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Some of the people from the global community working with world musics are already in Porto for WOMEX. I will travel tomorrow. Here in Europe it seems the world has opened again but I think it is not totally like that yet. For instance, I miss many of the usual attendants who came from Asia.
Anyway, the permanent results of the pandemic will become visible with some more time. Here in Spain I think it has accelerated some trends and I feel we have lost some relevant spots for the visibility of the musics we work with. For instance, Pirineos Sur hasn’t happened in 2020, neither in 2021 and in the website it is announced as cancelled, without date for 2022. I had a concert with Monsieur Doumani in 2020 there and I think we lost the chance. I don’t believe that the people with power in the institution take responsibility for the commitment to the artists programmed. I hope I am wrong. Another of the referential festivals in Spain, Etnosur, is still going on, but the city council fired in May the team that created the festival and that has been producing it for 24 years. The program of 2021 has been local and regional. It used to host international artists and premier own productions. The old team is trying to rebuild the idea with another name and in another location. I wish them luck, for them and for all of us.
Nevertheless, our community is defined by resilience and initiative. I keep discovering exciting proposals, some of which I talk about below, such as the PIN professional meeting in Skopje, or the addition of a discussion day at the Todo Mundo festival, about which you have more info below.
I hope you find this content interesting.
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POST – WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL TODO MUNDO
I had the luck to attend the festival and to participate in the round table that took place on September 25th. It was the first time that the festival included a round table and, according to Marija Vitas, it will most likely be kept on the programme for future editions and I think this is a very good news as it is a new opportunity to interchange ideas and meet colleagues, specially interesting when it happens in peripheral areas.
The topic of the conference (and the focus of the festival) was women in music. My colleagues in the session of the morning were Ivana Maraš (read her interview below), Iva Nenić (ethnomusichologist and scholar), Sofia Labropoulou (composer and qanunist) and Svetlana Spajić (singer and researcher) and we were moderated by Marija Vitas and joined for some time by Bojan Djordjevic (director of the festival and journalist in Radio Beograda). The conversation was recorded by Radio Beograda and I have to say that it was really interesting. In the afternoon there was another discussion session, with Sotiris Bekas, Julijana Baštić, Rok Košir and Giuseppe Bortone.
In the artistic side of the program, I want to highlight the Serbian artist settled in Austria Jelena Popržan (in the picture, by Juan Antonio Vázquez). Her solo concert was a wonderful and indescribable madness. She has an amazing talent full of originality.
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BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
- DEADLINE COMING SOON! Transglobal World Music Chart (TWMC) call for proposals for the Hall of Fame is open until October 31st. Check this web to learn more and to send your proposal.
- And #1 for Transglobal World Music Chart in October 2021 is: Monsieur Doumani · Pissourin.
- Mundofonías: our monthly favourites for September are the albums: Petrona Martínez’s Ancestras, Guy Buttery, Mohd. Amjad Khan & Mudassir Khan’s One morning In Gurgaon and Abdelli’s Songs of exile.
A PINCH OF SPACE FOR SOME THINGS OF MINE THAT MIGHT INTEREST YOU
Announcing the new collaboration:
Learn more about the first proposals we are offering with this collaboration:
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AND NOW THE FLOOR IS FOR:
IVANA MARAŠ, DIRECTOR OF ESTAM WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL
I met Ivana at the round table in Todo Mundo. She is the director at Student Cultural Center Kragujevac, focused on the cooperation with young, talented people, as well as on creating conditions that allow them to express and achieve their creative goals and to make their work recognizable to a wider audience. Ivana launched the World Music Festival – ESTAM, that aims to present current events from the domestic, regional and world world music scene.
Mapamundi Música: How did the festival start? Who and why started it?
Ivana Maraš: Estam world music festival started four years ago as a need to promote this genre in our city and district. We have had world music concerts in a music program at our cultural center for years. So, we wanted to start to promote the musicians and program from the world and local scene through the festival, build the audience and present quality and the most significant artist of this genre. We live in a big city, university town in central Serbia, and we feel there is a need for this kind of festival.
MM: What do you search for in an artist when you program?
IM: We search for quality and actuality in our program, searching for world musicians with a strong artistic signature and attractive musical tradition. But also we try to obtain a young audience with something close to their affinities but not giving up on our goals and concept.
MM: Which are the global objectives of your festival?
IM: We would like to be recognized as one of the significant music festivals in Central Serbia, want to impose quality and be a part of the world music festival network in the region, to improve the status of world music and their artists, and bring their work closer to the wider audience.
MM: What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival (specifically in yours)?
IM: The most complicated issues are the support of local authorities, financial and logistic support, and how to promote our work in a society which has a big problem with the media (in our town there are almost no shows anymore about culture and there is a lack of professionals in the media in this field), but we are trying to use regional media as much as posible.
MM: Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposal like yours (in general, not exclusively in yours)?
IM: The answer follows the previous one, state and local cultural authorities don’t recognize the significance of this genre and do not give deserved status to world music and its authors.
MM: In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
IM: For these four years every participant, performers as well as the audience, left the festival full of impressions, first one because of the audience reaction and energy, and second one because of the strong music experience.
Credits:
- Portrait of Ivana, provided by her.
- Logo and banner, from the festival’s Facebook page.
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OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS
Just a little bunch of them, the ones I have identified. If you have anything to share in this section in a future edition, let me know. This place is for sharing useful dates and I don’t charge for including news here ?
European Folk Network face to face meeting: Budapest, 17th and 18th of November
- After the meeting in Brussels in November 2019, the EFN calls again for a face-to-face meeting. It will be held in Budapest, at the Hungarian Heritage House. The program of talks will include:
- Raisa Siivola & Maria Silvennoinen (from Jazz Finland) on Green Nordic Touring and Promotion;
- Tom Besford (from English Folk Expo) on Reaching Audiences both In-Person and Online;
- András Lelkes (of Hangveto, Hungary) on A Bridge For Balkan Music;
- Miklos Both (Hungary) on Folk Music Education for Future Generations;
- and more TBA;
- plus DISCUSSION sessions on subjects chosen by members including The Future Work of EFN and Folk Music and Commercialisation and more TBA; plus the EGM for Elections to the Board.
Check all the information already available here.
PIN Conference, in Skopje, 25-27th November.
More info in the next section. The registration is right now open here and I don’t know when is the deadline.
Proposals of participants for the think tanks of MusicAIRE
Open until 4 November COB. Call for networks. This is important:
“Inova+ and the European Music Council (EMC) have launched the new European project MusicAIRE. The consortium will develop grants to support the music ecosystem to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis in a green, digital and just and resilient way. […] In-depth interviews conducted with music networks will complete the needs analysis of the European music life. […] The think-tanks will identify what kind of support the music sector needs in the areas of green, digital and just and resilient recovery. The findings of the think-tanks will form the basis of the “call for grants” to be published in the frame of MusicAIRE in January 2022.” Read it complete here.
MEET ME AT…
- WOMEX, Porto, Portugal, 27th-31st October.
- European Folk Network in person meeting, November 17th and 18th (aforementioned)
PIN International Music Conference, Skopje, North Makedonia, November 26th and 27th.
I learnt about this conference after their invitation for Hudaki Village Band. They will perform there and I will be present as a delegate.
According to the website, “PIN is the first and only international music conference and showcase festival in Macedonia. […] Our goal is to enrich the local music sector by bringing the diversity of best practices, up-to-date knowledge and people who will be part of this development in Macedonia and the Balkan region.”
- Lisbon, Portugal, for the second concert of the series of Músicas Escondidas at the Museum of Orient. 10th December: Egschiglen
The first concert of this series two times postponed was on October 15th. It was by the Nouruz Ensemble and it was an outstanding performance in a venue full at the 100%.
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