Irène Deliège, an obituary
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Irène Deliège, founder of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM) and founding editor of its journal, Musicae Scientiae, died on 11 May 2024. Born in 1933 in Flanders, she was immersed in music from an early age; she studied piano at the Conservatoire royale de Bruxelles, becoming intrigued by musical avant-garde thinking. This resulted in her attending the Darmstadt Ferienkurse in 1953 at which she met, and the following year married, the rising star of Belgian musicology, Celestin Deliège (1922-2010), the best man at their wedding being Pierre Boulez. Irène subsequently worked as a music teacher until changing career to pursue a psychology degree at the Université libre de Bruxelles, graduating in 1984. She completed a PhD in 1991 at the Université de Liège, teaching and conducting research there in the psychology of music from 1984 and retiring formally in 1997. Aligned with her academic interests, Irène was instrumental in establishing the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM) in 1991 as well as the journal of the Society, Musicae Scientiae, in 1997.