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Newsletter #16 October 2019

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

I write you from the office now, after returning from Jeonju Int’l Sori Festival where I was with Janusz Prusinowski Kompania and Manu Sabaté and the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, where we premiered the collaboration between Vigüela and the Valencian Josep Aparicio “Apa” and Eduard Navarro. Here below I am with my right hand, Sherezade, at our stand at Fira.

But I am already packing the woolen caps and the scarfs to head to Tampere. It’s WOMEX time! I will be pleased to meet again so many old and new friends from the world music community. Find me at Sounds from Spain.

For the meantime, enjoy these appealing contents: a mini-interview, with Bojan Djordjevic, from festival Todo Mundo (Belgrade), a deeper plunge in the European Folk Network with Nod Knowles and the usual sections of the newsletter.

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 

Feel free to resend this newsletter to your friends if you like it. Subscription is available here. 

Summary: 

· Mini interview with festival manager: Bojan Djordjevic from Todo Mundo (Belgrade, Serbia).
· Nod Knowles, administrator of the European Folk Network, explains some details in depth.
· Find me at…
**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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)

MINI INTERVIEW WITH BOJAN DJORDJEVIC FROM
FESTIVAL TODO MUNDO

Bojan Djordjevic, together with Oliver Djordjevic, Marija Vitas and Svetlana Spajic are the board of the World Music Association Serbia, whose work of dissemination is huge and of high quality. Check their website.
Bojan is also journalist of Radio Belgrade 3, panelist of the World Music Charts Europe and the artistic director of the Festival Todo Mundo, that takes place in Belgrade at the end of September and beginning of October.

 

I must confess that I match greatly with Bojan’s taste. This year he booked the apple of my eyes, Vigüela, and the last year, Monsieur Doumani. But, apart of this, in the last edition they have had the great Hungarian band Babra, the Armenian-Turkish duo of Vardan Hovanissian and Emre Gultekin, the band of Sephardic music Shira U’Tfila and others. Check the website of the festival.I am pleased and thanksful for the opportunity of spreading the insights of this man that is a benchmark of the world music community.

 

MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? BD: The easiest answer would be: high quality, but this is what we all (hopefully) are searching for.
Most of the festival program is our personal “taste”, but we cannot bring todo mundo to Belgrade at once. What I like is that artists are standing strong with the music they play, that one feels dedication. Mostly we do not go for highly commercial groups, as we find that already on many spots.
Even in the new world with all the media, there are things that has to be discovered and are worthwhile to be discovered.
On the other hand it is nice to know that the artists are with their feet on the ground and understanding the reality in this part of Europe.

 

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?

BD: I think that there is great music played in every corner of the world, we just have to be curious and discover it.
The festival name shows that as well – therefore music from many countries should be presented.
Of course we always wish to have focus on some region, country, instrument or style, and also to present few local artists, but apart from that we want to have not more than one group from each country. And, not to forget, sometimes is important to bring artists, who, beside the high quality have also social impact – like Vardan Hovanissian & Emre Gultekin this year, or to bring here artists from the countries that have not been presented here before, – I am sure less than 1% of people knows anything about music from Cyprus, so presenting high quality act like Monsieur Doumani was very important.

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

BD: Living in Serbia means you always have to fight with financial issues. Culture and music has been supported, but in the way, that every year one have to fight from the start and the results of supporting decisions are known late April and that is why we had to move the festival for the second half of the year.
The other issue is how to deliver our message to more people when the media are mostly going for commercial music. Few years ago media situation was different. There were more options to present this music on radio and TV programs and in the magazines, now most of them are much more into the politics, reality and sports. So, we have to find new ways to reach the people, as social media networks are not enough.
Combination of new and old approach seems like the solution at this moment.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?

BD: Doing festival like this is great pleasure. On the other hand, as I said, there are so many great bands that deserve to be presented here. But, we cannot have 20 concerts at the festival. Even 10 is bit too much. So, we have to keep our desires under the control 🙂
And, when we do not have as many concerts as we would love to, we have to be careful about presentation of the local world music scene.
There is lots of great music coming from Serbia nowadays, some new and young artists coming, but also we have to present some of the great and well known names.

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

BD: Festival is done with great love and enthusiasm and musicians felt that and are willin’ to stay here longer. The other reason is contact with the audience – usually after the show the contact is so friendly that audience and artists are going together for a glass of wine or beer and stay into the discussion almost till the morning.
That means the atmosphere is great and you feel it from the start. Beside that we have two concerts per evening, so anyone has time to search around Belgrade and discover some secret or well known places in the friendly city.
On top of all that you can hear many great concerts at the festival where all artists are treated equally – we do not have support group nor headliners.

Pictures’ credits:
  • Bojan at the last edition of Festival Todo Mundo, courtesy of Marija Vitas.
  • Cover picture of Todo Mundo at Facebook.
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EUROPEAN FOLK NETWORK IS BORN

In the previous issue of this newsletter we announced the birth of the EFN, linked its website and noted the first meeting, planned for 28 & 29 November in Brussels. Mapamundi Música is founder member and I want to encourage the community to join too.

In this occasion we have had the chance to ask Nod Knowles, the administrator of the network, some questions to get in more detail into some points. If you haven´t checked the website, I recommend you to do it before reading the interview. It is here.

Nod Knowles, former President of Europe Jazz Network, has had an international career including as Head of Music at Scottish Arts Council, CEO of Bath Festivals, one of the founding organisers of the European Folk Network (EFN) – and also of the UK/Ireland Jazz Promotion Network (JPN) and, currently, initiator and manager of an artistic exchange programme with the Netherlands.
He has held a number of advisory roles (e.g. with British Council, Arts Council Northern Ireland and Arts Council Wales) and as an independent consultant for over 40 years he has worked with a wide range of artists and organisations in research, review, policy, funding, education, project management and artistic direction. 

 

Mapamundi Música: The EFN has been made public few weeks ago but the initial idea is much older, isn´t it? What is the background of this initiative? 
Nod Knowles: The genesis of the network originated after a research project – commissioned by the Burnsong organisation in Scotland – reported on the potential for establishing a Scottish-European base for the American folk music organisation Folk Alliance. Whilst the research found that proposition was not viable, it found one of several underlying reasons for this –  the surprising fact that there was no structure linking folk organisations in Europe (whereas most other aspects of music – e.g. jazz, opera – and the arts in general – had well-established, often EU-funded network structures).

That report and subsequent discussion papers and meetings on the idea of a European folk network were shared with delegates to various showcases and many European organisers were invited to informal consultations and meetings, as were officers from other UK and European agencies including British Council and Kunstenpunt (now Poppunt) from Flanders. The results of planning meetings from 2015 onwards had to be put on hold for at least two years due to purely temporary personal circumstances but in 2018 a small group took the initiative again and in early 2019 the network was formally structured and legally registered.

MM: A basic website that explains the aims and ambitions is already available but I’d like to ask you about one of the areas of activity, that I think is one of the biggest needs of our community: policy and advocacy. In previous issues of our newsletter it was mentioned the lack of representation in relevant contexts of policies. Is there already any concrete planned initiative related to this topic?
NK: The EFN will need to build up its contacts with policy makers in European countries and in pan-European agencies such as the EU. This will not happen overnight but will be the work of the next couple of years. Contact is already being made with various national and international authorities and EFN will place advocacy at the heart of future planning – its influence will strengthen as the network develops.

MM: Regarding the previous question, the EFN is registered in Brussels, I think that it is for obvious reasons of proximity with the European centers of decisions. Have you had any contact with any authority? If so, which feedback did you get?
NK: We are not yet in direct touch with EU authorities but that will be one of the key plans for the future (see the answer above).

MM: The EFN has already scheduled a meeting in Brussels for days 28 and 29 of November. Can you share with us any of the topics that will be discussed?
NK: The agenda for the conference will be shaped by the members – we are asking for suggestions and subjects but there will be plenty of opportunity to introduce subjects during the conference. Because it is a first meeting of the members, the agenda will focus on discussion of members’ priorities and realistic plans for future work

MM: Is there any profile of persons or organizations that the EFN is specially in need of?
NK: Just more members from every country in Europe – and not just EU countries but all of the continent, from Iceland to Russia to Portugal.

MM: And, finally, tell the readers why should they join the EFN.
NK: Members should look at the vision and aims of the network. By joining they contribute to the collective impact and voice of the network and can contribute to the work of the network.

The main benefits of membership are opportunities to meet, share and collaborate with others, increasing members’ own contacts, the collective influence of a strong sector, and the mobility of artists and organisers in Europe.

Thank you, Nod!

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):
  • WOMEX. 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.
  • Torres Vedras (Portugal). 8th November. Festival Accordeões do Mundo, for the concert by Janusz Prusinowski Trio focused on harmonia polska.
  • Oslo (Norway). 14th-17th November, for Folkelarm.
  • Israel Showcase for Jazz and Worldwide Music. 20th-23th November. I will be in Tel Aviv and available for meetings on days 18-20, before the festival.
  • Brussels (Belgium). 28th-29th November, for the first meeting of the European Folk Network.
Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! Resend it to your friends! To sign up, click HERE.
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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 #15 September 2019

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

I am sending this news from Perth, Scotland, where I am attending The Visit (event produced for Showcase Scotland Expo by Active Events), a professional meeting in which we are discovering Scottish artists and other Scottish delights.

Since the previous newsletter I have had some experiences about visa procedures -and specially now that I came to the UK- that, combined with the excruciating menaze of Brexit, made me think a lot about how privileged I am for been able to travel to so many countries so easily. My visa for South Korea was ready in 9 days, for Uzbekistan I didn´t even need visa and my nationality is in a Schengen zone country.

Summer festivities in Turkey made the visa procedure for Cüneyt Sepetçi and team to delay more than we expected. I felt almost to the edge of the infarct: they got the visas to Portugal only in the afternoon previous to their early morning flight. All the anxieties dissipated when they announced they got the visas and big joy arised when we meet at the airport in Lisbon for their concert in Tavira. In the picture, Cüneyt and me enjoy a dinner at the restaurant Os Arcos in Tavira. Check their magnificent concert, here.

We still have to wait to know how this of the Brexit will end… In the meantime, show must go on. Find below some thrilling news about a new radio show, a new European organization, one more little interview with a director of a festival -in this edition we “return” to Spain (you’ll understand very soon why the commas in “return”)- and many useful infos.
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 

Feel free to resend this newsletter to your friends if you like it. Subscription is available here.

Summary: 

· Mini interview with festival manager: Braulio Pérez from Música en el Parque (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain)
· New not-for-profit organization for folk: welcome, European Folk Network!
· New radio show of traditional music in Radio Clásica-National Radio of Spain, by Juan Antonio Vázquez: A la Fuente
· Still open call: Acción Cultural Española, mobility grants application open in September
· Find me at…
**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. **
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.*

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)

MINI INTERVIEW WITH BRAULIO PÉREZ FROM MÚSICA EN EL PARQUE

Música en el Parque holds one concert per month, on Sunday at noon, it is family-oriented, open air in a park with magnificant vegetation in an island 1500 kms far from its Spanish mainland: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Braulio Pérez, from Amilkilómetros, is its director and creator. I am happy for sharing with you the insights of this brave colleague. Check the details at the website.

MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 
BP: In the case of Music in the Park we look for several things that seem basic to us. On one side, we want to offer to the public the different ways of approaching the music that each culture has, so it is important that the musical proposal is close to these cultural sources of their countries or regions of origin.We also take into account that our concerts are held on Sundays at noon, and that normally the audience wants to have fun and spend a joyful morning, with the mood that defines the Canaries. That is why we are looking for proposals according to this, that are cheerful.And finally, and most importantly, within our possibilities, we look for artists of great musical quality, of proposals that make the audience leave the concert with the desire to continue consuming this musical style, the World Music.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
BP: We pursue two main objectives:
  • Bringing proposals of World Music to the Canarian public that can hardly be seen on the islands. To make them understand that this style brings them different ways of seeing music, of feeling it and of playing it, always imbuid in the roots of each culture.
  • Our concerts are held on Sunday mornings. With this, we seek a family audience, to be able to show music to the children that provide them some experience and make them discover other cultures, other countries.

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

BP: Maybe the connections for the flights. We live in a wonderful and privileged place, but far from Europe. This implies an important cost in fights and forces us to have artists who are touring the continent at that time. This, in some months of the year, since we schedule a concert every month, makes it difficult to find proposals that fit date and style.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?

BP: I guess sustainability. We are talking about an event that offers unknown artists to the public of the islands. Artists who could hardly come and get payed enough if they only depended on a box office. Here you can´t  by train or in a van while on tour. Here there are costs of tickets, hotels and transfers that, added to the artists’ caches, would make it unfeasible for them to come in a totally private festival.

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

BP: An incredible island, the best climate in the world, an outdoor setting surrounded by greenery and the best artists of the World Music. What more can you ask?

Thank you, Braulio!
Pictures’ credits:

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! Resend it to your friends! To sign up, click HERE.

EUROPEAN FOLK NETWORK IS BORN

In a previous issue of this newsletter I mentioned how world music and folk community was almost not represented in relevant contexts where politic decisions about culture in Europe are done. An initiative with aspirations of policy and advocacy was really needed and now we have a network with a formal structure that could channel the voices and visions of our community: the European Folk Network.

I first listened about this in September 2015. I was so expectant that I even went to Glasgow the next January just for a short meeting with this people. And finally, almost 4 years after, I knew it had become formal, it had a website with the aims, vision aspirations… Mapamundi Música is proudly a founder member and I am personally eager to attend the EFN’s first conference for all members, planned for 28 & 29 November in Brussels.

Please, don’t miss a visit to the website to learn more!

JUAN ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ PRESENTS A NEW RADIO SHOW FOR RADIO CLÁSICA-RNE: A LA FUENTE

It is great news to announce the birth of a new spot for the dissemination of traditional music from the peoples of the world. And if it is signed by someone so experienced and devoted as Juan Antonio Vázquez, the joy multiplies.

From 5th of October, every Sunday, Radio Clásica, channel of Radio Nacional de España (Spain’s national radio) will host A la Fuente (to the source). One hour dedicated to acoustic music from all over the world.

Juan Antonio has been doing radio for more than 30 years. He is my partner in Mundofonías and during Summer he is also doing La Ruta de las Especias (the spice road), also for Radio Clásica.

The picture, holding a Uzbek rubab, is done by me.

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

Remember: 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.

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):
  • Perth (Scotland), where I am currently. 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. In the meantime, my Vigüela will play in Festival Todo Mundo in Belgrade. I can´t attend and will miss it with sadness. It is an amazing program made with very good taste!
  • 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. Don’t you know Apa? He is one of the best singers of the world! Check here and ask me if you have any question.
  • 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.
  • Torres Vedras (Portugal). 8th November. Festival Accordeões do Mundo, for the concert by Janusz Prusinowski Trio focused on harmonia polska.
  • Israel Showcase for Jazz and Worldwide Music. 20th-23th November.

More dates, in the next issue.

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! Resend it to your friends! To sign up, click 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 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

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.

Feel free to resend this newsletter to your friends if you like it. Subscription is available here.
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. ****

This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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:

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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 #13 July 2019

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música‘s July’s monthly newsletter. I hope it will be a pleasant reading for you in an awesome Summer ⛱ . The insights of the collaborators are really worth of it.

These are the main topics:

· July is the month with more festivals in many countries in Europe. I am sending this newsletter from Ostrava, where I am attending the Czech Music Crossroads, before leaving to Germany for Horizonte Festival. Nice events list, below.

· So, planes and airlines are once more a day-to-day issue… I have to thank Juan Antonio Vázquez (whose radio show The Spice Road is featured below) for the scale model. It will be sufficient until I save enough for my red Bombardier Challenger…

· My dear Sherezade will stay in the office until August, when she will travel to Calabria to eat much pizza and pasta to gather strenghts ? for Autumn challenges: we have showcases at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa (Vigüela + the Valencian artists Apa and Eduard Navarro) and WOMEX (Monsieur Doumani). Yeah!

· On the other hand, a festival that takes place, not in Summer, but at the end of Winter, is the Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland, whose director, Alkis Zopoglou, is in this issue the interviewed in the series about challenges for festivals. By the way, he is a member of the Rodopi Ensemble, that will have their Spanish debut on day 18th of July in Palma de Mallorca! Interview, below.

· A brief mention to Mapamundi concert’s calendar is included. We have one more debut in Spain, by a Polish band. Guess which? Check below!

· And, in the previous issue you already met Carlos Gomes, from Transiberia Productions. We announced recently the concerts programme Transiberia Mundi, that we have developed together, with the fundings of the city council of Evora. Learn more about Carlos and about our Transiberia Mundi, here below.

Feel free to resend this newsletter to your friends if you like it. Subscription is available here.
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: Alkis Zopoglou from Mediterranean Music Festival (Switzerland) 
· In depth: Carlos Gomes & inspirations for Transiberia Mundi
· Find me at…
· Mapamundi Música concerts calendar
· Mapamundi Música introduces: La Ruta de las Especias (The Spice Road) by Juan Antonio Vázquez

**** 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)

MINI INTERVIEW WITH ALKIS ZOPOGLOU FROM MEDITERRANEAN MUSIC FESTIVAL 

There are several connections between Alkis and Mapamundi Música and it is a pleasure to collaborate with him in all senses. I first knew about him thanks to Antonis Antoniou, from Monsieur Doumani, who is a generous links creator, and introduced my band Vigüela to Alkis for the festival. They played in 2017. In 2018 it was the Portuguese quartet À Porta do Cante which was included in Alkis’s program. In 2019 it was the premiere of Rebetiko Meet Fado and Cante Alentejano.

The Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland takes place in February and/or March in Zurich and Bern. Its name is quite explicit about the topic. The focus is acoustic music, the performances are mostly in little venues, with the public very close to the artists, and with no amplification. Check the details at the website.

In the meantime, Alkis introduced me his band in which he plays kanun, Rodopi Ensemble, traditional acoustic music from the Greek Thrace, of which I felt in love inmediatly and started to work together about it and about the Greek-Portuguese project Rebetiko meets Fado & Cante Alentejano.

Rodopi will play for the first time in Spain next July 18th in Cançons de la Mediterrània, in Palma de Mallorca. They will also play at the Jagiellonian Fair, of which we talked in the previous issue, on 17th August.

So, grateful to Alkis for the kind answers. Without further ado, here you are the interview:

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

AZ: The most crucial issue in my opinion is to find a special and innovative musical idiom in each music ensemble, which will also be interesting for the audience of my festival.

Each music ensemble should have a clear cultural stance as a Mediterranean country and those next to them but at the same time it should present a spectacle in an authentic and honest way. And I’d like to emphasize this last issue particularly, as on the altar of spectacle and competition in the music market, many misinterpretations and exaggerations are being made, firstly from the artists themselves, while at the same time there is the pressure from the organizers to overcome the spectacle presented at their festivals.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?

AZ: My first and most important concern is to highlight the musical idioms of the traditions of the population around the Mediterranean, which are truly many and very beautiful each, with their similarities and differences.

Another important point, as I am a musician myself and know very well how difficult it is for an artist to enter a market, is to give space to very special requests made especially from young artists.

Furthermore, especially at the Mediterranean Music Festival, which takes place in small venues during the winter, I aim to keep the sound authentic, to reach the audience’s ears as it is produced by the human voice or the musical instruments. That’s why I avoid making use of sound amplifiers during the concerts and this has been appreciated a lot by our audience so far. It’s like having a group of musicians in your home.

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

AZ:  Unfortunately the most difficult issues initially always have to do with the funding of such musical events.  There is a great difficulty in finding the financial resources but in any case I believe that the Swiss authorities are still supportive towards culture and whatever notable appears.

On a second level I believe that a great problem is the possibility, especially of small projects, to attract a sufficient number of listeners in order to have both happy, artists and organizers. It is a global phenomenon that the world is directed more and more by the brands, slowly losing its sense of personal judgement but also the wish to discover new things. We’re getting more and more used to find everything ready and this is stultifying us without even being conscious of it. I hope once we’ll wake up.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?AZ: Along with the issue I stressed before it’s a great challenge for me personally, using the festival as a vehicle, to awaken people who love music and make them get out of their homes, where they have almost everything available on a screen, getting them to know the great feelings that live music provides you and let them live in a world of interaction, that arises from the exchange of feelings between artists and audience.

MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 
AZ: The “square”, which includes the creators in their real dimension together with the audience, ready to evaluate participating live in this process, is the basic principle of our culture, as it was born and started in Ancient Greece and travelled to the ancient theatres of all Mediterranean countries, which are still preserved up to this day and continue hosting similar activities after thousands of years.

As a Greek, I think I am totally involved with this cultural dimension of the phenomenon.

Our festival is a small cradle of culture and forms in its own way and by the forces it has, a healthy cultural view among the people visiting it. We are very glad that our audience speaks about the festival with enthusiasm and that’s why they‘ve all become warm supporters of it. There is certainly room for even more people who are always welcome.

Pictures’ credits:

  • Alkis portrait from his Facebook pictures
  • Stok theatre, in Zurich, one of the usual venues for the Mediterranean Music Festival. From the festival’s Facebook page.
  • Alkis dancing at the premiere of Rebetiko Meets Fado & Cante Alentejano, took from his website

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IN DEPTH: CARLOS GOMES AND INSPIRATIONS FOR TRANSIBERIA MUNDI

In June’s issue we presented Carlos Gomes, the founder and director of Transiberia Productions, cultural management company, settled in Lisbon. And the previous week I sent the mailing about Transiberia Mundi, the concert programme we have developed together and that will take place in the city of Evora from 1st to 4th of August, funded by the city council and part of the program Artes À Rua.

Carlos is an entrepreneur with a strong, inspiring and thrilling vision that I want to share with the community of world music. In the picture it is linked a little video (in Portuguese) with his statements about Transiberia Mundi, made after the presentation in Lisbon last 4th of July. And here below you’ll find his answers to this special questionnaire.

MM: In few words, what is Transiberia Productions?

CG: Transiberia is a cultural production company, created in 2015, focused on Ibero-American music and market, on a non-exclusive basis and open to other music and cultures of the world. Its activity includes the conception and production of shows, the organization, production and programming of festivals, music events and thematic parties, the cultural programming for other institutions, both public and privates, and the booking and management of artists.

MM: Which were your objectives when you created it? 

CG: Transiberia’s mission was always and continues to be to strengthen the relationship between Ibero-American producers, agents and artists, starting with our neighbouring country, Spain, and pursuing to enlarge its field of action to the countries from South and Central America, from a cosmovision that is Portuguese, inclusive, open to the other and to the world. 

MM: If is is not too secret, let us know your vision. 

CG: My vision and what I am most interested in working is based mainly on the awesome book by the Portuguese writer José Saramago, named “The Stone Raft”, that captures the human nature, especially the nature of the people from Iberian Peninsula after an extraordinary event: the segregation of the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe and its Atlantic drift. I understood it as a metaphor of the liberation of the Iberian Peninsula from that kind of political constraint that is to be considered as peripheral territory from the center of Europe. I think that the nature of Iberian people is close to the South American nature and I also believe that, if we overcome that hierarchical political organization of the world, especially of the navel-gazing of Europe, the relationship between cultures, mediated by the freshness of the Atlantic, it will be one of the centers of the future world. 

MM: What is your personal relationship with music? 

CG: My personal relationship with music comes mainly from an inner vibe and from the dance. For me good music doesn’t have to make me dance but must be able to make me vibrate. If it makes me dance, even better. I think that the union of music and dance is one of the happiest expressions of human beings. I think that a human being who likes to dance and can´t hold the vibration of music in his/her body is probably a good human being. 

MM: Tell us one or two of Transiberia’s main achievements.

CG: Two of the main achievements by Transiberia have been so far the creation of the Festival Emergente in Lisbon and the program Transiberia Mundi, in collaboration with Mapamundi Música.

The first one, because it emerged from a raising awareness of the responsibility of supporting and contributing to an unbelievable moment of creativity, production and expression that the Portuguese music is currently experiencing.

In the second case means the realization of an old ambition of having a Transiberian and transnational partnership that was born as Iberian and that would lead the way to something with an undefined scope, enhancing the name of the company and undertaking Samarago’s vision.

I’d like also to mention that it is of much and special joy to co-produce with EGEAC (cultural institution of Lisbon’s city council) the program “Dançar a Cidade” in Lisbon (to dance the city) which calls its citizens to dance several dance styles of the world in the public spaces. I love to dance and to provide the others the joy of dance is extremely rewarding.

MM: Which is your next dream to be fullfilled? 

CG: I can´t unveil my next dream yet. But I can say that it will be a transnational project out of Lisbon.
—
Thank you, obrigado, gracias, Carlos. 

 

FIND ME AT…
I take advantage of my next weeks calendar to share some nice events with the community. By the way, we can meet there, drop me a line:
  • Ostrava (Czech Republic). Czech Music Crossroads + Colors of Ostrava. 15th to 18th July. As speaker. I will be part of the listening and comment session and of the panel Touring Guide for Germany, Austria, Spain and Israel.
  • Koblenz (Germany). Horizonte Festival. 19th July. What a pleasure to attend this festival for which I will travel with Vigüela! Also other of our collaborators, Monsieur Doumani and Don Kipper, are programmed in this festival. Yeah!
  • Bled (Slovenia). Okarina Festival, 23th July. My first time at the country and it will be also with Vigüela.
  • Bielsk Podlaski & Białystok (Poland). Festival Podlaska Oktawa Kultur. 27th and 28 July, also with Vigüela and thanks to the agency Wodzirej PL.
  • Evora (Portugal). 1st to 4th August. Series Transiberia Mundi, programmed by Transiberia Productions and Mapamundi Música, and part of the program Artes À Rua by the municipality of the city. I will be honoured by making a conference too.
  • Lublin (Poland… my second country). 16th August, Warsaw, 17th August Lublin for theJagellonian Fair. How could I miss the concert by Rodopi Ensemble and the night of dance directed by Janusz Prusinowski Kompania in the same city the same day. Top masters of their traditional music! ?
  • Spain, but I must include it as it will be the premiere of Wowakin Trio in Spain 🙂 23rd August.
  • Samarkand (Uzbekistan). Last week of August. Yes, I wanna cry of joy. More, soon.
  • Perth (Scotland). 16th – 20th September. The Visit (event produced for Showcase Scothland Expo by Active Events). Really looking forward it!
More dates, in the next issue.
MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA INTRODUCES… THE SPICE ROAD, AT RADIO CLÁSICA, SPAIN’S NATIONAL RADIO. BY JUAN ANTONIO VÁZQUEZ

For the second year, this Summer Juan Antonio Vázquez is doing the radio show La Ruta de las Especias (the spice road) for Radio Clásica, of Spain’s National Radio. As the name indicates, it is focused on music of Orient, or, as he likes to say, “the many Orients”. Click the picture to listen 2018’s editions and also the new ones, in August and September:

As you probably know, with Juan Antonio I make the radio show Mundofonías, our own production, broadcasted in 17 countries in 46 radio stations.

MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA CONCERT CALENDAR

Very brieftly: our concerts calendar is here at our website and also at our Facebook events. And, apart of Rodopi Ensemble’s, I want to highlight the debut of a Polish band in Spain. It will be on 23rd of August and they are WoWaKin Trio, known for many of our community as they performed in WOMEX Katowice 2017.

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click HERE.

This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.

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 #12 June 2019

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

Greetings from Alcorcón, the city where we are settled, 12 kms far from Madrid on the way to our beloved Portugal. I will stay here for two weeks, preparing a July with travels to five European countries…

This last weekend I was at the festival 5 Continents, in Martigny, Switzerland. I will review it brieftly at Mundofonías soon but I must say now what a great work of the festival’s team and what a deep vision of how a festival can be a tool for developement of the communities in many senses. And, for me, it has been super inspiring and a real strengthener for my challenges to come.

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 managers: Karolina Waszczuk and Bartek Drozd from Jagiellonian Fair (Poland) – Mapamundi introduces… Transiberia Productions – Find me in… – It worths its own section: WOMEX‘s first confirmations

**** 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)
MINI INTERVIEW WITH KAROLINA WASZCZUK AND BARTEK DROZD FROM JARMARK JAGIELLOŃSKI (JAGIELLONIAN FAIR)

The approach to traditional art nowadays is very delicate. Quite often, we listen artists saying that they “evolve” the tradition and many times there is a big lack of deep knowledge and understanding of that tradition that they claim to evolve. And the result is a watered-down product that upholds itself by means of romantic ideas of a lost time of rural innocence… instead of by means of the music and its own aesthetic quality.

Perhaps, the situation in Spain is worse than in other countries, as it seems to be a clear disdain for whatever music comes from the rural world… unless if it is “modernizated” and supposedly adapted for a contemporary audience that would reject the traditional music by itself. My experience says another thing. The public is not interested in those halfway products supported by a self-embarrassment rhetoric.

That’s why this interview makes me very happy. The Jagiellonian Fair takes place in Lublin, at the East of Poland, from 16th to 18th of August in this edition, and its young team has some clear ideas and wise vision about how to create a frame for tradition in a recreational urban contemporary environment. Probably that’s why they gather thousands of people with a concerts program based mainly in quite not commercial shows. Check more at the website.

Karolina Waszczuk is the director of the festival and Bartek Drodz is the programme manager. These are their answers to the mini-interview. Thank you! 

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

Karolina Waszczuk: An important aspect that we take into account when selecting groups or artists to invite is awareness of tradition and traditional music. We look at how they are represented and how their elements are used and processed. We value artists who research traditional culture on their own and know cultural contexts. That makes their messages stronger and clearer.

Bartek Drozd: One of the key values is the sense of community, place, music and especially people themselves. The programme is created in a way that makes it possible for several worlds to meet: the world of the authentic, roots village culture, the one that reconstructs traditional music and the one that uses and performs it on a conceptual level. There is a kind of mutual respect that allows us to look at traditional music cultures in various ways, while at the same time, it brings out their never-changing values, uniqueness and improvisations. I think that respect for one’s own culture is a key element, and at the same time, it is the bridge between these worlds.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?

Karolina Waszczuk:  We show traditional cultures of many, often distant, regions and yet we find shared elements, patterns, symbols, techniques. We want to show that culture has no borders; borders are created by the system. Language is not a barrier but a means of communication. We encourage learning about traditional culture through different areas, we pay attention to its continuation, its current state, and the inspirations it activates.

Bartek Drozd: One of  the most incredible qualities of traditional culture is its universality and timelessness. Many elements repeat, often on several levels and they become the driving force behind new activities. In Poland we continue to see the incredible colours of traditional culture and how they interweave. An unattractive, old, dusted thing gains new value. The element of surprise we try to sneak into our activities allows us to look at traditional music in a completely different, yet still the same, context.

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

Karolina Waszczuk:  Like many festivals, we struggle most of all with financial issues. We are eager to do many things, but the budget limits us. The festival is free, none of the events are ticketed. The Fair, where we meet folk artists selling and presenting their crafts is free of charge for them. We cover the costs of their stalls and accommodation. We do not treat the artists as merchants; we invite real artists who form unique niches. They often spend many long days on their creations – making them requires knowledge, skill and experience. We want to show that what the artists invited to the Fair offer is authentic, genuine and one of a kind.

Another frequent problem is the lack of understanding on the part of those who are not invited to the Fair. As Organisers, we select artists whose work is of interest to us, we do not invite commercial merchants, and not every amateur artist is guaranteed a place at the Festival. We have a limited number of places and a restricted space so we cannot always invite all the artists from previous years, especially when we want to make room for new artists and present new regions. The choices we make are tough.

Bartek Drozd: Another challenge is also, in a sense, educating the attendees. Many of them approach tradition superficially, be it music or art. We encounter a lot of situations where we try to explain why some proposals related to music or art and crafts cannot appear at our festival. It is a difficult task but yields good results, as we can observe from the 13 years of the Jagiellonian Fair.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?

Karolina Waszczuk: With a festival as big as this one, there are a great many challenges. One of them is how to show traditional culture in a setting that is not its natural habitat. How to show the character, appearance and function of respective aspects of cultural phenomena in the most authentic way, but one that’s adjusted to the space and the setting of the festival. In Poland, traditional culture is still considered inferior as there is a lack of education in this area.

Bartek Drozd: It’s a challenge, but at the same time our mission and an important task. We pay attention to quality, detail, elements. We observe a tendency to treat traditional culture superficially. And yet, it is only in the depth of traditions, year by year, step by step that we get to know its real value and meaning. And not just us, I hope, but also our audiences. And I think this is a great challenge that requires responsibility and we are aware of it.

MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 
It is the best interdisciplinary festival in Poland where you can discover traditional music in very different ways and get to know, through workshops and meetings, traditional culture, music, children’s games, authentic crafts and folk art of about 300 artists from Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania or Slovakia.

Pictures’ credits:

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MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA INTRODUCES… 

Carlos Gomes, who you see at this amazing picture by Ivo Canelas, is the founder and director of Transiberia Productions, cultural management company, settled in Lisbon.

Our careers share the fact that in a certain point of time, we changed our professional path: me, from psychology and human resources management, he, from architecture. Both of us, caught in a dream where music would be the pillar of our lifes. And the dream is coming true.

Maybe it is was just a matter of time that we found each other and started to collaborate. In the next issue of this newsletter you’ll know more but, in the meantime, check Transiberia’s Facebook and like it to know more!

FIND ME IN…
Some dates of interest for the international audience could be:
  • Førde (Norway). Førdefestivalen‘s 30th edition!!! Happy birthday! I am so blessed for attending this edition, as media in this occasion.
  • Ostrava (Czech Republic). Czech Music Crossroads + Colors of Ostrava. 15th to 18th July. As speaker.
  • Koblenz (Germany). Horizonte Festival. 19th July. What a pleasure to attend this festival for which I will travel with Vigüela! Also other of our collaborators, Monsieur Doumani and Don Kipper, are programmed in this festival. Yeah!
  • Bled (Slovenia). Okarina Festival, 23th July. My first time at the country and it will be also with Vigüela.
  • Białystok (Poland). Festival Podlaska Oktawa Kultur. 27th and 28 July, also with Vigüela and thanks to the agency Wodzirej PL.
  • Evora (Portugal). 1st to 4th August. Series Transiberia Mundi, part of the programArtes À Rua by the municipality of the city.
More dates, in the next issue.
WOMEX RELEASES THE FIRST LIST OF SHOWCASES

Their application periods ended weeks or months ago and while we wait for the complete line up of Visa for Music, Fira Mediterrània de Manresa and many other useful dates, with more news announced for next Thursday, these are the already public confirmations for WOMEX. Congratulations to the selected ones and the jury! See you there, I have already booked Mapamundi Música’s table at Sounds from Spain umbrella booth!

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click 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 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 #11 May 2019

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música’s May’s monthly newsletter. I am a bit exhausted after arranging flights for many musicians and destinations… and remembering the last flight’s quarrel at the check-in desk. And at the Canadian Music Week I verified once more that I am not alone… Check below to discover why.

Apart of this, this issue includes one more mini interview about the challenges for festivals, in this case with Mads Olesen, from 5 Continents festival, and some more topics. 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 director: Mads Olesen from 5 Continents (Switzerland) – Mapamundi Música shares: tips for flying with instruments, by Folk Alliance – Find me in… – New (and still) open calls.
**** 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)

 

MINI INTERVIEW WITH MADS OLESEN FROM 5 CONTINENTS

Its complete name is Festival des 5 Continents and takes place in Martigny, Switzerland. This year’s edition will happen from 13th to 16th of June and I will attend for the first time. I am eager!

The concerts program is splitted in Concerts World and Concerts Local Global. The names are quite meaningful: international artists and artists settled locally, doing world music, respectively, and two different and complementary objetives. Check more at the website.

Mads Olesen is the Délégué aux Affaires culturelles at Martigny and his words are very enlightening about the spirit of a festival like this, a spirit that probably most of us, involved in the world music in any role or position, share. Thank you for your answers, Mads!

MM – What do you search in an artist when you program? 
MO – Artistic quality within « Worldmusic », passion, authencity and the capacity to transmit his/her music to the public.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
MO – The Festival of the 5 Continents exist since 1994 and we can put out two main ideas: The first one is to permit our public to discover world music and cultures from all over the planet. The next one is to engage ourself through the festival for a better « together-living ». (Martigny is a small city in the Alps but 35% of the population comes from abroad and we are 110 nationalities living together). The festival is a symbol of peaceful together-living.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 
MO – The Festival is completely free, all concerts are free. To offer this, we have to do a big job to find money and to raise funds. We did it for 26 years. But every year this is a hard business. But the result is that everybody can come and listen for free to more then 30 concerts, events, art exhitions…All the communities in the town are working with the Festival. We serve thousands of meals and this is done in favour of the Festival. It is a quite a hard organisation, BUT the result is solidarity and local engagement. This year we start up an ecological process to make the Festival a real sustainable event with recycling on all levels,…
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours? 
MO – To offer a high level artistic quality program together with the fact that the Festival is free. To keep a high level of local engagement in an international event (about 100 artists from 20 countries, 15 communities in 2019).
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival. 
MO – A Festival with a high degree of friendliness, free world class music in the middle of the Alps.

 

Picture: super nice of Mads’s Facebook former profile picture.

 

MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA SHARES…

The tips for flying with instruments, and more news, by the Folk Alliance International! 

Being us, the people involved on live music, one of the most regular clients of the flight companies, it is depressing how badly we are treated many times when flying with instruments. No matter if they are hold baggage or hand baggage: the problems will probably show up.

At the Canadian Music Week I had the pleasure to talk with Aengus Finnan, executive director of the Folk Alliance International (at the picture) and to discover this guide with deep and useful information for flying with instruments not to miss by musicians and managers.

Aengus told me also about the Nordic Folk Alliance Conference 2019 that is a milestone in the organization’s internationalization, and about which you’ll learn more in their newsletter of May, to which you can also subscribe. In parallel, the conference of Folk Alliance International will take place in New Orleans in January 2020. 

FIND ME IN…

Some dates of interest for the international audience could be:
More dates, in the next issue.

 

CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS

These professional fairs and festivals have applications open right now:

 

Newsletter #10 April 2019

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música’s April’s monthly newsletter. A good part of the world is celebrating today. I hope you are having a great Easter or a superb Pesach.

For me, this is the week before travelling abroad for half of the next month, to Poland and to Canada. Learn below where to find me in those locations.

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 director: Ken Day from Urkult (Sweden) – Mapamundi Música introduces: Temas de música: Gamelán – Songlines Music Awards nominees – Find me in… – New (and still) open calls

**** 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)

 

MINI INTERVIEW WITH KEN DAY FROM URKULT
In the faraway village of Näsåker, with barely more than 500 inhabitants, for 3 days, this “welcoming and loving festival where thousands of people can get together and experience something unique” takes place since 1995. Great music, wonderful landscape, peace atmosphere, a market that is an experience by itself, many food options with reasonable prices… well worth the plan of visiting the center of Sweden at the beginning of August. I know well, as I was there with Vigüela in 2016 and it is one of our best memories. For instance, this trip at the “happy train” full of artists and volunteers. Watch the video under the interview! Ken Day is the heart of Urkult.

 

Thanks for the answers and the best wishes for Urkult 2019, Ken!

 

MM – What do you search in an artist when you program? 
KD – Music that swings and moves people… Music for all ears!

 

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
KD – The local, international and environmental perspectives. To bring the world to a little village in the inland of northern Sweden!

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 
KD – Finding places for all our guests (and artists) to stay safely and cleanly.

 

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours? 
KD – Economy is always an issue. We are almost 100% ticket financed. We want to balance reasonable ticket proces with keeping the size at a manageable level, so that all our guests have a great experience.

 

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival. 
KD – Meetings with friends, family and artists from all over the world.

 

Picture: one of Ken’s Facebook profile pictures

 

Concert at Urkult’s “Happy Train” with Vigüela, August 2016
MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA INTRODUCES…

Temas de música – Gamelán, by Juan Antonio Vázquez, for Radio Clásica – National Radio of Spain
During March, Juan Antonio Vázquez, my partner of Mundofonías, has been doing a radio show focused on Gamelan music. He has delved in this intriguing tradition, both in the most ancestral as in the most heterodox. It is in Spanish but the music is really worthy of it even if you don´t understand the speech. These are the 10 episodes:

SONGLINES MUSIC AWARDS NOMINEES
Songlines celebrates its 11th edition of Music Awards and the nominees are public now. Their team of international contributors selected the nominees in the geographical categories and the Best Artist and Best Group nominees were voted by the Songlines readers.

 

We share the list below and with special joy for our collaborators Monsieur Doumani (who are currently touring in Europe, check below) and Don Kipper. For more information, visit Songlines website.

 

Congratulations to all for the great work and good luck! 

  • Best artist: Gaye Su Akyol, Fatoumara Diawara, Amira Kleir, Mariza.
  • Best group: 47Soul, Afro Celt Sound System, Afrika Mammas, Monsieur Doumani.
  • Africa & Middle East: 3MA, Gaye Su Akyol, Fatoumata Diawara, Angélique Kidjo.
  • Americas: Orquesta Akokán, Bixiga 70, Mélissa Laveaux, Totó la Momposina.
  • Asia & Pacific: Anandi Bhattacharya, Anda Union, Gurrumul, Small Island Big Song.
  • Europe: Dreamers’ Circus, Mariza, Mercedes Peón, Sam Sweeney.
  • Fusion: Ammar 808, BCUC, Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita, Don Kipper.
FIND ME IN…

I have the privilege of travelling much the next months. I share with you these dates that, by the way, are interesting events. Will we happen to meet? 🙂

CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS

These professional fairs and festivals have applications open right now:
· Projects presentations at Fira Mediterrània de Manresa: application is open until 6th May. More info and application, here. 
· Visa por Music, Rabat, Morocco. Apply here. Until 15th of May. 
· Premio Andrea Parodi: the contest application is open until 31st May. The contest will take place in Cagliary from 8th to 10th November. More info and application, 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 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 #9 March 2019

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música’s March’s monthly newsletter. Before going into detail, some brief notes:
  • The period of application for grants by AC/E, for the logistic expenses of having a Spanish artists in your festival or program, ends on 31st March. Check details below and discover a new proposal.
  • The new artistic director of Fira Mediterrània is Jordi Fosas. Find below his profile and an interview with him. 
  • Visa for Music opens the application period for artists. Check below for more open calls.

And, as usual, we continue the series of little interviews with festival directors, in this case with Bożena Szota from Ethno Port Poznań, and with many more useful infos for the community.

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 

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click HERE.

Summary:  Jordi Fosas, new artistic director of Fira Mediterrània de Manresa – AC/E´s application for support is open – Mapamundi Música introduces… Entavía – Mini interview with festival director: Bożena Szota from Ethno Port Poznań (Poland) – New (and still) open calls – On tour

FLASH NEWS: DON KIPPER AND MELECH MECHAYA, 14TH APRIL IN COSLADA

Last WOMEX we have a super nice moment with Josh and Tim from the band from London Don Kipper. We are happy to bring them for our first collaboration, next April, on Sunday 14th, at the event Música en Primavera, by the city council of Coslada. They will play in a double program with our Portuguese combo Melech Mechaya. Details, here.

 

WELCOME JORDI FOSAS, NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF FIRA MEDITERRÀNIA DE MANRESA 

In the words of the Fira, “Jordi Fosas has a long track record in traditional and folk culture, through his involvement with the Cercle de Cultura Tradicional i Popular (Marboleny Traditional and Folk Culture Circle) and Festival Ésdansa de Les Preses (Ésdansa de Les Preses Festival). Fosas was selected from seven candidates, and he will direct the artistic line-up for Fira’s programme over the next three years. Not only was Fosas selected for his connections with traditional and folk culture but also for the artistic project he presented and his relevant experience.”

Mapamundi is happy to share with you his answers and reflections in this little interview.

We wish you the best, Jordi. Thanks for the enlightening statements! 
MM – Congratulations on your designation to this exciting position. What made you interested in it? 
JF – Thank you! I come from the world of popular culture and I have been working for many years on traditional dance. For example, directing the ÉSdansa Festival (ESdanza) and developing in it this “ES” (that means “is”) in the present indicative, encouraging the public to dance traditional dance today and promoting the realization of contemporary proposals based on traditional language.

I have known the Fira Mediterrània from some of its possible viewpoints, as an artist, as a programmer and also as a collaborator. These last three years we have collaborated with the Fira in the development of the Premi Delfí Colomé, an initiative that we have promoted from the ÉSdansa Festival to promote new dance projects created from the traditional roots.
I thought that I could contribute my experience to the artistic direction of the Fira and for that reason I presented myself to the call.

MM – The Fira Mediterrània has an international recognition as a fair where exciting proposals in the different disciplines that it includes are always discovered. How are you guys going to face this stage with you in the direction? Are you going to change something, are you going to give more weight to any subjects, any change of format, locations…?

JF – The Fira Mediterrània has done a good work in these more than twenty years of trajectory. For this reason, we will continue building from the bridges already drawn by the previous directors. I believe that the projects are enriched and strengthened when a new director contributes from the experience of the previous directors.

In the next years we will try to reinforce our brand positioning to help us articulate a circuit and generate discourse, essential elements to achieve our goal: market for proposals with traditional roots. We want to normalize that proposals that work from the traditional root are programmed.

The basic principles or strategic lines that we will develop have the objective of achieving a creative, reflective, complicit, committed and unique Fira, and we will do it in a 360 approach, that is to say, all the time and looking for complicities. We will work from three keys:
• weaving, that is, promoting and helping new creations and productions and making intersections and pairings between creators and popular culture;
• drawing packages of meaning that help the public and professionals to visualize creative realities,
• and getting a Fira in first person from the formats that generate new forms of participation and educational projects.

MM – Which will be at this phase the evaluation criteria to select the artistic proposals?

JF – At Fira Mediterrània we want to show a tradition with no complexes, that works in the present and in excellence and this will be our criterion to draw the Fira’s programming. We conceive a Fira that works intersections with the 360 degrees of the tradition, from the heritage and all that corpus of testimonies that form the cultural heritage of society, passing through the entities of popular culture that connect this heritage with their society, until reaching the professional sector that creates from this tradition. We are especially interested in the intersections, relationships and exchanges between all these agents, especially, how artists and professional companies drink from heritage, tradition and popular culture.

MM – What will be the balance in number of shows, in terms of concerts and other traditional culture shows?

JF – We will continue backing an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary Fira that gathers proposals from all the performing arts, from theater, dance, circus, visual arts, music … whether they are indoors or outdoors and in any of their formats. Our axis of programming is the traditional Mediterranean tradition in any discipline and format and we do not set a percentage for each of them. We will follow approximately the criteria that have been considered in recent editions.

MM – In recent years, the Fira has included proposals from outside the cultural field of the Mediterranean. Will this line be maintained?

JF – Yes, we will continue to program exceptional international proposals that stimulate the work of our artists and help us articulate discourse. We will focus on concrete proposals, but also on cities, territories, cultures … to see how the dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity works. We will work on it within the Fira’s State and International Action Plan. We will show and see other ecosystems, to see how a territory a structure, a project… is organized, works and creates.

Pictures: Jordi Fosas’s Facebook profile; Llotja profesional, by Anna Brugués.

 

DO YOU WANT A SPANISH ARTIST IN YOUR PROGRAM? AC/E’S CALL FOR SUPPORT IS OPEN DURING MARCH

Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) is a public entity dedicated to promoting the culture and heritage of Spain. In March they open the call to request support for the logistic expensesrelated to Spanish artists and experts in cultural issues, for events abroad taking place in the second half of the year.

The application must be done by the foreign institution/programmer and Mapamundi Música has supported some clients in previous editions to fullfill the procedure, that in fact is not difficult. The results are usually published quite soon (around the 3rd week of April).
We can offer you our band Vigüela (in the picture) and Entavía. Check the next news, at the Mapamundi Música introduces….

MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA INTRODUCES…

Entavía, from Salamanca province, in Castilla y León community 
As a proffesional working with folk music since 2002, I think I am very discriminating about the proposals, even more if they come from my own country. We have had great experiences with Spanish bands, like El Naán, with whom we are not working now but we keep a deep friendship and mutual admiration. Apart of them and our beloved Vigüela and associated acts, I don’t use to get often excited enough to start a collaboration to promote a Spanish folk band. It has to be very very special.

And… I first payed attention to this band, Entavía, in this videoclip for a panaderas style song with a poem written in 1931 by Miguel de Unamuno. It was like a premonition to a catastrophe that would happen some years after: the breaking down of the dam of Ribadelago, in 1959, that killed 144 of the villagers, of which only 28 bodies where found.

Entavía puts music to this thrilling poem in a tribute to the victims and a claim for the unfair treatment that Franco’s government gave to the survivors.

Last Saturday I attended their concert in Madrid. It was in a little classroom in the downtown. Copla, ajechao, son jarocho, panaderas… in a concert full of freshness and fun made the evening unforgettable. You’ll hear more about them. In the meantime, check some snippets in these videos: 

 Ajechao – Panaderas – Copla – Panaderas – Bulerías del Tío Vicente – Martinete blues

Any question about Entavía? Tell me!

CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS
These professional fairs and festivals have applications open right now:
· Visa por Music, Rabat, Morocco. Apply here. Until 15th of May.
· Cyprus Rialto World Music Festival, Limassol, Cyprus. Apply here. Until 23th of March.
· WOMEX. Still open until next Friday! Apply here.
· Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. Open call for the 31st edition, until 29th of March. Apply here.
· Mundial Montreal. Open call for the 9th edition, until 1st of April. Apply here.
**** 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 

 

MINI INTERVIEW WITH BOŻENA SZOTA FROM ETHNO PORT POZNAŃ
Over the four days of the festival, in the Polish city of Poznań hosts concerts, dance parties, performances, interdisciplinary actions, workshops, film screenings and meetings for analysis and reflection about the current and future challenges in our societies. 

 

MM – What do you search in an artist when you program? 
BS – We are searching authenticity and emotional truth, high artistic quality, original or masterful approach to traditional music

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
BS – We invite artists from all, even the most distant parts of the world. And during the events accompanying the festival (films, discussions, lectures) we focus on the global issues such as migration, cultural exchange or problems with building a sense of identity in a world of global exchange

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 
BS – Modern forms of communication make it more easier to overcome organizational and logistic barriers. Differences in visas and tax regulations may be a problem.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours? 
BS – Negating the need for intercultural exchange related to the increase of xenophobic attitudes, lack of support from the Ministry of Culture and weak interest of potential sponsors of the event.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival. 
BS – High quality of program proposals and their diversity as well as unique atmosphere built by the community festival audience.

Picture: one of Bożena’s Facebook profile pictures

ON TOUR. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR ARTISTS TOURING IN YOUR AREA NEXT SUMMER
· Vigüela will be in Germany in the 3rd week of July and in UK at the end of August and we are working on more dates and countries. Remember you can request support from AC/E for the logistic needs. In any case, if you are interested in them, just ask and we’ll make our best to reach an agreement. Remember we can offer the band alone and also the Polish-Spanish collaboration with Janusz Prusinowski Kompania and Maria Siwiec.
· Monsieur Doumani will be in Germany in the 3rd week of July and they have confirmed many other dates in Europe for next Summer and Autumn. Ask us. And we get them in Spain again, very soon: 2nd of April. Yeah!
· Rodopi Ensemble‘s first concert in Spain is confirmed: 18th July, in Palma de Mallorca. They are settled in Thessaloniki and available all year.
· Gulaza are constantly touring. Ask us for the date of your interest. Their showcase at WOMEX was “the most extraordinary and talked about concert in WOMEX 2018” according to BBC Sounds.
We work with more artists and special concerts and collaborations. Check them at our website.

Do you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click 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 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 #8 February 2019

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

In the last edition we announced the leaving of David Ibañez from the artistic direction of the Fira Mediterrània and still today the new director is not published. We will share the news at our Facebook and our Instagram as soon as we know, so you can follow us there. The Fira is nowadays the most important fair of world music in the South of Europe, specially since Babel Med stopped after 2017’s edition. It is also a superb festival. Did you know they got the 4th position at TWMC Festival Awards? Yes, you know: we announced it in February newsletter. Application for the procedure of the Festival Awards is open.

Below, we continue the series of little interviews with festival directors and with many more useful infos for the community.

And, before, this last month many things have happened here:
· We have had the announcement of early general elections in Spain in April that, added to the local elections in May, have the country in a very volatile situation, with all the impact this has in the not-mass culture…
· We also have had back in Spain the Janusz Prusinowski Kompania, with a thrilling concert last Friday and they return next Sunday. Their 4th album, Po śladach, is haunting.
· I travelled to Switzerland for the premiere of the Mediterranean Odyssey concert, of which we’ll share videos soon. I had the luck of listening by my side one of the best singers of the world, Drosos Koutsokostas, from Rodopi Ensemble (better videos, soon).
· We’ve been also working with Spain is Music, of which you have more info below. 

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: AC/E´s application for support opens in March. New (and still) open calls. Mapamundi introduces… On tour. Mini interview with festival director: Per Idar Almås, from Førdefestivalen (Norway)

Do you like our newsletter? To sign up, click HERE.

DO YOU WANT A SPANISH ARTISTS IN YOUR PROGRAM? AC/E’S CALL FOR SUPPORT WILL BE OPEN DURING MARCH

Acción Cultural Española (AC/E) is a public entity dedicated to promoting the culture and heritage of Spain. In March they open the call to request support for the logistic expenses related to Spanish artists and experts in cultural issues, for events abroad taking place in the second half of the year.

The application must be done by the foreign institution/programmer and Mapamundi Música has supported some clients in previous editions to fullfill the procedure, that in fact is not difficult. The results are usually published quite soon (around the 3rd week of April).
We can offer you our band Vigüela (in the picture) and we can help you also if you need any other artist profile.
CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS
These professional fairs have applications open right now:
· IX Targowisko Instrumentów, Warsaw. FOR INSTRUMENTS MAKERS. The call for proposals is open until 22th of February, next Friday. Apply here.
· WOMEX. The call for proposals is open until 22th of March. Apply here.
· Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. We are still anxiously waiting for knowing who is the new artistic director. The application is open now, until 4th of March at 15h local time. Apply here.
· Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. Open call for the 31st edition, until 29th of March. Apply here.
· Mundial Montreal. Open call for the 9th edition, until 1st of April. Apply here.
MAPAMUNDI MÚSICA INTRODUCES… 

Spain is Music. A new thrilling collaboration between us and this travel agency and consultancy firm is just starting. Their approach to travel design is boutique-like, totally personalized and result of a deep investigation of the most authentic experiences.

We proudly colaborate next month with them, providing a workshop of music and cooking by Vigüela for a group of Canadian travellers. In the meantime we are designing new initiatives and now I want to invite you to subscribe to their mailing list, here. You’ll get interesting tips about Spain’s music, gastronomy, rituals, festivities…

Picture: Pablo Camino, director of Spain is Music.

ON TOUR. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF OUR ARTISTS TOURING IN YOUR AREA NEXT SUMMER
· Vigüela will be in Germany in the 3rd week of July and in UK at the end of August and we are working on more dates and countries. Remember you can request support from AC/E for the logistic needs. In any case, if you are interested in them, just ask and we’ll make our best to reach an agreement. Remember we can offer the band alone and also the Polish-Spanish collaboration with Janusz Prusinowski Kompania and Maria Siwiec.
· Monsieur Doumani will be in Germany in the 3rd week of July and they have confirmed many other dates in Europe for next Summer and Autumn. Ask us. And we get them in Spain again, very soon: 2nd of April. Yeah!
· Rodopi Ensemble‘s first concert in Spain is confirmed: 18th July, in Palma de Mallorca. They are settled in Thessaloniki and available all year.
· Gulaza are constantly touring. Ask us for the date of your interest. Their showcase at WOMEX was “the most extraordinary and talked about concert in WOMEX 2018” according to BBC Sounds.
We work with more artists and special concerts and collaborations. Check them at our website.
**** 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 

 

MINI INTERVIEW WITH PER IDAR ALMÅS FROM FØRDEFESTIVALEN

Førde Traditional and World Music Festival takes place in Norway at the beginning of July in many different and beautiful locations that combine nature with traditional and modern architecture. The program is a chant for understanding and always includes a huge variety of proposals. The festival has had Hilde Bjørkum as artistic director until the edition of 2019, that happens to be the 30th anniversary of the festival. Congratulations, team! The artistic director now is Per Idar Almås, who has been working at the Bergen International Festival and as artistic director in a chamber music festival near Førde. We wish him a super nice experience and joys in this important position. Hilde continues supporting the festival in special projects. Both of them are in the picture, taken from her facebook profile. The answers to the questions are by Per.

Thank you, Per, for your answers, thank you, Hilde, for your vision along these years.

MM – What do you search in an artist when you program? 
PIA –  We are searching for quality and uniqueness for all artists coming to our festival. Also, each year we are having a festival theme, and it’s a goal to have artists connected to that as well.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
PIA – Førdefestivalen wants to have artists from all over the world represented at our festival. It’s a very important thing for us to present international traditional music to our audience as well as our own traditonal music. It is getting more and more important with cultural understanding and exchange in this world, to break down boundaries and walls (our theme this year is “30 years without borders”).

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 
PIA – For the programming it is always a challenge to find the right mix of artists on the program, as there is so many good artists out there that we would love to present. We have so many artists who would like to come that we can`t even answer them all, unfortunately.MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours? 
PIA – One thing that we have done in Førde in the past and that has become a bit more difficult in Norway now, is to get funding for youth exchange programs for Norwegian and international young musicians, which is sad because I really believe in the value of this concept. We are working on finding ways to do it, and I hope we soon can do this again.MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival. 
PIA – For one week in July the small city of Førde invites the world to town, with the best artists, the best music, the most beutiful nature and we’ll do our best to be the best hosts possible. Welcome!

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 #7 January 2019

I am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to Mapamundi Música’s January monthly newsletter. I hope you have had a great beginning of year if you happen to be in one of the cultures in which we have agreed on changing the year on 31st of December of our consensual calendar. If not, I hope you have had great time too!

As we announced, the results of the Transglobal WMC Festival Awards are already published. The agenda of fairs and meetings goes on and I want to send a farewell full of gratitude to David Ibáñez, now former artistic director of Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, who trusted us and booked from us Carles Dénia in 2015 and Janusz Prusinowski Trio with Manu Sabaté in 2018. David, we’ll miss you and wish you the best success of the world! The Fira is currently in the process of selecting the new artistic director. We will inform about the selection in our next monthly newsletter.We continue the series of little interviews with festival directors and in this occasion it is a festival from my own country: Poborina Folk. And below you’ll find also some open calls for you to check, including one from Mapamundi Música.

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: Festival awards. New (and still) open calls. Miniinterview with festival director: Sergio Zaera, from Poborina Folk (Spain)

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TRANSGLOBAL WORLD MUSIC CHART FESTIVAL AWARDS

The results of the first edition of these Festival Awards have been published this morning. The top 10 of global results is this. Check the website for the results in the different categories and some learn about the criteria, procedure and definitions.

Global top 10:
1.    (In a tie): Jeonju Int’l Sori Festival & WOMADelaide
3.    World Music Festival Bratislava
4.    Fira Mediterrània de Manresa
5.    Ethnoport Poznan
6.    Urkult
7.    Cordas World Music Festival
8.    Rainforest World Music Festival
9.    Førdefestivalen
10.  Lowell Folk Festival

Transglobal World Music Chart Festival Awards is an initiative of our sister project, Transglobal WMC and it is focused on world music / folk / traditional music festivals. Just to name a few of other festival awards that have included world music festivals in their results:

· Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe. There have been so far 2 editions: 2015-2016 and 2017. Will it happen again? We’ll try to find it out and, in the mean time, they also provide the EFFE Label, Europe’s quality stamp for remarkable arts festivals and the application period is currently open.· Iberian Festival Awards, not exclusively for world music festivals and oriented to Iberian festivals and this year the awards ceremony  will take place on 13th of March.

· And… what more? We are planning to make a comprehensive list to share it with the world music community. If you have any tip, let us know. If we get a bunch of awards we’ll edit a document and will share it publicly.

Do you like our newsletter? To sign up, click HERE.

CALLS FOR APPLICATIONS

· We, I mean, Mapamundi Música, have open a gathering of proposals for an intimate and little line-ups concert series. Calling for duos to quartets, able to play with no amplification. Send your info, here. 

These professional fairs have applications for showcases open right now:

· Mapas (Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain). Application open until February 15th. TODAY, it closes at 22h in Canary Islands time. You have some few hours after we sent this! 
· Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. As announced above, the artistic direction is changing but the application is open now, until 4th of March at 15h local time. Apply here.
· Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. Open call for the 31st edition, until 29th of March. Apply here.

FLASH NEWS

· fRoots magazine is awarded with “Lifetime Achievement Award” from Folk Alliance International conference. Congratulations, Ian Anderson and team of fRoots!

· Check here the list of the “50 Greatest World Music Albums of the Last Five Years” by Jo Frost and Simon Broughton from Songlines. I agree with many and I would have included some wonders like Po Kolana W Niebie, by Janusz Prusinowski Trio or Angathin by Monsieur Doumani, but it is great to remember so many beauties like Saz’iso’s or Söndörgő’s albums. Thank you, Jo and Simon!

**** 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 

 

MINI INTERVIEW WITH SERGIO ZAERA FROM POBORINA FOLK

In this occasion we pay attention to a festival from our country. The picture of Sergio doesn´t evoke the usual image of Spain but the true is that our country is super diverse and El Pobo, in Teruel province, one of the most depopulated areas in Europe, Winter time is cold and, very often, snowy.

Poborina Folk talks place in this little village since 1999 in the weekend most near to the Summer solstice. The program includes concerts of local and international artists, activities inspired on the tradition and the rural environment, like singing the albada for San Juan, traditional cooking and workshops. Sergio is part of a big team of enthusiastic lovers of music and party.

MM – What do you search in an artist when you program?
SZ –  First of all, we want them to make a style of music that fits somehow in the festival and which live show was able to capture the attention of the public. And, after that, as programmers, we must consider the budget we have, as some of the bands that we explore, some times we can´t affort to pay them.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
SZ – Poborina Folk has proved during the over time that it is a festival that has successfully adapted to the passage of time without giving up the objectives it was born with, that are to disseminate folk music, opting for providing to the public a wide variety of styles and full filling the cultural proposals with family activities.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 
SZ – The fact of being held in a locality that does not exceed 50 inhabitants during the year and has limited infrastructures undoubtedly conditions the organization of the festival. For example, we do not have any type of accommodation for groups or visitors in El Pobo. Despite the economic difficulties, we want to maintain the free nature of the festival, so we must optimize resources. Note that the entire festival is organized by volunteers. However, these difficulties mean that the festival has a special charm and has managed to maintain its identity, differentiating itself from other events.MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours? 
SZ – In our case, after 20 editions, the main challenge is to give continuity to the project, maintaining a varied program, with high-quality, that helps to maintain the magical atmosphere that surrounds the festival. We are proud to count year after year with a loyal audience that is accompanied by new people who discover the festival for the first time and are pleasantly surprised.MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival. 
SZ – Discover the magic of celebrating the summer solstice in Poborina Folk.
Picture: Sergio Zaera in a picture stolen from his facebook.

 

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.