July 13-19, 2011, Memorial University was honoured to host the 41st World Conference of the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), an organization recognized worldwide as an eminent society for ethnomusicology and ethnochoreology research. The St. John's meeting was the first ICTM world conference to take place in Canada since the renowned folklorist Marius Barbeau hosted a meeting in Quebec City in 1961. The conference had 460 presenters from 57 countries. The SOUNDshift festival of world music and dance was held alongside the conference.