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The Contemporary Music Research Center (CMRC) - Κέντρο Σύγχρονης Μουσικής Έρευνας (KSYME) was founded in 1979 by Iannis Xenakis, John G. Papaioannou, and Stephanos Vassiliadis in Athens. John G. Papaioannou was an amateur musicologist, professional architect and city planner, while Stephanos Vassileiadis was a composer of orchestral and electronic music, pedagogue, choral conductor and admirer of the many textures and timbres of Greek folk music and Greek Orthodox Chanting. Since its very first days, the Center has obtained pioneering musical equipment such as Iannis Xenakis’s UPIC, and has been active in the cultural, spiritual, and scientific life of Greece.

Xenakis had already declared his intentions of creating a center in Athens in 1974. In 1977, after Xenakis was given back his Hellenic citizenship, the final decision of creating a Greek institution was taken in Bonn, after Xenakis’s presentation of his latest invention, the UPIC, during the World Music Days. After this event, the three Greeks, Xenakis, Papaioannou, and Vassiliadis decided that this plan could actually start being realized. In 1979 the Contemporary Music Research Center’s Statutes were signed by 25 founding members, and the Center started its journey. Its goals reflected the interests of all three founders:

• Promoting research for the broadening of sonic possibilities, capable of being used in contemporary music composition.
• Research on acoustics and the psychophysiology of hearing.
• Development of intertwined methods for the simultaneous study of music, mathematics and other sciences or arts.
• Education, through consistent teaching of the aforementioned disciplines by suitable personnel, with an emphasis on youth and allotment of scholarships.
• Exploration and development of pedagogical methods for music, that can be applicable in the future in other similar centers in Greece, without age, gender or racial restrictions.
• Informing and cooperating with other educational institutions (elementary, middle and higher education, general, special, technical or artistic education).
• Promoting music creativity based on the aforementioned research methods.
• Promoting music analysis and research of sonic structures of folk music of various civilizations and especially Greek folk music (byzantine, traditional, etc.), and the sounds of the Greek environment.
• Development of Greek and international contacts through workshops, conferences and other social events, centered around the aforementioned Center’s activities.
• Development of public events - lectures, listening sessions, discussions etc.- in Greece and abroad, where the results of the Center’s activities will be presented.
• Publications based on the aforementioned research results.