Mini-interview with Jarmila Vlčková from WMF Bratislava, in deep with the Luthiers’ fair in Warsaw, charts time & much more
Welcome to Mapamundi Música‘s December’s magazine, with contents for us, the community of world / folk / traditional music all over the world. You can read the previous issues, here. I am Araceli Tzigane.
It’s almost time for celebrations in my region of the world but it’s also the moment of the year of summarising and planning. Wish us clarity of mind for the challenges ahead. Thank you 🙂
I invite you to read this contents with the soundtrack of our new playlist in Soundcloud. You might discover some awesomely enchanting recordings of artists we have included recently in our catalogue for 2020 and beyond.
Enjoy much and, remember: if you have any suggestion of contents for the next editions, let us know. And if you like it, share it and tell it to your friends!
Thanks for your attention.
Araceli Tzigane – info@mundimapa.com – +34 676 30 28 82
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Summary:
· Mini interview with festival manager: Jarmila Vlčková from World Music Festival Bratislava (Slovakia)
· In deep with Piotr Piszczatowski about the Targowisko Instrumentów (Warsaw, Poland)
· Open call not to miss
· It’s charts time! The best albums of the year by WMCE and TWMC
· What will come in next issue? In deep with BlogFoolk
· Find me at…
**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****
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) – Tom Frouge (Globalquerque, US) – Braulio Pérez (Música en el Parque, ES) – Bojan Djordjevic (Todo Mundo, RS) – Park Jechun (Jeonju Int’s Sori Festival)
MINI INTERVIEW WITH JARMILA VLČKOVÁ FROM WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL BRATISLAVA
Jarmila Vlčková is the artistic director of the World Music Festival Bratislava and, without a doubt, one of the persons who is shaping the image of the music from Slovakia abroad during the last years. She also leads the platform World Music from Slovakia (WOMUSK). Both of the initiatives are held by the NGO Amity o.z., founded in 2012.
The World Music Festival Bratislava takes place in Bratislava. The last edition was at the end of September, previous editions were hold in August. The program includes concerts, showcases of Slovak emerging bands, conferences, listening sessions and speed datings, as the activity of the Festival has two addresses, the public and the professionals.
Thank you, Jarmila, for the kind and enriching answers.
MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme?
JV: When we plan the program of our festival, our main intention is to bring diverse and balanced program to our audience. We look for traditional performers from different parts of the world, but also new approaches and original projects. It is always a special moment when artists build up interaction with the crowd or even exceed their expectations. We are lucky enough to have a warm – hearted audience that can appreciate good music; it doesn´t matter if it is a classical Indian raga or electronic music from Argentina.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
JV: The festival strives to reveal the global culture, from traditional to the modern one, with a focus on world music, jazz and folklore. The WMFB has daytime and evening program at different venues in the Old Town of Bratislava and we are glad if the visitors experience both, the music and city during the festival. The events offer notable opportunity to discover Slovak and global music scene at the showcases and concerts. The significant part of the festival is international conference, a place to share ideas and network.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
JV: We still see our festival as a new one, in 2020 it will be only its 5th edition. However, we had good feedback and we would be happy if it stays that way. In fact, we deal with similar simple issues as other events: what is the social, ecological impact, economic result and cultural footprint of festival in the world? Can we do better?
JV: There are many challenges for small festivals. We live in a fast-changing world, where art plays a vital role. The festival like ours, is a place that is supposed to build respect, educate and inspire through music.
MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival.
JV: Our festival is taking place in the historic centre of a capital of Slovakia and, for visitors, it is a chance to explore the town, discover different venues from noble concert halls to hidden small clubs that are open to welcome anybody interested in Central European region, but also those who want to enjoy a variety of music from around the world.
Pictures’ credits:
- Logo of the festival at their Facebook
- Jarmila’s former Facebook profile picture
- Collage of the edition 2019, courtesy of WMFB
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IN DEEP WITH…
Piotr Piszczatowski and
the Targowisko Instrumentów, the instruments market in Warsaw.
I’ve been lucky to attend this market three times. It takes place in April in the closing day of the Spring edition of the Festiwal Wszystkie Mazurki Świata (all the mazurkas of the world) in Warsaw and it is an outstanding experience of colours, shapes, sounds, voices and joy. Furthermore, from 19h it starts the night of dance, in which around 30 bands, mainly performers of traditional Polish music, both rural and urban, both old masters and young enthusiasts play for the audience that will dance all night long.
Check their website to discover the instruments makers and check their Facebook page to get an idea of the ambient there. And read the interview below (translated from Polish into English by the kind Ewa Gomółka) to understand the steps that, for 10 years, Piotr and his partners took to reach their current achievements.
··· The application to participate in the market will be open at mid of January ···
PP – I was not the first one who tried to organize such an event. But the unpredictable luck made that I was the first person who succeeded to organize this kind of event on a large scale in Poland. The event where real market rules are applied – the makers really sell their instruments-, and, most importantly, it wasn’t a one-time event, but it led to the multiannual process of recreating the community of the instrument makers in Poland and neighboring countries.
PP – It’s the carnival! For me, the Fair’s formula is the key issue. These aren’t strictly business meetings. You know, those with renting separate stands and without contact between the participants. It’s the opposite. I think that the formula of carnival taking place in the central square of a city, the formula we know from historical times, f. ex. medieval or renaissance is perfect. So this is very special festive time of role reversal, atmosphere of excitement, many events, overflowing crowd, hustle and bustle, many languages from around the world, contrasts, unusual and unknown musical instruments. We intentionally add a lot of simultaneous events to our Instrument Fair: concerts, ritual and children theatre, paratheatrical and dance events. All these ingredients raise the temperature in this interpersonal meeting where the barriers between people are being broken. There may appear something new between the people – a new quality.
It was great success, from the very beginning, that the instrument makers liberated themselves from the isolation, or even specific hibernation. We must realize that at that time, many of them never succeeded to sell an instrument and also weren’t really seen as artists by their own communities. This means not only that they were living in a certain state of frustration but also that they weren’t performing their culture-creating and integration function. It’s changing now. They are great personalities able to bring together the artistic and spiritual life of the community. The traditional role of the art is something that sticks together the parts of a broken jug and makes that we can drink water from it again.
Secondly, this very specific Polish tendency to work in narrow fields of expertise was broken. It came out that if we invite people of different luthier specialties whether it is traditional, futuristic or classical, we get wonderful effect of unfettered and miscellaneous space of liberty. There are amateur instrument makers and professional luthiers standing side by side. Each of them is different, dissimilar and I enjoy the fact that they are unlike each other. Each of them is a potential master to the future generations of students.
So the instrument makers met and the following years the community has grown up to almost 300 people, who are invited to the event. Each year about 120 instrument makers meet at the instrument fair and then they collaborate creatively, interchange their knowledge and ideas, make some projects together all year round. Before this first gathering, it was unimaginable.
The last important thing is the international character of this event. Over the years it became not only local and rural but just international. Each year we host artists and instrument makers from at least ten European countries and we happened to host artist from Mongolia or India too. I consider this aspect as crucial today in these very difficult times when so many spaces are closed and hostile. Creating spaces that are friendly to people who create new artistic and social realities is a really great venture for us. The art has this really big potential to cross the boundaries that are constantly being rebuilt.
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MM – How do you organise the work, to be able to attend all your other responsibilities, as a musician, as a father of a family and also as coordinator of folk music department for the Instytut Muzyki i Tańca?
The answer is really easy – I work hard and I have my family and friends without whom I wouldn’t have succeed. I admit that it’s not easy. Together with Janusz Prusinowski, from the very beginning of this adventure, we had to build a network of artistic institutions designed to create the space for traditional Polish music revival. We built this house from basement to roof.
For that reason we are really busy. I work as a civil servant in the Institute of Music and Dance [Instytut Muzyki i Tańca] in the Traditional Music and Dance Studio [Pracownia Muzyki Tradycyjnej], in addition, I’m an actor in a children’s theatre Słuchaj Uchem that we run with Kaja and Janusz. Apart from that, we play a lot of concerts all over the world with Janusz Prusinowski Kompania and all the time new challenges appear, like hosting concerts for children of Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra [Narodowa Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia], the shows in the TV station TVP Kultura, or organizing other instrument fairs which, as a formula of the fresh look at artistic and people-to-people meeting, widely succeeded and became highly demanded all around the country.
There was even the idea to introduce the special carnival formula of the instrument fair in other countries. We’ll see, it requires financial aid of a serious institutional partner.
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I would be really glad if the international aspect of our Instrument Fair developed to become a Mecca or, if you like, the place of pilgrimage for musicians and instrument makers from all over Europe. I’d like it to be obvious that they should come and meet us at least once in their lives.
MM – In one phrase, invited our readers to attend the fair with a teasing statement
The instrument fair is like a dream come true, like from Hieronymus Bosch paintings. A dream about a place at the edge of the world where the initiates meet once a year. If you really love music and dance, you must not miss this event.
MM – And in one phrase, invite the instruments makers to the fair.
Come to the instrument fair! There are rumors that the instrument makers who didn’t come to our instrument fair and get a stamp for this are not allowed into heaven. Anyway, in purgatory and hell they also ask you for this stamp 😉
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- Translation from Polish to English, by Ewa Gomółka.
- Pictures:
- Portrait of Piotr by Araceli
- Picture with bagpiper, by Artur Kowalski
- Picture of folk theatre and bloc of 4 pictures and bloc of two pictures at the bottom, by Mariusz Cieszewski
- Other 3 pictures (two fiddlers and portrait of female fiddler and bearded man), by Jan Piszczatowski
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details
OPEN CALL
Note that this year the application period for Fira Mediterrània de Manresa has been moved forward. It is open now and until 29th of January at 15h (central Europe time). Check the conditions and requirements at their website.
TA-DAH! THE BEST ALBUMS OF THE YEAR
By World Music Charts Europe and Transglobal World Music Chart
The end of the year is close so it’s time for annual charts! As cofounder of TWMC, first of all is to congratulate the panelists and the administrators of both of the charts for the constant work during the year. And, secondly, these are the top of the year for both:
TWMC top 151. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri
2. Kronos Quartet, Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat: Placeless 3. Refugees for Refugees: Amina 4. Minyo Crusaders: Echoes of Japan 5. Mara Aranda: Sefarad en el Corazón de Turquía 6. Le Trio Joubran: The Long March 7. Urna Chahar-Tugchi featuring Kroke: Ser 8. AKA Trio: Joy 9. Vardan Hovanissian & Emre Gültekin: Karin 10. Dhafer Youssef: Sounds of Mirrors 11. Angélique Kidjo: Celia 12. Cimarrón: Orinoco 13. Oratnitza: Alter Ethno 14. The Gloaming: 3 15. Janusz Prusinowski Kompania: Po śladach / In the footsteps
Check the top 100 in our website
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WMCE top 151. Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat, Kronos Quartet: Placeless
2. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri 3. Dona Onete: Rebujo 4. Minyo Crusaders: Echoes of Japan 5. Salif Keita: Un autre blanc 6. Habib Koite: Kharifa 7. Boban Markovic Orkestar: Mrak 8. Lajko Felix & Vołosi: Lajko Felix & Vołosi 9. V.A.: Jambú e os Míticos Sons da Amazônia 10. Black Flower: Future Flora 11. Urna & Kroke: Ser 12. Luedji Luna: Um Corpo No Mundo 13. Aka Trio: Joy 14. Leyla McCalla: The Capitalist Blues 15. Angélique Kidjo: Celia
Check their top 200 in their website
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| In TWMC we make some cathegories: · Best album: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri · Best of Subsaharian Africa: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba: Miri · Best transregional album: Kronos Quartet, Mahsa & Marjan Vahdat: Placeless · Best of Asia (Central & East) & Pacific: Minyo Crusaders: Echoes of Japan · Best of Europe: Mara Aranda: Sefarad en el Corazón de Turquía · Best of North Africa & Middle East: Le Trio Joubran: The Long March · Best of South America: Cimarrón: Orinoco · Best of North & Central America: Leyla McCalla: The Capitalist Blues · Best compilation: V.A.: Nostalgique Porto Rico: Plenas, guarachas, boléros et chansons jíbaras, 1940-1960 |
Congratulations for the achievement!
IN THE NEXT ISSUE…
I’ve known Ciro de Rosa for many years. We have met in delighting events like Globaltica festival in Poland or Sharq Taronalari in Uzbekistan, as well as in his own country, Italy, specifically in Sardinia, where I had the pleasure to meet also Salvatore Esposito, the founder of the initiative about which they two will explain us broadly in the next issue.Blogfoolk is an editorial project focused on world and traditional music. They release one issue each week, that includes reviews of albums, interviews chronicles of concerts and festivals… all of them available at the web. The latest issue is the #435… so you can imagine the thousands of hours of work they have behind.
I take my hat off to the team of Blogfoolk and with honour will share with the community their insight about many questions, in the first issue of the year.
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):
Mediterranean Music Festival (Zurich, Switzerland). 18th January. My first international trip of the year will be to the festival lead by Alkis Zopoglou, who is mentioned below. I will travel there with Josep Aparicio “Apa”, the Valencian superb singer of cant d’estil, and with his musicians Eduard Navarro and Toni Porcar.
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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.