboration has been with the Saad Abad Cultural and Historical Complex and the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, which continues to this day. I worked as a music museum expert from 2017 to 2019. Most of my activities have focused on research in cultural and artistic fields, as well as on events, creative and innovative projects in museums, and curating exhibitions.
I have been a university lecturer in the field of museology since 2018 and also teach art history. In addition, I work as an expert and permanent journalist in the field of cultural heritage and museums for several newspapers and journals. I am the author of the book “Fifty Windows to the Museum” and have been an active member of ICOM and the CIMCIM committee since 2017.

 

Sebastian Kirsch (he/him)
Kunsthistorisches Museum
Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente
KHM-Museumsverband
Burgring 5, 1010 Wien, Österreich

 

 

Sebastian Kirsch is director of the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. He holds a PhD in musicology and a diploma in conservation, providing him with broad interdisciplinary expertise. His research focuses on the material and cultural history of the European lute, the intellectual foundations of early organology, and the application of advanced 3D imaging methods to musical instruments.
Sebastian Kirsch has gained extensive professional experience at leading institutions, including the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, the Museum of Musical Instruments at the University of Leipzig, and the Musée de la musique in Paris. These positions have shaped his international perspective and his commitment to fostering cooperation among musical instrument museums worldwide.

 

Jimena Palacios Uribe (she/her)
CENIDIM Centro Nacional de Investigación,
Documentación e Información Musical Carlos Chávez
Río Churubusco No. 79 col. Country Club
Piso 7 y 8 de la Torre de Investigación, Centro Nacional de las Artes
Alcaldía Coyoacán, C.P. 04220, Ciudad de México, Mexico

 

Jimena Palacios Uribe is a Mexican conservator and historian interested in the social and cultural impact of the use of musical instruments, especially in México and Latin America. She has worked at the National School of Conservation, at the National Institute of Anthropology and History, and at the National Institute of Fine Arts, where she has organized exhibitions, seminars, workshops and conferences about conservation, restoration, organology and musical iconography. Currently, she is writing her PhD thesis about the commercial and cultural implications of the importation of musical instruments in the late XIXth century in Mexico. Her interests are also related to the dissemination of musical cultural heritage and the formation of students into organology and conservation. She belongs to the CIMCIM, the AMIS and the HBS, where she is editor of the newsletter for content originated in spanish-speaking countries. She eventually plays her trombone while she walks her dogs in the park.

 

Pascale Vandervellen (she/her)
Musée des instruments de musique
Montagne de la Cour 2, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

 

 

 

Pascale Vandervellen has been working as curator of keyboard instruments at the Musical Instruments Museum (MIM) in Brussels since 1995. She holds a master in Management (Solvay Business School/University of Brussels) and a PhD in Art History and Archaeology (University of Paris IV/ La Sorbonne & University of Brussels). As treasurer of CIMCIM since 2019, she is ensuring the fair allocation of the association’s resources and in particular the follow-up of travel grants.

 

Saskia Willaert (she/her)
Musée des instruments de musique
Montagne de la Cour 2, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

 

 

 

Saskia Willaert (Ph.D. Musicology King’s College, University of London) is a curator at the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum (MIM – 4th department of the Royal Museums of Art and History), in charge of non-western collections. Her publications include research on the history of the MIM. Being in charge of the MIM’s digitization projects, she brought the collection of the MIM to the MIMO platform and digitized partner museums in Africa.