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How are you? I have to confess that I am starting to get emotionally exhausted from this situation although I have great hope for the vaccination. I bring you a story that has lit up my heart today.
I illustrate these words with a photo from this past Sunday. It is in the street in front of the cathedral that señor Justo has been building for 60 years, without any knowledge of architecture and with recycled materials and the money from donations and sponsors. He is now 95 years old and his work is half finished. I don’t think I’ll see him finished in life and the future is uncertain. It is not a cathedral recognised by the Church and has no institutional support, but I would like to think that such a work will not end up collapsing in abandonment.
Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is an example of the power of human will that can serve us all. You can learn about his story and see more pictures of the building (also inside), which looks like it came from a dream, here and here you are a documentary with English subtitles with interviews with señor Justo.
I hope that this story brings you a moment of happiness and that you enjoy the rest of the content, which I find very interesting and also contains examples of dedication and passion, so needed in our reality.
Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the global music?
Contact me. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here.
Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.
Araceli Tzigane | info@mundimapa.com | +34 676 30 28 82
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IN DEPTH WITH THE TEAM OF MOST MUSIC
Throughout several previous editions of this magazine I have been sharing some news and interviews with the festivals selected in the MOST Music project (find the links under this interview) and now I have the pleasure of sharing some of the team’s reflections, based on the questions that have come up when I read deeply the website. By the way, the MOST Music website is very detailed and, if you have not visited it, I highly recommend you to do so, both for knowing the project well and for understanding this interview.
Here I will only mention two aspects:
- MOST Project has four main areas of activity, focused on artists (export), festivals (exchange, and it includes festivals in several regions of Europe), urban policies and management training for emerging professionals.
- And the activity is focused on the Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo (I copy exactly from their website: This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.
These interview below has been answered by members of the MOST Team: András Sőrés, project manager; Balázs Weyer, programme director.Mapamundi Música (MM): The project MOST Music is quite complex, involves many participants from four main categories: artists, managers, festivals and institutions. Who had the first idea about this? What was the first objective that he/she wanted to get from this project?
MOST Project team (MPT): MOST Music as a project has been a long time in the making. Members of the consortium have been curating this idea for a long while. The idea started out from V4 and European Capital of Culture projects. Initially partners were applying for funds many times and modifying the project plan according to tender evaluations so that it could realize itself. The first objective is what we have been emphasizing on all platforms: a way for the Balkan world music industry’s untapped potential to be channeled into and better connected with the rest of Europe, where infrastructure is oftentimes better.
MM: Following the previous question, when did this idea appear in your mind? How was the procedure between this first idea and the design of the complete project? How many profiles have been involved in the design? And during the development, now that it is being done, which are the profiles involved (I mean the team, not the artists, managers, festivals and policy makers that are the participants in the 4 branches)?
MPT: We applied to Creative Europe four times before the funds were granted. The project plan was modified and expanded according to the detailed feedback that European tenders offer. The fourth version of the tender was accepted.
In terms of project design, you of course know that there are 9 partners in the consortium that’s led by Hangvető, headquartered in Budapest. Leading means that Hangvető takes on project management duties. Otherwise consortium members vote on work teams for each pillar, so that certain partners are responsible for certain pillars. These duties are also rotating, so that each partner will have managed each pillar by the end of the project. Managing a pillar means making executive decisions and deciding on experts involved (such as mentors and trainers).
MM: About the artists part. Every year, 10 artists will be enrolled in this program to receive support and greater visibility. How was the procedure of selection? Is there any jury? If so, who selected the jury and which were the criteria to select them?
MPT: The selection procedure is decided by a professional jury. Jury members are also involved on a rotating basis from partner organizations. In the first round of MOST Music the members of the jury were Balázs Weyer, programme director of Hangvető, Budapest; Olsi Sulejmani, president of Balkan World Music Management; and Simon Broughton, editor-in-chief of Songlines Magazine.
The selection criteria (apart from citizenship of at least one of the 9 target countries) are as follows:
● artist’s international potential
● diversity of selected artists by style, to match the profile of showcase events
● popularity/artistic quality
● long-term engagement with the project
● artist’s basic infrastructure (web, communication…)
● artist’s local audience size
● quality of existing audio and video material (technical and artistically)
● diversity of selected artists by sub-scenes in world music (e.g. sevdah, brass bands, etc.)
● diversity of selected artists by gender
● diversity of selected artists by geography
MM: In the current selection of artists there are no artists from Albania, Croatia, Montenegro or North Macedonia. Of course, this has been the first round of selection and in future rounds they may be. But this arose some questions about this:
1. Did you receive applications from those countries? Albania and Croatia, for instance, have musical styles that are recognized by the UNESCO as immaterial legacy. Didn’t you have applications?
2. If you didn’t have applications from those countries or if you had very few ones, which do you think are the reasons?
3. As with the artists, has it happened the same with the call for management training?
MPT: We had open calls in all the countries listed here, so the reason why one or the other might not be represented in a certain pillar is that there weren’t any or a lot of applicants from them. We have participants from Croatia and North Macedonia in other pillars, such as Management Training and Festival Exchange. However, Albania and Montenegro were hard for us to reach, we had very few applications altogether. In Montenegro one hardship was that we did not have a partner with their local network to help us spread the word. But all in all, we must certainly work on our communication in those regions in future rounds.
MM: About the part of urban policies, you mention “Projects will then be presented by the tandem (urban creative + policy maker)”. So, I understand you will involve policy makers. Let me see if I understand well. Would those be, for instance, the councillor of culture of a city? I mean, they are real politicians or people assigned by politicians, that can make real decisions, aren’t they? I think so, as you mention that “winning initiatives will be implemented in their respective cities.” How did you get the engagement of those people? Are they guaranteeing some budget from their cities to develop the winning initiatives?
MPT: We are only starting up MOST Music and the environment we planned it for was for a very different normal, so please excuse me, but I can only answer in terms of our goals, plans, and hopes, and not in terms of anything that has already been actualized.
Our goal is to involve real decision-makers: politicians, municipalities, local governments, and more. We hope that such connections between creative industry professionals and decision-makers will bring a certain openness and sensitivity to the situation of creative professionals.
MM: About the budget, the project is co-funded by Creative Europe. Can you tell me the overall budget? Which were the other co-funders?
MPT: The overall budget is 4 million Euros, half of that is provided by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme (2 million Euros). The rest of the funding was raised by partner organizations and varies from country to country.
MM: So far, apart from the emergence of the pandemic, that has made you change some activities to an online environment, did any other event or new idea arose that made you rethink any of the activities planned?
MPT: Online activities are currently happening in three pillars – we just finished a week-long online training in the Balkan Music Exchange pillar and are currently in the process of training Urban Creatives and Management Trainees, both are longer, less time-intensive training programmes. Of course one key element of this whole programme is networking and making professional connections – this is not impossible per se, but it’s certainly not as natural as it could be if we could meet up in real life, as originally planned. We are making every effort to substitute these offline connections in online ways, and to bring in new opportunities for participants to meet and network, such as providing them passes to virtualWOMEX, and more.
Previous interviews about festivals included in MOST Music project are available:
- Maria Kaimaklioti, Andreas Trachonitis & Lefteris Moumtzis from Fengaros Festival, here below in this same edition
- Anđela Galić from Kamičak Ethno Festival
- András Bethlendi from Mera World Music
- Zlatan Jaganjac from Ritam Mediterana
- Dragos Rusu from Outernational Days
- Mirza Redzepagic from Zeman
- Davide Mancini from Musicastrada
- Béla Pap from Heritage World Music Festival
- Agnieszka Matecka from Mikołajki Folkowe
- Bojan Djordjevic from Todo Mundo
- Jordi Fosas from Fira Mediterrànea
Note that some of these interviews are from before the start of MOST Music and before the pandemic.
EXPERIENCE AGAIN BEFORE BABEL MUSIC XP
As announced previously, Before Babel Music Xp took place in online format, on days 26 and 27 of November. They have now released the conferenfes in shape of podcast. Find them here.
I participated in a round table: New collaborations and solidarity for professionals relaunching their careers. Here below you see the moderator, Ludovic Tomas, and me with the other participants: Birgit Ellinghaus, Umair Jaffar, Emad Mabrouk and Amobé Mévégué.
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CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS
In this occasion, we travel to Cyprus, to talk with the team of the Fengaros Festival.
MINI INTERVIEW WITH MARIA KAIMAKLIOTI, ANDREAS TRACHONITIS & LEFTERIS MOUMTZIS FROM THE FENGAROS FESTIVAL (CYPRUS)
Mapamundi Música (MM) – What do you search for in an artist when you program?
Fengaros Festival team (FFT) – Besides music that catches our attention, Fengaros Festival – especially the festival founders, Lefteris Moumtzis and Andreas Trachonitis, particularly look for artists that play very well live, have entertaining and sophisticated stage presence and whose music is authentic and unique. This might not be whatever is mainstream according to western media.
We want to also provide a platform for local Cypriot acts and while we encourage all Cypriot acts to get in touch with us, one of our criteria is to see that the local acts are thinking about long-term plans for their career. We try to learn about more local acts by watching them and meeting them at live shows.
We started Fengaros Music Village in 2014, three years after Fengaros Festival was founded. FMV takes place one week ahead of the festival and is a series of workshops that allows for participants to meet each other, jam together, and potentially form new bands. We’ve booked a good handful of acts that were formed from Fengaros Music Village (FMV), or took off after FMV, or that came to our attention at the workshops in the past. We also think about the festival audience a lot. We understand that there is heavy reliance on the Greek music scene, however one of our goals is to unravel this and also create partnerships with the surrounding region. We know how our audience reacts to various genres and we are in a happy position where the audience is challenged but at the end of the day, they trust the festival.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
FFT – Our main objective is to produce a festival with acts that we want to show to our audience and that we believe is important for Cypriots to hear. Another important goal is to produce a festival that fits and reflects our identity. Our festival does not try to copy the many fantastic festivals abroad. It’s impossible because of the many unique aspects that come into play simply by being a festival in Cyprus. We are an island; our culture and experiences have overlaps with the west and east; it’s extremely hot in the summer… Every aspect of Fengaros reflects this unique position, including the lineup, festival grounds and administrative procedures. So an important goal is to showcase this unique perspective, offer something that is not necessarily presented by the radio and mainstream media, and create reminders to embrace many aspects of Cypriot experiences, such as rural landscapes and interesting locations.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
FFT – A difficulty is dealing with local policies and funding opportunities. Most of the limited institutions in Cyprus are still very much in development and require intense pushing towards arts policies that make sense and that are formulated by those with experience in arts, international festivals and tourism.
A second issue is travel – flight tickets are expensive to Cyprus, not to mention the environmental cost.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
FFT – Apart from economic hurdles, our main goal is being able to sustain the trust and attention that our audience has for Fengaros. It’s important to expose the audience to our entire programme.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
FFT – Fengaros is three days of living in a traditional Cypriot village discovering new experiences every turn you take, all the while being surrounded by music and artists that seriously believe in the power of music.
MM – What has happened with the edition of 2020 in the current situation of the pandemic?
FFT – Although there were not any official laws against festivals in the summer, we decided in the springtime to postpone our festival to July 29-31 2021. Cases were between 0-10 each day in July 2020 and we were able to go ahead with safely hosting our series of workshops at Fengaros Music Village although with slight changes in our instructors lineup. This turned out to be hugely successful and we had double our usual turnout, even with many precautionary restrictions in place! We are now planning an online edition of Fengaros for early 2021 that will showcase Cypriot acts to local and international audiences. Stay tuned!
Credits:
- The portraits are provided by the team.
- The banner is from the website of the festival.
- The landscapes are from the festival’s Facebook page.
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BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
- About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums Wiązanka by Wowakin, Silver Sanctuary by Zedashe and At Royal College of Music, Stockholm by Akkarai Sisters.
- Transglobal World Music Chart has moved the annual charts to September, but some news will come soon.
- Our colleagues from World Music Charts Europe have announced their list for 2020, and it is available here. They have recently made a big change, passing the management to Radio Proglas, in Brno, Czech Republic, with Milan Tesař as the new coordinator.
- The Songlines Awards for 2020 have been announced this last Sunday and the show is available in their website. The winners this year are: Best Artist: Bassekoy Kouyaté, Best Group: Cimarrón, Africa: Blick Bassy, Americas: Leyla McCalla, Asia: Jambinai, Europe: Lankum, Fusion: Kefaya + Elaha Soroor, World Pioneers Award: Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela, Newcomer award: Elaha Soroor.
- After one year of one weekly email of Music Before Shabbat and hosting the editions inside the website of Mapamundi Música, I decided to launch a new website for this initiative. The last Friday, www.musicbeforeshabbat.com was launched, with all the editions and the new one, for Shabbat of Hanukkah.
Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap.
OPEN CALLS
- The Afro Pepites Show 10th edition. Since 2009 the Afro Pepites Show connects artists to professionals and fans of African cultures. The call for artistic projects is open until 15 january 2021. This time it will be online. More info and registration, here.
- Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. The call for artistic projects is open until Wednesday 27 January at 24h. It will take place from 14 to 17 of October 2021. More info and submissions, here.
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 50 stations in 18 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.
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.
“From April to August we closed down completely. We planned Summer concerts in July but when the rain poured down for 2 weeks we gave that up. We can seldom trust the weather, so it is difficult to plan outside concerts.
I am sure you will agree with me in the idea that it sounds like magic: to spend three days of Summer in an island in a lake in Canada, full of music, with a program in which diversity of culture, of musical heritage and style, of age, geography and influence is a guiding line. This is what the Hillside Festival state about itself on the website. It helds two editions, the Summer one and also another, in February.
András Bethlendi – Méra World Music Festival is an international world music festival with an acknowledged focus on local music. Therefore, on one hand, we are looking for local artists who can play the traditional music from Transylvania or Romania, on the other hand, we are looking for artists from abroad who can play authentic folk music or music inspired from their local musical traditions.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
We made a contest of stories. The one that won is a portrait of Andrés José, a Colombian immigrant in Valencia, who ends up working as a delivery man on a bicycle to support his family (parents and two younger sisters). The first day he works on that, his little sister is very happy because he comes back home very early: his bicycle has been stolen. Juan Antonio Torres made it in shape of a romance with the zambomba. 
Of the repertoire for an event of two hours it was prefixed only the 4 first pieces and the very last one. Between that, that band sang about the topics that the public was asking, using the traditional styles (jota, several variants of fandango, seguidilla, son). For this, we prepared more than 100 new couplets organiced in the main topics of our nowadays and of the field of world of ILO. And the band decided the specific style to apply to those lyrics in that very moment.