I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música‘s August’s monthly newsletter.

This week is specially thrilling for me… Why?

Our Mari Nieto, the female singer of Vigüela (in the picture), settled in a village of less than 2000 inhabitants, mother of 4 and grandmother of 4, told me once that she had two dreams: to visit Norway, and we got it, attending Førdefestivalen, and to visit Samarkand! She will have to renew her list of dreams…

Next Saturday I travel with Vigüela to Sharq Taronalari, in Samarkand. We both cry of joy thinking about it… By the way, I will celebrate my birthday there, that is on 26th of August. Compliments will be welcome! 🙂

In Mapamundi Música we are not fullfulling dreams of our collaborators everyday but I believe we are provinding some beauty, brightness and understanding to our community and to the world. I can’t hide my gratitude to the ones that trusted us and joined us in their goals and visions.

Find below some useful infos, including the new period to apply for grants from Acción Cultural Española, the main insights after our first edition of Transiberia Mundi and, for the first time, an interview with a festival director for the USA: Tom Frouge, from Globalquerque. And much much more.

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If you have any suggestion of contents for the next editions, let us know. Thanks for your attention.

Araceli Tzigane – info@mundimapa.com +34 676 30 28 82

Summary:

· Mini interview with festival manager: Tom Frouge from Globalquerque (USA)
· Post insights of Transiberia Mundi
· Open call: Acción Cultural Española, mobility grants application open in September
· Find me at…
· And Mapamundi’s concert calendar for September includes the premiere of an awesome Turkish artist in Portugal. Check below!

**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****

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CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS

If you haven´t read them, you can find the previous interviews clicking on the names: Michal Schmidt (Folk Holidays, CZ) – Jun-Lin Yeoh (Rainforest WMF, MY) – Luis Lles (Pirineos Sur, ES) – Amitava Bhattacharya (Sur Jahan, IN) – Nicolas Ribalet (Sukiyaki Meets the World, JP) – Sergio Zaera (Poborina Folk, ES) – Per Idar Almås (Førdefestivalen, NO) – Bożena Szota (EthnoPort, PL) – Ken Day (Urkult, SE) – Mads Olesen (5 Continents, CH) – Karolina Waszczuk & Bartek Drozd (Jagiellonian Fair, PL) – Alkis Zopoglou (Mediterranean Music Festival, GR/CH)

MINI INTERVIEW WITH TOM FROUGE FROM GLOBALQUERQUE

Globalquerque! is New Mexico’s Annual Celebration of World Music and Culture. It is held each September in Albuquerque (New Mexico), at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This year 2019 it will celebrate its 15th edition. Check the details at the website.

It is very heartening to know that also at the USA there is people like Tom and his partner Neal Copperman that work with the vision of building bridges, crossing borders and tearing down walls. Thank you, guys, an much success for the 15th edition!

MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme?

TF: That is a question we get a lot! We program music from the very traditional to the very NOT traditional (check out our first announced confirmed acts!), so what is our criteria? The best answer I can give is that the artists that we select to perform on our stages, aside from being fabulous musicians and ready to perform on the festival circuit, must have at least a couple of toes artistically and creatively in the culture from which they come, regardless of how contemporary or cutting edge they may be. For example, you can be a hip hop artist from Palestine or an electronica artist from Argentina, but when your set is finished, we want our audience to say that was a killer ARGENTINE electronica artist or a fantastic PALESTINIAN hip hop artist and not simply, oh, that was a really good electronica artist that sings in Spanish or, I liked the hip hop group that sang in Arabic. It is about being a great artist AND representing your culture.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?

TF: This ties in somewhat to the answer to the first question. ¡Globalquerque! is all about cross-culture understanding through the arts. All our programming, from the music, to the outreach, to the films, to our international dance lessons, to our school program, right down to the food served in our Global Village Of Craft, Culture & Cuisine – todo – is about recognizing our similarities while exploring and celebrating our differences. It may sound cliche, but we believe the more you understand other cultures, the harder it is to bomb them!At ¡Globalquerque! we believe in the power of community and the power of the arts to build bridges. We strive to create a space where no person is “the other”. It’s a trip around a peace-filled, inclusive world. On top of all that, it is an adventure full of discovery and a monster 3-stage, 2-day, music party!

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?

TF: The new tax regulations in the US for visiting artists have been challenging. Some groups have postponed US tours in order to get a handle on the new realities, so we lost some we were in discussions with this year. Visas are always a potential issue, particularly in the unfortunate political climate we find ourselves in. Another challenge we sometimes run into that may be a bit unique to us is routing issues. New Mexico is a bit off the beaten track and sometimes it results in groups skipping us due to travel costs or logistics. The possible silver lining there is it has pushed us to look at creative solutions and alternate routing scenarios, such as acts coming up through México from the south, and that has yearly made our line up somewhat different than other festivals in our time period.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?TF: First and foremost: funding. ¡Globalquerque! is a festival put on by a couple of guys. It is not put on by a city or university or big institution that has a yearly budget, set funding and a staff that are getting weekly paychecks. We rise or fall on our own. Each year we need to go out and procure funding from different sources to make the festival happen. It is truly a labor of love!Secondly, it is attracting new audience. The thing we hear over and over again from first time ¡Globalquerque! attendees is “I had no idea this festival was THIS!” It is a challenge to explain the scope of the festival on paper as it is such an experiential event. Once people experience it though, they are hooked. It’s moving the fence-sitters off the fence that we work hard at trying to accomplish.

MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.

TF: It’s our Quinceañera! And ¡Globalquerque! is all about culture, identity, inclusion, diversity, discovery, building bridges, crossing borders, tearing down walls – and kicking up dust and howling at the harvest moon to some of the best music on the planet as the smell of lavender and roasting green chiles float on the New Mexico desert air.

Pictures’ credits:

Tom’s portrait from his Facebook profile
Banner at the festival’s website
Former cover photo of the Festival’s Facebook page

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INSIGHTS POST TRANSIBERIA MUNDI

The picture of me at the top of this issue was took during my speech for musicians and newbie managers during Transiberia Mundi and here you have me and Carlos Gomes after the last act of this first edition. Picture by Elzbieta Kwinta.

As I have already sent specific info about this event, I will just direct you to the previous communication, that you can find here. And at the event at Facebook we were sharing picture and videos in real time.

PICE, THE PROGRAM FOR MOBILITY BY ACCIÓN CULTURAL ESPAÑOLA (AC/E), OPEN CALL IN SEPTEMBER

During September, Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) will have opened the application period to request support for the logistic expenses for booking a Spanish artist or expert, for events abroad taking place from January to June, both included. The official info is at their website.

From Mapamundi Música we have supported clients in previous editions, to fullfill the procedure, that is not complicated. The chances to get it are not 100% but note that the results are published around the 3rd week of October, so it allows you to opt for a plan B in case of need.

We offer you our Spanish band Vigüela, of course, and also myself as a lecturer.

FIND ME AT…

Some interesting dates for the community (and where you can find me if you happened to be there, just let me know):

Spain, my homeland, where I am now for a few days: premiere of Wowakin Trio in Spain 🙂 23rd August at Festival Folk Plasencia.
Samarkand (Uzbekistan). 24th – 31st August. As mentioned above, with Vigüela at Sharq Taronalari.
Tavira (Portugal). 5th – 8th September. At the Mediterranean Diet Fair, with concerts byMonsieur Doumani and the premiere in the country by Cüneyt Sepetçi & Orchestra Dolapdere!
Perth (Scotland). 16th – 20th September. The Visit (event produced for Showcase Scothland Expo by Active Events).
Jeonju (South Korea). 29th September – 7th October. At Sori Festival, with the collaboration concert by Janusz Prusinowski Kompania and Manu Sabaté. My first time in South Korea and it is to attend this superb festival!
Fira Mediterránia de Manresa (Cataluña). 10th – 13th October. Mapamundi Música will have a stand and a showcase: Vigüela with the Valencia artists Apa and Eduard Navarro. Check here theresult of the first rehearsal.

Reward for work: baked rice,
Valencian style ?

WOMEX, yes. Tampere (Finland). 23rd – 27th October. We’ll have a table for Mapamundi Música at the booth of Sounds from Spain and a showcase by Monsieur Doumani on Thursday at 24h.

More dates, in the next issue.

MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA CONCERT CALENDAR

Remember: Mapamundi Música’s concerts calendar is here at our website and also at ourFacebook events. In September we bring to Portugal an artist that I met in EthnoPort Poznan: the amazing Turkish Gypsy clarinetist Cüneyt Sepetçi & Orchestra Dolapdere! They will play at the Mediterranean Diet Fair in Tavira, at Algarve region, in Portugal, on 7th of September.

We are having much joy from Portuguese institutions lately. Apart of this and of Transiberia Mundi, in November we will have our first concert in Portugal with our beloved Janusz Prusinowski and his partners. More news soon!

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS

Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check our proposals at our website.

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 46 stations in 17 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook.

Newsletter #14 August 2019