Most scholarly conferences include some time for relaxation and entertainment, but few can boast a regular jazz evening with musicians who are also society members. Since Hans-Joachim Braun organized the first configuration of what would become the Email Special in Budapest in 1996, these jazz evenings have become a regular feature of ICOHTEC meetings. It is fitting that music would find an ongoing presence in the annual ICOHTEC Symposia. As a scholarly society founded on international cooperation and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, ICOHTEC’s mission has embraced openness and what better way to communicate across cultures than through the universal language of music? It is also fitting that music would become an integral part of the events of a society rooted in European culture, since Europe was where American jazz musicians found more appreciative audiences than those in the United States during many decades of the twentieth century. But jazz has not been the only music enjoyed at our symposia.

This paper will trace the history of music at ICOHTEC conferences, from the German Dixieland band on the steamboat ride along the Elbe in 1987 to the first Email Special gig in Budapest a decade later and the subsequent re-configurations of the group over the years and across four continents, to the Bach organ recital of the late W. David Lewis in a church in Prague, to the blues power duo of Jeremy Kinney and Outi Ampuja. The story of how this musical tradition has evolved, how the local organizers have always managed to provide the necessary equipment—including a vibraphone!—is a study in international cooperation and attests to the collegial atmosphere of our society.