The Music Biennale Zagreb in an international festival of contemporary music initiated back in 1961 by Milko Kelemen. This cultural event had immediately gathered a panoply of eminent figures on the international music scene, thus having received a strong response as well as an incentive in its own environment. It would not be wrong to say that the time in combination with the geographical and political framework of that particular period and place have contributed considerably to the Biennale success since the very beginning, which continued to shape the festival until the late 1970s.

This was the period when New Music flourished as the genre which had sharpened the creative thought as powerfully as the preceding major periods of various stylistic movements in serious music. The focus of this claim was particularly pointed towards the areas of electronic and electro-acoustic music as well as towards music scene whose discourse displayed genuine credence of the musical idiom, the same one that has re-established the fundamental guidelines of music through its contemporary quality.

In those days the Music Biennale Zagreb was a platform of contemporary music detached from any form of convention, thus not having turned into a classic festival, but rather prompted a possibility and necessity to confront, re-examine and disclose the reasons, style or experience of a new and distinct view of life. Of course, this view was not the only one and unambiguous, but its idiom could be easily identified.

At the same time, the contemporary music scene of the period included the authors like Igor Stravinsky, Benjamin Britten and Dmitry Shostakovich, just to name a few, as well as many other composers considered masters of the 20th century music, most of whom attended the Biennale. Those experiences emerged from a certain moment that cannot be anticipated or repeated due to the composers' contrasted creative positions as well as due to the their productive rapport, or maybe not, with young authors whose mentality emanated an uncompromising stand. Although some of those composers subsequently, in retrospect, expressed doubts about 'their' period of the avantgarde, the Biennale years of the 1960s and 1970s provided incentive, thus having sublimated the very essence of the entire international contemporary music scene and having made a significant and profound impression on various fields of creative activity.

Having been closely interrelated with other arts, the Music Biennale Zagreb filled a considerable and a very distinctive position on the Croatian cultural scene. Such a favourable situation was partly due to the choice of performers, most of whom were superb music professionals, prominent among them being those artists who had drawn on the performance of contemporary music, thus having completed its legitimacy.

Over the subsequent years, the festival framework assumed a more distinct and compact structure, while the performances and responses were perceived through the prism of the recognized, or at moments even expected, dimension. In those days the mature reflection enhanced the initial impetus. Different views on topics came as the natural course of events, having been established as a continuous feature depending on the festival's leadership. The festival as determined by the contemporary and the new thus became, tentatively speaking, the standard. Yet, on the one hand this standard was not completely implemented, but on the other hand at some moments it adjusted its existence to the inherited forms and models.

As a result, the modern-day Biennale has been defined both by its tradition and by its beginnings as well as by the position in its own community and on the international music scene - however, the success and quality of such symbiotic relationship could be possibly evaluated by future generations. More importantly, the interest in the Biennale and composers' efforts do not cease, which is quite a success for a festival nearing its 50th anniversary.