Category Archives: Monthly newsletters

Magazine #34 Apr’21 – The vision of Cosmopolis festival @Alkis Zopoglou, talk with Juliana Volož and + . By Mapamundi Música

Summary ? 

  • Results of the clinical research with the concert for 5000 attendants: no data yet
  • The vision of Alkis Zopoglou for Cosmopolis Festival
  • In depth Juliana Volož (J-V Promotion)
  • Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
  • Open calls and professional events. WOMEX deadline for showcases call is soon.

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How are you? I hope well! It may not be easy to be well in these times. I have just received the news of the cancellation of the festival Poborina Folk (there is an interview with Sergio Zaera, from this festival, in a previous edition) for this next Summer. It is a multitudinous festival with activities all day long, with the public standing, moving, dancing, drinking and hugging and that is an essential part of the festival. I’m already looking forward to being able to do all that.

Nevertheless, it will end. Let’s look at the future through the eyes of two people I like a lot, Alkis Zopoglou and Juliana Volož ?. I hope you enjoy the interviews in this edition and find the other information useful. And if you have any suggestions for content, calls or useful information for our community, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the world musics?

Contact me if you want to share some relevant information. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous editions here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.

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

Subscription is available here.

NOT YET PUBLISHED, THE RESULTS OF THE CLINICAL RESEARCH ABOUT CONCERTS AND COVID, WITH 5000 ATTENDANTS

In the edition of March I explained about the clinical research that consisted in a concert that took place on March 27th at the Palau Sant Jordi, in Barcelona, with 5000 attendants (the place has capacity for 20 thousand), with no social distance, with masks FFP2 and with fast antigen test before entering the venue.

The results have not yet been published. I have phoned the chief of communication of one of the hospitals involved (this one) and he said it will be done probably at the beginning of the next week.

After the concert, a positive result was detected 3 days after the concert (this is the reference of this info), so it is believed that he was infected prior to the concert and the antigen test did not detect it. I’ll keep an eye on it anyway and as soon as I find any new news, I’ll post it on Mapamundi Música’s Facebook page.

INTERVIEW WITH ALKIS ZOPOGLOU ABOUT HIS VISION FOR COSMOPOLIS FESTIVAL 

In issue 17 (November 2019) I mentioned that Alkis Zopoglou, qanunist of the Rodopi Ensemble and director of the Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland, had been appointed artistic director of the Cosmopolis festival, the flagship festival of his city, Kavala, two hours east of Thessaloniki on the Aegean coast.

Many things have happened since then, which have meant that the vision Alkis had for the festival could not be fully realized in 2020. Over the last few months, however, I have had the opportunity to talk to him and share his thoughts and it is a pleasure to share his insights again. Hopefully the plans for Cosmopolis can be realized as he wishes. In the meantime, let’s share some words with Alkis.

Mapamundi Música: One of the features I like most about your vision for Cosmopolis is that it is not just a series of concerts, but rather a series of activities that contribute to a better understanding of the culture behind the band or artist. Now – I have a theory about your vision: You come from the world of traditional music, you have grown up in the environment in which this music is performed and which is still strong in everyday life. And you have performed in many other countries around the world.

This traditional music is beautiful on its own, even out of context, and of course, in its own context it has an even deeper dimension. I’ve met you at several festivals playing the music of Greece in front of foreign audiences. For example, the last time we met in Lublin, Poland in 2019, or in Mallorca further ahead, and that’s really wonderful. Teaching to dance, in the workshop you did, makes the audience the protagonist. And these artistic expressions also provide a worldview that can be seen in cinema, in folk games, in handicrafts, in a typical gastronomy… I think the Cosmopolis Festival complements your experience of life in all these dimensions. It is like bringing the music as well as its context into the Kavala program. Apologies – this is more of a reflection than a question (hehehe). Let me know if you agree with my suggestion or if you would like to add something else 🙂

Alkis Zopoglou: It is true that when we refer to the tradition of a place, we do not only refer to its songs or its dances. It is rather a combination of elements and we should not exclude one from the other for the sake of impressiveness. All these things happen in a unified environment and are a continuation of one another.

For instance, if you are called to represent your tradition in front of a foreign audience far from the place where this tradition origins, it is ideal, if possible, to present song and dance as a unity. In this way, the audience gains a more rounded impression. I’m telling you this because I also have the experience of living abroad for several years. Accordingly, when you simply show a dance to a foreigner without the necessary framing, that includes elements of the space in which that dance lives in, an observer will see it more like a gymnastic exercise than an expression of tradition. However, this is not the desired effect.

On the other hand, one could argue that no one can convey the social activity of a traditional event entirely outside of its actual environment. I do agree but, in any case, it is crucial that the audience receives the most accurate depiction of reality. Thus, by presenting a variety of local activities (dance, music, folk games, people’s stories, food tastes) we motivate people to accept and understand diversity. This also aims to soften the social differences, that are nowadays one of the biggest problems in our world. We all must learn to live together and understand each other wherever we come from, and this is, after all, the profound duty of a cultural institution that deals with culture.

MM: What are you looking for when choosing artists for a program?

AK: First of all, I look for artistic ethos and passion for what they’re doing. I appreciate the authenticity in the cultural product that each artist chooses to present. Additionally, artists must artistically support what they are called upon to project and have studied it in depth, not just superficially. It is not my intention to give space to artists whose only dream is to get on a stage and gain a brief moment of fame.

MM: The festival also highlights the multicultural background of the city, with the presence of Armenians, Jews, Muslims, Roman Catholics… Thus, the festival is also a speaker of local culture and history. Do you usually have an audience from other regions of Greece or other countries? 

AK: Kavala, my city, really is a magical place, that I highly recommend you to visit.
No matter which way you look at it, it will be love at first sight. A city where its past is inseparably linked to its future. A crossroad of cultures that has hosted a multitude of people (Italians, Franks, Hungarians, Austrians, Jews, Turks, etc.) whose cultures have wandered its streets and have been assimilated by its inhabitants. A city with its own history, its stone-paved streets, its beautiful corners and its former tobacco factories “planted” all over Kavala to remind us of its vibrant past.The Cosmopolis Festival is essentially a contemporary way of connecting the city’s history with its future. Its aim is to attract people of all ages and interests by presenting a variety of activities throughout the year. During the festival, the city invites both locals and visitors to stroll around and experience its beauty and traditions. Certainly, not only people from neighboring regions, but also people from nearby countries are frequent visitors of the festival. Cosmopolis Festival provides attractive opportunities to spend a few pleasant days in our city and the people of Kavala are happy to welcome people from all over the world.

MM: In a previous edition (#17) I announced that you had become the new director of the Cosmopolis festival. That was in November 2019. So, your first edition as director was in 2020, the year of the pandemic. The international program was moved to the following year and you adapted the program to this situation. What was the 2020 edition like?

AK: It was not completely postponed. We worked hard and I think we finally succeeded to organize and carry out as many activities as were allowed by the health protocols. It was a desire of both the Mayor of the city, and me, as artistic director, that the festival was not entirely cancelled for one or two years, because this would have made it much more difficult to restart it again. We also wanted to support our local artists during these difficult times, who were hit hard by the pandemic and in the end, we managed to make the most out of the situation. I think that we also had the opportunity and time to develop a different vision of the festival which, after about 15 years of life, needed a refreshment. Now we are prepared and ready to move on to a new model, with much greater public appeal, due to the numerous new activities the festival has to offer.

MM: At the time of this interview, the pandemic situation is still complicated and there is a bit of uncertainty. Let’s assume that the festival will take place as planned, from 26 to 29 August. What will happen in Kavala during those days?  

AK: The festival now, as I mentioned in my previous answer, has been modified altogether. One of the most important changes for which a special effort has been made, is that the festival lasts much longer and it is split into different themes during the year. Its first section, the CosmoHome, begins in late spring in the yards and homes of the residents of the old town. The second section is called CosmoWorld and constitutes the peak of the festival during late August. Lastly, the third section, CosmoClasssical, focuses more on classical music and is planned for November and December. Hence, there are various activities and if you would like to learn more about the different sections, visit the website which will be fully updated by end of April. Hopefully, despite the pandemic situation, we will be able to carry out as many activities as possible.

MM: The programme includes a number of professional conferences, of which I am part of and I am very proud! Could you briefly explain what the objectives of this section of the programme are? 

AK: Our region in northern Greece is an endless source from which new artistic concerns and personalities are constantly rising. Perhaps, due to the fact that, this part of Greece borders 4 other countries and is, at the same time, connected to the Aegean Sea. In this way, there are many different stimuli and influences for the people, which probably shapes the way they see life and their overall mentality.

The aim of this action is to inform young artists already at the beginning of their careers in order for them to be best prepared for the “market” and be able to overcome every obstacle in the most effective way. This knowledge-transfer from professionals in the field to the new uprising generation will not only allow them to get in contact with the global market and hear real-life experiences, but also broaden up their horizons and shape their attitude regarding various issues so that, they can choose their own artistic path.Therefore, I hope that this program will be a very important tool for the growing of their career in the artistic scene, both in Greece but also in the global market. The local artists deserve it and I am convinced that it will prove very useful to them.

Credits:

IN DEPTH WITH JULIANA VOLOŽ

In recent months I have also had the opportunity to exchange many reflections with this colleague, a wise and passionate woman, and it is an honour now to share her thoughts on this peculiar “business” of being an agent for artists of roots music.

In preparation for this interview, I had access to Christian Pliefke‘s previous interview with him in his magazine FolkGalore. Christian is the owner of CPL Music and of Nordic Notes too. Thank you, Christian!!

 

This is a very brief summary of the interview with Christian:

Juliana graduated in chemistry in Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). After that, she worked for 10 years in marine chemistry and marine biology at the Institute of Oceanography in Tallinn. This work gave her the opportunity to travel through different cities of the Baltic States at the Soviet times. In 1989 she moved with her family to Stockholm and started to be an active photographer. In 1998, they moved to Germany. The chance to become an agent came when the Georgian band The Shin asked her for support to play in Russia. After some encouraging experiences, Juliana opened her own agency in 2007. 
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Mapamundi Música – Dear Juliana, it is my pleasure to share your insights. You are one of the referential agents from Europe in the world music circuit and, despite our background is a bit different, I feel identified with some of the events of your life, like the fact of developing an initiative related to music, in an organic way, not from a conscious project of entrepreneurship but because a passion that aroused and found a way to grow into something that would become a profession. With these questions, I will try to delve in your personality, as well as to highlight relevant info for artists searching for agents and inspiring infos for our colleagues.

You graduated in chemistry from Tallinn University of Technology and have worked for 10 years in marine chemistry and marine biology at the Institute of Oceanography in Tallinn. Which or which ones of the skills or knowledge you got from those experiences have been the most useful for your career as an agent of musicians?

Juliana Volož – I am used  to structuring and organizing things. It helps me to have an overview and see the entire process “from above” so to say. Also, during my work as a marine chemist, I was communicating with my international colleagues from all countries around the Baltic sea. It was my first experience of international networking 🙂

MM – Apart from that or those skills, which other do you think are essential to succeed in this field of work? 

JV – First of all one should like music, he is representing :). I think one very essential skill is to like to communicate and do it sincerely.

MM – Any particular advice for a fellow newcomer or someone who wants to get started in this field?

JV – Be passionate about the bands you represent, as if you have a spark, you can ignite others.
Be honest in accounting. It is much easier to have it clear and transparent, that to hide something.
Keep your reputation spotless: the bad news spreads much faster and sticks stronger than the good one 😉 Be quick in communication. It creates trust with your partners.

MM – And now, for the artists. I’m sure you get requests from artists every day to be their manager. I am sure because it happens to me too, and many colleagues tell me the same thing. Do you have any recommendations for the artists, so that they can improve the way they communicate when they do it for this purpose? 

JV – I like when the artists really check to whom they write and what kind of music this person represents to avoid confusion. Sometimes I get proposals from classical musicians, or cover pop singers saying I checked your website and I am sure my music perfectly suits your roster… I always ask them which roster they mean 🙂

Anyways, the mail should be short, with the photo of the band, short description, a couple of links to good quality videos, links to a streaming platform and social media.

MM – Do you think it makes sense for the artists to try to find an agent? 

JV – Definitely! As the agent work is very time consuming and based on the experience and personal contacts, a good agent could save a lot of creative time for the artist.

MM – Have you ever started a stable collaboration with a band or artist that approached you in their search of an agent? 

JV – Mostly I choose bands myself, but in some cases I also start working with the bands that approach me. The cooperation could work if several conditions coincide: I like the music, I see that this band is ready for cooperation and export. One example of successful cooperation is Tuvan band Khoomei Beat. They have approached me in 2018. I liked their music and saw the potential in it. At the same time I could tell that this band has some work to do before we could talk about cooperation. I told them what I am expecting from them and suggested they come back when they are ready. They approached me in one year and proved that they fulfilled my requirements :). I was really impressed and we started to cooperate. It was right before the pandemic hit…

MM – I think there will be still, at least for many years, a lot of artists and a much smaller number of agents, that is the current situation. This makes me think that we are not in a very interesting business, otherwise there would be many more agents working in world music. Nevertheless, it seems the artists require us. Something seems to be wrong, what is it?

JV – The business itself is interesting, but the type of music we are representing is niche music with a relatively small audience. The target group in many big and established countries, is not particularly young and dynamic. In small countries, on the contrary, rooted music is getting more and more popular among young people as part of their identity.

MM – Especially in the last year, many of us, independent agents or micro-companies, have felt a bit alone and misunderstood. I have heard claims from colleagues from different countries arguing they have not been considered in the support for the arts after the ravages of the pandemic. My experience in Spain has not been exactly like that (I have got support because I am an independent worker in a field with loss of income, not because I worked with art, and the support in Spain depends a lot on the region, so the situation is a bit complex), but yes other countries colleague’s. With this in mind, I have several questions:
We are required by the artists but, at the same time, it seems we are a bit invisible. Do you feel that? 

JV – Most of the agents and managers are invisible, because our task is to help the artists to become more visible, not to become visible ourselves :).  What makes me and many of my colleagues frustrated is that since spring 2020 with few exceptions we can not book live concerts.

MM – How could we explain briefly which is the value we, the agents, provide to the value chain? 

JV – We are part of a team, where each member does what he knows best. We use our experience and network to bring bands to different markets and let them to concentrate on what they do best – making music

MM – My last question. Explain in one or two sentences, to the wider culture community, the reasons to book musicians from around the world that give a relevant presence to their roots. 

JV – I like to compare music with trees.  The music, inspired by tradition, has stronger roots, it is more stable and gives more power to its leaves, blossoms and fruits. This music gives something which makes us rich – the cultural treasure passed by generations.

Credits:

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

BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums: In transition, by Scott Stobbe Collection, Maasai footsteps, by Anuang’a Fernando & Maasai Vocals and El fabuloso sonido de Andrés Vargas Pinedo, by Andrés Vargas Pinedo and bands. This is the edition in which we announced them.

OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

  • WOMEX:

The call for proposals is open until Friday 16th April. This is the website for the application. And, wow, I am so happy! In 2022, it will take place in Lisbon, one of my favourite cities in the world! 

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  • European Folk Network:

Saturday, April 24th. It will take place the second session of the European Folk Network virtual meeting, “Spring Forward #2”. You can register for the second and third editions, here. The second edition will include a round table with several personalities from the folk and the traditional music scene in Europe.

I am proudly part of the board for the last months and I really encourage you to join us for this session as well as to follow the page on Facebook and to sing up for the announcements here. The speakers have made a little video to tease you to join! Watch them by clicking their name: Alistair Anderson, Svetlana Spajic, Linda Dyrnes, Janusz Prusinowski and there will also talk Alban Cogrel, president of FAMDT (France’s traditional music association).

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  • Canadian Music Week:

Artist submissions for CMV virtual festival are now open. Deadline: April 18th, at Midnight EST.

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  • Mundial Montreal – job opportunity for event producer!:

Artist submissions period will be open soon. This is their latest newsletter. Note they are searching for an event producer.

 

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com.

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.

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

Magazine #33 Mar’21 – beyond a response of need, with Culturas 360, Global Toronto and + . By Mapamundi Música

Summary ?

  • New clinical research: concert for 5000 attendants
  • Second part of the conversation with Alexis Herrería from Ah! World Music!
  • Beyond a reaction of need. Interviews about CULTURAS 360, with Alfredo Caxaj, and Global Toronto, with Mercedes Caxaj
  • Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
  • Open calls and professional events

How are you? I hope well! After February’s edition, I got several suggestions of contents, as well as some feedback and a proposal for collaboration. That is really nice, I am very thankful! And two of the suggestions came from Canada.

By chance, although each contact was completely independent, a father and daughter ended up starring in this March edition. He is known to many of you who will receive this newsletter. He is Alfredo Caxaj. But if you don’t know him yet, I’ll introduce him to you below. He is a true personality, an earthquake. He is the director of the Sunfest festival and this time he tells us about a new initiative: Culturas 360.

And the daughter is Mercedes Caxaj. She has also worked for Sunfest but today she will talk to us about Global Toronto and the organisation from which it was born, Small World Music, which she joined at the beginning of 2021.

Don’t miss the rest of the content, like the open calls. I hope they will be useful and if you have anything to share, just let me know!

Learn more about them, and much more, here below. Happy reading, happy Springtime ?

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the world musics?

Contact me if you want to share some relevant information. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous editions here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.

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

Subscription is available here.

NEW CLINICAL RESEARCH ABOUT CONCERTS AND COVID, WITH 5000 ATTENDANTS

In the edition of January I explained about the clinical research PrimaCov. Next 27th of March it will take place another research. It will be at the Palau Sant Jordi, in Barcelona, with 5000 attendants (the place has capacity for 20 thousand), with no social distance, with masks FFP2 and with fast antigen test before entering the venue. I haven’t found any source in English, so you can check for instance this article in El Comercio and use an automatic translator.

SECOND PART OF THE INTERVIEW BY ALEXIS HERRERÍA WITH ME AT AH! WORLD MUSIC

In the previous edition I linked the first part of the interview that Alexis Herrería made to be for Ah! World music! In the second part, we listened to other several artists that I work with in Mapamundi Música: Gulaza, Entavía, Rodopi Ensemble, Svetlana Spajić and Xabi Aburruzaga.

Click here to listen to this second part.

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BEYOND A REACTION OF NEED

It is still too early to assess all that the pandemic has taken from us and brought to us. You will agree with me that we have lost much in our community, but only time will give us the ability to decide whether it has made us better. Right now, even in the midst of the nightmare, initiatives like the newborn Culturas 360 and the early transition to the online version of Global Toronto in 2020 and the new plans for 2021 demonstrate, once again, how powerful the engine that drives us, the vision we pursue and the generosity that oozes out of every pore of our skin are.

CULTURAS 360
March, 27th & 28th. Check the web.

ALFREDO CAXAJ TELLS US ABOUT CULTURAS 360
 

Alfredo himself chose this photo to illustrate this interview. With the Sunfest stage in the background, his smile and open arms. I think it portrays quite well this person, who arrived in Canada in 1985 as a political refugee, fleeing the civil war taking place in Guatemala. He settled in London, Ontario and began working at London’s Cross Cultural Learner Center, helping New Canadians. In 1995 he founded Sunfest. He has been awarded on several occasions for his work. And you might have seen him dancing tirelessly in front of a stage.

There is a very nice profile and interview with Alfredo on the website of Roots Music Canada, I really recommend you to read it. And here, Alfredo explains to us about a new initiative: CULTURAS 360. Take note and don’t miss it: 27th and 28th March

? Download a brochure with more information about CULTURAS 360, here ⬇️ ?

Mapamundi Música – Culturas 360 has been born in the frame of the pandemic, with big restrictions to international mobility, by a bunch of festivals that have an international scope. When the pandemic is over, do you intend to repeat this initiative? If so, will it be online, or part online and part on site, or only on site?

Alfredo Caxaj: Absolutely, it is the intention of the festivals’ collective not only to establish this initiative as an annual celebration, but to evolve as an alternative platform to support artists, and to strengthen relationships within our sector. It is the hope that sometime this year we’ll be able to go back to live music performances at festivals and venues, and our vision is to have CULTURAS 360 actively involved at different conferences, markets and festivals. As hard as the pandemic has been for all of us, it has also given us the opportunity to be creative and innovative, and I truly believe that this project is precisely the result of it.

MM – Which or which ones do you think is/are the common element/s between all the festivals involved? 

AC: I think that the fundamental element that has brought us all together, is the commitment to change and social transformation through music. We believe that music is such a powerful vehicle in bringing people together, and through CULTURAS 360, we’ll contribute to nurture cultural diversity and solidarity between peoples

MM – And which are the common elements between the different artists, if there are any? 

AC: CULTURAS 360 is presenting a diverse line up of artists that combines, some well established and recognized groups, and a great number of new and emerging ones. While some share common elements, whether in terms of its musical genre, language or geography, each group is unique and has its own identity.

MM – Which has been the most complicated issue to deal with in this ambitious project? 

AC: For years, some of us have been discussing this kind of initiative. We see each other all the time at different music markets and conferences, and always we were postponing the planning and concrete steps to make this project a reality. Ironically, in one way or another, the pandemic made us reflect on the need of coming together and launching a program like this, so we can continue supporting artists and keeping in touch with our audiences at this difficult time.

I believe that one of the most complicated issues we faced in order to bring this project to light was the pandemic itself, especially for the artists who had to overcome all kinds of safe and health restrictions in their own countries. Initially we had the intention of launching CULTURAS 360 at the beginning of the year, however, due to the limitations the groups were facing, we had no choice but to delay it for several weeks.

The festivals involved in CULTURAS 360 are:
Sunfest – London, Ontario, Canada
IndiEarth XChange – Chennai, India
MMM Festival – Maputo, Mozambique
Maré – Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Ollin Kan Festival – Ciudad de México, México
Kriol Jazz Festival – Praia, Cape Verde
Havana International Jazz Festival – Havana, Cuba
WOMAD – Recoleta, Chile
Artes à Rua – Evora, Portugal

MM – The economic model of the festivals is quite different. I believe some of them are financed with public money from a municipality, others have private sponsors, others combine these several funds with the incomes from sales of food, drinks or other goods when they are done on site. In your case, of Sunfest, you have got to keep support from private sponsors, haven’t you? 

AC: As you are aware, when festivals were cancelled last year, it represented the loss of all kinds of revenues for them. In the case of Sunfest, we were not the exception to this and the cancelation affected us tremendously.  We were able to adapt quickly in the transition to a digital format and fortunately, we did a virtual version of the festival.

The level of support from government agencies and private sponsors varies from country to country. In Canada, we have been very fortunate that during this difficult time, government grants and emergency funds for the cultural sector have been available and they have been essential in keeping our operations at a certain level.  We were also very fortunate that our main private sponsor understood the challenges of the current situation, and continued supporting our programming and activities in the digital format.

Unfortunately, this has not been the case for many other festivals in other countries, and that’s why I believe that initiatives like CULTURAS 360, can create spaces for mutual support, collaboration and solidarity within our sector.

MM – Was it easy to convince them to keep the support in this new format? AC: At the beginning of this transition, our main corporate sponsor hesitated a little bit, but I also think it was a natural reaction during this process, since all of us were trying to digest and understand these radical changes in a very short period of time.  At the end, they recognized that this was going to be the new reality at least for some time.

We did lose some other sponsors for which it was going to be challenging to justify their financial support in this new format.

MM – I think there are disadvantages for them, like that this format will provide a reach to a widely geographically distributed audience, which can be bad for brands that work just locally. But also advantages, like a potential presence of their brand for a longer time, in case you plan to keep the contents available after the specific dates of the event. What can you tell us about this negotiation that could be useful for other colleagues? 

AC: What I’ve been learning during the past year is that, sponsors in the private sector, have began slowly to understand and recognize the value of supporting the arts in this new format. Their brands can be seen now instead of several hundred by thousands of people, and in many instances, they stay in the web for some time.
Based on our own experience, I would advise my colleagues to be perseverant and patient at the same time. Corporations are acknowledging now the great number of possibilities for their brands in this new format, and I truly believe that from now on, the proposal of hybrid activities will be essential in the process of negotiating sponsorships.

There is nothing better than the live experience and all of us are eagerly waiting to go back to festivals and venues, but I also believe that the digital component, can tremendously enhance our activities, and help us in reaching out to new and diverse audiences.

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Credits:

  • The picture of Alfredo has been provided by himself
  • The logo is from the brochure
  • The collage of artists is also from the brochure
Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us.

GLOBAL TORONTO 
And Small World Music. Check the web.

MERCEDES CAXAJ TELLS US ABOUT GLOBAL TORONTO
 

With this portrait, Global Toronto announced the incorporation of Mercedes Caxaj to the team of Small World Music, as Head of Programs, last 8th January. As mentioned above, she is Alfredo’s daughter and she has learnt in the frame of the Sunfest. She explains below the plans and challenges for the Global Toronto conference in 2021 and much more. Jonathan Campbell, Head of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives of Small World, approached me to propose this participation and he sent me the brochure in the link below. I am very grateful to him.

? Download a brochure with more information about Global Toronto 2021 and more about Small World Music, here ⬇️ ?

It will be very useful for you to check the brochure before reading the interview.

MM – You are mentioning “paid showcases via “Artists Spotlights” Combining performance and storytelling.” Do you mean that the artists are paid for the showcases or that the audience pays?

Mercedes Caxaj: The artists are paid a modest honorarium for their work.  We don’t believe that artists should showcase for free and we wish to engage the artists in a way that our partnership does not just begin and end at Global Toronto. In addition to being paid, the artists are offered various professional development opportunities and are then considered part of the “GT Family” – where we will always suggest them for future professional engagement opportunities.

MM – About “Going Global”, I understand from your brochure that it is like a development support service/guidance, specially focused on the internationalization of the artists. Is that right? What are the concrete future events in this frame?

MC: One of the goals of Going Global is to continue to take artists and professionals from the Global Toronto family out to other industry events. Digitally and in these non-international travel times means producing online showcases and attending virtually. If we receive notice about a conference, where there’s interest in a delegation, programming partnerships, or showcases from the Global Toronto family of artists, we will assist in facilitating a presence to ensure as many voices are included as possible.

MM – And the artists that showcased from your side in Folk Unlocked (the online event by Folk Alliance International in 2021) are the ones included in the first edition of Going Global, is it right? (they are Al Qahwa, Zal Sissokho’s Kora Flamenca, Beny Esguerra and New Tradition Music and G.R. Gritt).

MC: All of the artists have either showcased at Global Toronto in 2018 or in 2020, and/or are co-presented with a Global Toronto partner. G. R. Gritt, for example, was co-presented by the International Indigenous Music Summit, but has not yet showcased at GT. Beny Esguerra showcased in GT18, and Al Qahwa and Zal Sissokho showcased at GT20.

MM – How were they selected, which were the criteria? The deeper you define the criteria, the best!

MC: Global Toronto engages a jury of five dedicated industry professionals – artists, presenters, agents/managers, media, etc – who score each artist based on three categories: artistic quality, market readiness and equity. We are so thankful for our jury members because they can receive up to 250 applications to listen through and have the daunting task of narrowing down the list to about 20 or so. The jury meets to deliberate the final scores and ensure that a range of voices, genres and experience are showcased.

MM – This is all very exciting and seems very ambitious. How is it financed? As you know, the models for such initiatives are quite different in Europe than in the USA and I think also very different between Canada and the USA. You are a team of people working all year round in Global Toronto, but not only, right? GT is a Small World’s initiative, which also has a recording studio, a concert hall that, without pandemic, programmes all year round. How does it normally work in financial terms and how are you overcoming the pandemic crisis?

MC: The team works year-round on all initiatives produced by Small World Music, including the Global Toronto music conference, the eMERGEnce mentorship program, Small World Music Festival and Asian Music Series, as well as managing the Small World Centre which mainly functions now as a broadcast and recording space for virtual presentations. In addition to managing all of these programs, we are continuing to develop our Going Global and international outreach partnership building. On top of all this we are continuously seeking new forms of funding, including government grants, sponsorships and partnerships.  The pandemic period is tough but we are very lucky in Canada to have access to some emergency funding, as well as grantors and corporate sponsors that continue to support even in limited capacities.

MM – About GT again, we are now in the middle of March and the second online edition 2021’s edition, that will be online like in 2020, will take place from 14 to 18 June. What is your schedule for the near future? I think you will announce the artistic selection by the end of the month, won’t you? What else, what other dates shall we write in our calendars for not to miss anything?

MC: The launch of GT21 will take place on March 30th, via the SWM and GT social media channels, where we will be announcing the lineup of showcasing artists, jury and programming committees, partners as well as themes that will be explored during the conference. Registration for the conference will open at the same time. Expect exciting content to be released before June 14th, and exact dates will be confirmed soon!

MM – I have one more question. This is about your strategic vision. The guiding theme of GT21 is “Now What: Making Space, Enacting Change” and you state that it is not a temporary fix to the short term problem of the pandemic. What do you mean with this theme? Making Space and Enacting Change. Please, elaborate a bit more on these ideas.

MC: We are continuing to build upon GT20s theme, which was “Acknowledging Opportunities, Envisioning the Future”. This was framed at the beginning of the pandemic and explored the state of affairs for the industry, how we felt and how we wanted the industry to be rebuilt in a more equitable, sustainable and accessible manner. We created safe spaces to the best of our ability so that participants felt comfortable sharing their lived experiences, as well as aspirations for the future. The need to make spaces for underrepresented voices at all levels and aspects of the music industry – from funding to producing, presenting and programming – as well as how to kick-start these changes. Thus, Making Space and Enacting Change for GT21 is about exploring the pragmatic aspects of these needs and themes explored last year.  We are very excited that we have engaged an amazing programming committee that has actively been participating in the preparation for this year’s conference.

—-

Credits:

 

BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums: Zanzibara 10: First modern, taarab vibes from Mombasa & Tanga, 1970-1990 (VA), Music from all corners of the world (VA) and Muzyka spod Radomia (VA). This is the edition in which we announced them.
  • I tend to assume that everyone who receives this newsletter knows that Transglobal World Music Chart releases a monthly chart and what is it. I could be wrong. Here is the website with the charts.
Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap

OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

  • Yesterday, Monday 15th March, the first conference in the series of 3 of the European Folk Network took place. The series is called Spring Forward. The main topics on the first one where the Stage One of the Mapping report, it was also the official annual meeting of the association and there was some time for informal talk in little groups. You can sign up for the second and third editions, here. The second edition will take place on 24th of April and will include a round table with several personalities from the folk and the traditional music scene in Europe: 
    • Alistair Anderson (English musician and educator),
    • a delegate from FAMDT (France’s traditional music association),
    • Svetlana Spajic (Serbian artist and disseminator, with whom I started to collaborate before the pandemic… and she was not proposed by me, but by Daina Zalāne, Latvian member of the board of the EFN),
    • Linda Dyrnes (director of FolkOrg, organization from Norway)
    • and Janusz Prusinowski (Polish musician and director of the festival Mazurkas of the World).
  • Canadian Music Week: Artist submissions for CMV virtual festival are now open. Deadline: April 18th, at Midnight EST.
  • WOMEX has the call for proposals open until Friday 16th April. This is the website for the application.

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com.

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. 

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

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

Magazine #32 February’21 – Port Fairy Folk Festival (AU), sector researchs, calls and +. By Mapamundi Música

Summary ? 

· Studies and news from the sector in Europe
· Conversation with Alexis Herrería from Ah! World Music!
· Mini-interview with Justin Rudge from Port Fairy Folk Festival
· Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
· Open calls and professional events

Hello, how are you? I hope well, healthy and strong. I am having an extremely busy few weeks and the truth is that I am exhausted and right now it is taking place Folk Unlocked, the virtual edition of the meeting by the Folk Alliance.

But this monthly date with the community is sacred and there is a good bunch of things to share. It’s also time to travel to Australia ?! Of course, in our imagination.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

 

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the world musics?

Contact me if you want to share some relevant information. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.

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

Subscription is available here.

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RESEARCHS AND NEWS FROM THE SECTOR IN EUROPE

These works are based on Europe but I hope they can be useful also for readers from other continents.

  • With the collaboration of Newcastle University, the European Folk Network has published the Stage One of the ongoing mapping research. Find the complete report here. The European Folk Network is open to new members and exciting news are coming. After the meeting in Brussels in November 2019, there was planned a new one in 2020, that was postponed, of course… Check the conditions in the website. There you can also learn who is already a member.
  • Music Moves Europe – A European Music Export Strategy. After the latest edition of the newsletter, Birgit Ellinghaus (thank you!) advised me about several studies that worth to be shared: the mapping from EFN, this one of Music Moves Europe and the next one. The study of Music Moves Europe “defines the background, the scope, and proposes a set of measures for a European music export strategy“. Download it from here.
  • Rebuilding Europe: The cultural and creative economy before and after the COVID-19 crisis​. The full study and the executive summary are available on the website.

FANCY TO PRACTICE YOUR SPANISH? LISTEN TO ALEXIS HERRERÍA INTERVIEWING ME

A few days ago it was published the wonderful interview that the Mexican disseminator of world music Alexis Herrería, also known as Viento Solar, made to me for Ah! World music! It was wonderful because he is a great listener, great at doing questions and the musics we listened to together (Hudaki Village Band, Monsieur Doumani, Vigüela and Janusz Prusinowski Kompania) are just outstanding.

Click the picture to listen to the interview:

CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS 

Since 1977, over 2000 acts and around 8000 artists have appeared at the Port Fairy Folk Festival. If you are confined and bored, you can check the list of the artists they have had, in this page of their website, and tick the ones you know ?

The Port Fairy Folk Festival is a big event that takes place in the seaside of the small town of 3000 residents of Port Fairy. It lasts four days and it includes concerts, storytelling, circus activities, art and craft, dance and music workshops, and comedy.

The edition of 2021 has been postponed to 2022 but they continue doing more little events. The next week they are having some concerts, at the same long weekend when it takes place the festival.

MINI INTERVIEW WITH JUSTIN RUDGE, PROGRAM DIRECTOR OF THE FROM PORT FAIRY FOLK FESTIVAL (PORT FAIRY, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA) 

Justin Rudge is the program director. His contact is available on the website. That is something that I love, you know, when you find so easily who is the person in charge of the artistic decisions of a festival or organization. I already mentioned it in the interview of the last edition, with Girisha Fernando.

Justin is currently settled in Madrid, 12 kms far from where I am writting this. We are waiting for the end of this nightmare to meet in person for lunch. He looks friendly, doesn’t he? In this meantime, it is a pleasure to share his insights while we can finally meet face to face.

Mapamundi Música – What do you search for in an artist when you program?

Justin Rudge: There’s some key words I use to decide on programming each artist – unique, engaging, artistic, cultural and challenging are the best 5!

To put it all in one sentence – I program unique artists that engage with our audience, both existing and new, to provide culturally relevant and wholly artistic experiences, hopefully challenging our audience to new and exciting experiences in turn.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
JR: As well as folk, our festival works to program world, roots & acoustic music – so from a genre point of view, it’s actually pretty broad.  We have a 4 day program, across over 20 stages, so we aim to have something for everyone, all the time!

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
JR: A few things!The first is probably the sheer scale of the event – over 100 artists, over 20 stage, and a lot of patrons from a variety of backgrounds and demographics. Putting that all together to ensure everything works, and everyone is happy – requires a lot of work from a small dedicated team all year round, as well as a massive amount of volunteers around the actual festival period in March.

The festival is located in regional Victoria. While being located on a beautiful bay, we have the constant concern and worry of operating in bushfire season, which provides a constant challenge in terms of managing travel and safety of our festival artists and patrons.

Music festivals in Australia are a booming industry (or were prior to the current pandemic), so we need to constantly improve, update and adapt to the changing marketplace and audience expectations.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
JR: Obviously, the pandemic has had a massive impact on our ability to engage with our audience who would normally gather in large numbers each March.

While we are not able to do this in 2021, we have and are continuing to create a number of small events across various virtual and in person platforms to ensure we can continue to provide our audience with the cultural and musical experiences we love to share – until we return to full scale events in 2022.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
JR: To experience the highest quality musical and cultural experiences, in and around the folk genre, from around Australia and the world, in a wonderfully picturesque setting.

MM – What has happened with your festival in the current situation of the pandemic? I see you have to postpone the 2021 edition, which would be in March, to 2022. How are you guys handling it, in terms of the team and the artists you may have already confirmed for the 2021 edition?
JR: It changes daily! While the pandemic has been well contained within Australia compared to many other places around the world, the challenges of operating any physical events safely continue.

We continue to work with promoters, agents and managers in Australia and around the world to advance our program for the 2022 event. In most cases, conversations and arrangements that had been in place for the 2021 edition will continue for the 2022 festival.

I’ve been so proud of the people I work with – in Port Fairy with our wonderful staff and amazing volunteer committee – and within the wider music industry. It’s such a challenging period, and to work daily with amazing people that are considerate, kind, flexible and understanding of each others challenges has been a very positive thing to result from the situation.

MM – In 2022 you will celebrate the 45th anniversary. Has there ever been before a year in the history of the festival when this could not be done?
JR: No! While the time of year the festival is held was changed many years ago to the current period of March, we have never not put on a festival in 45 years.  It’s very sad to be missing our event in 2021, but it has provided us with time and space like we have never had to re-evaluate, adapt and prepare to present what I’m sure will be our best event ever in 2022.

Credits:

  • The logo is from the website
  • The portrait has been provided by Justin
  • The landscape is from the festival’s Facebook page

BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums: Divine reeds, by Tassos Chalkias, the compilation Ṛṛways: Voyage dans l’univers des poètes chanteurs itinérants amazighes and Samā’ī by Azmari. 
  • I have collaborated in Juan Antonio Vázquez’s show A La Fuente, that he makes in the national radio of Spain, with a selection of rebetiko (mainly from the 1930s) and another of Polish recordings, that will be broadcasted in the next weeks. His radio show is available here.

OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

  • The virtual conference Folk Unlocked, by the Folk Alliance International, is taking place right now! I have already attended two of the meetings. 
  • It is still open the application period for residential projects (minimum of 7 days) i-Portunus. The deadline for music projects is 28th of February.
  • Mundofonías is media partner of the Afro Pepites Show. After the selection made by the Committee (of which Juan Antonio has been a member), it is the turn for the public vote. Anyone can vote. The votes will determine which are the 3 projects that will integrate the network in 2021 to promote themselves internationally. Learn about the finalists and vote, here.
  • Global Toronto: GT21 Call for Speakers and Themes. I will share the paragraph from their newsletter: “At Global Toronto, we know that the best way to create a compelling, relevant, and engaging event is to ask the most compelling, relevant, and engaging people we know: The wider GT community! Please take a couple of minutes and share your thoughts to help contribute to an impactful and exciting GT21.” The form to gather proposals is this one.

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com.

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. 

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

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

 

Magazine #31 January’21 – Let’s keep the dream alive in this meantime. Festival Der Kulturen, Womex, research PRIMA-CoV and much +

Summary ? 

  • Summary and results of PRIMA-CoV medical research
  • Mini-interview with Girisha Fernando from Festival der Kulturen
  • With Alex Walter from WOMEX (by Eric van Monckhoven)
  • Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
  • Open calls and professional events, because in spite of everything, life goes on

How are you? I hope you managed to have a great time at Christmas and a good end and beginning of year. For me, these have been a bit sad but at least I got to share some time with my family, in the street and with masks but it is so great that we are all healthy and together. My and their best wishes for your 2021!

Luckily, the storm of super heavy snow arrived later! You are probably aware of how is the center of Spain for the last week ❄️☃️. If you are not, you can check this gallery on my FB. The regional government of Madrid region wants the national government to declare the region a disaster area. You can imagine that the vaccination has slowed down for a while…

Nevertheless, life goes on and there are many plans for the future! Discover below the results of a medical research related to the dissemination of the infection in indoor concerts, don’t miss it! You’ll also find some nice interviews. Did you know that there is a festival in Germany that dates back to 1650? ? If you didn’t, now you do!

Thank you to all the participants who shared their precious time to produce this magazine, thank you too for reading and stay safe!

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the world musics?

Contact me if you want to share some relevant information. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.

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

Subscription is available here.

CLINICAL RESEARCH PRIMA_CoV, ABOUT ATTENDANCE TO INDOORS CONCERTS, RESULTS PUBLISHED

On December 30, the website of the PrimaveraSound festival and the website page of the Fundación Lucha contra el Sida y las Enfermedades Infecciosas (Foundation for the Fight against AIDS and Infectious Diseases) published an article on the results of the clinical testing PRIMA-CoV. It is very enlightening and deserves to be disseminated. I include here a brief summary and in their website you have more details (link to the English version and this is the Spanish one).

The research was made by Primavera Sound, la Fundación Lucha contra el SIDA y las Enfermedades Infecciosas y el Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol de Badalona.

What have they done?
On December 12th, at the venue Sala Apolo in Barcelona, it was done a concert without safety distance and with a pre-screening with antigen test and PCR test. The attendants used masks (N95), provided at the entrance. They were included only people without illnesses, who were not living with elderly people at home, and that had not been diagnosed with COVID in the last 14 days. Ventilation and air flows were optimised and the quality of the air, monitorised.

The concerts lasted 5 hours and the average time of attendance was 2h 40 min. The routes within the building were pre-established and controlled and queues at the entrance, exit and toilets were prevented.
1047 participants were tested, with negative results in the antigen test. They were aleatorized and 500  ofthem entered the venue (only 500 were allowed by the sanitary authorities).

What has been the result? 
8 days later, both the ones that attended the concert and the control group (the aleatoriced ones that didn’t enter) were tested again. None of the attendants to the concert were infected. Two of the persons in the control group (didn’t enter the venue) were infected and they were treated according to the usual protocol.

What has been the main outcome? 
The conclusion of this research is that the attendance to a live music concert performed under a series of safety measures, including a negative antigen test for SARS-CoV-2 on the same day, was not associated with an increase in COVID-19 infections.

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CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS 

On this occasion, we travel to Augsburg, in Bavaria, around 70 kms to the North-West from Munich, to learn about the Festival der Kulturen. It is organized by the municipality and is part of the Augsburger Hohes Friedensfest, the Grand Peace Festival, whose origin dates back to 1650! This Festival is a bigger celebration that commemorates the Peace of Westphalia. Learn more in the UNESCO website. As stated there, the festival promotes mutual respect for cultural and religious diversity and offers a possibility for getting to know each other.

Something that I like a lot about the website of the municipality about the festival, that is this one, is that it is very easy to find out who is the artistic director and they even provide his email. Bravo ?. I really thank this. Epecially when the programs are paid with public money, it should be mandatory to make this information public and to give a clear way to contact the decision maker.

This reminds me one time that I phoned a city council from Spain to ask about the artistic director of a festival and the person there told me “I can’t tell you because of privacy reasons”. I told her “that is not private, it is a public position doing a public service paid by public money, that information must be public.” Anyway, she didn’t tell me. ?‍♀️

MINI INTERVIEW WITH GIRISHA FERNANDO, FROM FESTIVAL DER KULTUREN, AUGSBURG (GERMANY)  

Girisha Fernando is a music producer, songwriter and bass player, settled in Germany. You can learn about his artistic work on his website. He has a recording studio in the old town of Augsburg (Offshore Studio7). And he is a curator of music, as described on his website, “within the genres of world music, spiritual music, jazz and contemporary pop; artistically ambitious yet always with an eye to an audience”. Girisha works for several events and the one in which we focus here is the Festival der Kulturen, of which he has been curator since 2011 and artistic director since 2018. 

Girisha introduced the festival to us like this:

“The Festival der Kulturen is an annual 2-3 day festival for international contemporary music / world music in the historic city of Augsburg, Germany. It is an independent part of the Programme of the Grand Peace Festival and is staged by the Cultural Office of the City of Augsburg.

Aimed at reaching out and challenging a diverse audience from all walks of society with unfamiliar music and sounds, the programming is focused on winning over the listener through sheer musical force.

Artists to have performed include Seun Kuti & Egypt80, Taraf de Haidouks, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Konono No1, the Portico Quartet, Yasmine Hamdan, Tamikrest, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino, Vieux Farka Toure, Dakhabrakha, Kocani Orkestar, Emel Mathlouthi, Bombino, Ibibio Sound Machine, Ebo Taylor and the Warsaw Village Band besides the participation of local musicians and associations.”

Right now, Germany is under the heavy burden of the pandemic, with restrictive measures again. I hope that next Summer Girisha and the public will be able to see the artists of the Festival der Kulturen on the stage in Augsburg. In the meantime, let’s learn more directly from him.
—

Mapamundi Música (MM) – I have learnt from you that the festival started in 2008 and you became the artistic director in 2011. How did you get hired for this? 
Girisha Fernando: I had some ideas, submitted a concept and then got hired as music curator for my first few years. As the festival evolved towards its current profile, my role evolved to that of artistic director.

MM – How did your incorporation in the artistic direction change the festival? 
GF: The festival’s profile was sharpened and now focuses more and more on presenting international contemporary world music, reflecting musical developments and the cutting edges between traditional and modern styles.

MM – What do you search for in an artist when you program?
GF: Musical quality, authenticity, originality

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
GF: Introducing new and uncommon music off the beaten track and providing a space for the local and international music community to a growing, interested and diverse audience.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
GF: The usual things, the routing of the bands, scheduling, finances, etc.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
GF: To stay relevant artistically, developing new challenges, new projects, thereby taking one’s audience along for the ride.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
GF: Apart from presenting great music and being able to meet great people, we have also been focusing on developing unique musical projects with international artists and local artists working together, projects for example incorporating the Augsburg Philharmonic Orchestra with artists like Karolina Cicha or Mercedes Peon.

MM – What has happened with the edition of 2020 in the current situation of the pandemic?
GF: Last year we had to first cancel the regular festival, but were then able to stage some smaller concerts in summer. We also produced some cross-border video projects. For 2021 we will have to see and hope for the best!

Credits:

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

INTERVIEW WITH ALEXANDER WALTER, WOMEX’S DIRECTOR

-English edition of the interview originally posted in World Music Lab Italy, by Eric E. van Monckhoven-

Eric offered me to reissue this interview in English and Alexander accepted, so thank you to both of you, guys!

Here on the right you see Alex and the questions below were done by Eric (picture below) for his blog at World Music Lab Italy. Remember I made him an interview about this project that you can find here. Now it is Alex’s turn. And I join him in the wish to meet again in Porto next October!

—-
Credits: WOMEX 20, Digital Edition feat. Budapest Ritmo
17/11/2020, Alexander Walter, WOMEX Director
Interview for World Music Lab, Italy, Eric van Monckhoven

Eric van Monckhoven: What were the biggest challenges in going digital, and how did that decision come into place?
Alexander Walter: The initial plan, of course, was to have a physical event on-site in Budapest. Due to the developments of the pandemic, in summer, we started planning for a hybrid event – involving physical with a digital programme. This hybrid event would allow us to involve our community from parts in the world where it became clear that they would not be able to travel to Europe in October – until the Hungarian government closed the borders for non-Hungarian citizens on 1st September. At that point, the decision was clear; we had to go fully digital. The biggest challenge was to transform the different programme elements into the digital sphere. WOMEX is a “meet and hug” event, and it took countless hours of brainstorming on how to shape things so that they make sense for everyone involved under digital circumstances. Luckily with our long-existing digital platform virtualWOMEX, we already had a structure in place, and with the help of a few extensions and upgrades, it gave the basis.

EVM: How did you make it to coordinate staff and events (Berlin, Budapest?)
AW: The initial plan, of course, was to have a physical event on-site in Budapest. Due to the developments of the pandemic, in summer, we started planning for a hybrid event – involving physical with a digital programme. This hybrid event would allow us to involve our community from parts in the world where it became clear that they would not be able to travel to Europe in October – until the Hungarian government closed the borders for non-Hungarian citizens on 1st September. At that point, the decision was clear; we had to go fully digital. The biggest challenge was to transform the different programme elements into the digital sphere. WOMEX is a “meet and hug” event, and it took countless hours of brainstorming on how to shape things so that they make sense for everyone involved under digital circumstances. Luckily with our long-existing digital platform virtualWOMEX, we already had a structure in place, and with the help of a few extensions and upgrades, it gave the basis.

EVM: How did you make it to coordinate staff and events (Berlin, Budapest)?
AW: We have been planning and working with our local partners, Hangvető in Budapest, throughout the year, which helped us enormously to pull off the event so efficiently. Also, since they had hosted us in 2015, they knew what it takes to create WOMEX. Within a short period of time available, and with all social distancing measures, Hangvető organized some concerts and conferences on the ground in our nighttime venue Müpa. Parts of the programme indeed took place live in Budapest and then were streamed into the digital event.

EVM: How do you assess the results and what has been learned?
AW: The overall feedback from our music community was positive. It, of course, is not possible to 100% re-create a physical experience in the digital hemisphere, but it works as a bridge until in-person meetings can be done again. It was nice to see the delegates being active during those days, and the level of interaction was high.

In the meantime, there are plenty of digital tools out there that, with the help of a good IT team, can serve the implementation of intentions and ideas. It certainly is dependent on budget, server capacities and of course internet access, but in theory, almost everything is possible.

EVM: What worked best (films, showcases, conferences, ceremony, online chat possibility, etc.)?
AW: All elements were adopted and well attended. The online conference sessions drew great attention this time, and the virtual showcases were combined with artist interviews that gave a more in-depth insight into the artist’s creative processes and stories. Though of course, the intensity of a live concert is something completely different – streaming and live should not be compared. We also included a chat tool where people could directly get in touch with each other in written form or do video talks. Over the days, more than 20.000 written messages happened via this tool. This year, delegates really appreciated watching the extended film programme – something that during the rush of a physical event does not get the same attention.

EVM: What are the positive takeaways from the digital WOMEX edition?
AW: It is good to do something than cancelling the whole event. It showed that despite the struggle that everyone is facing in the music community right now, there is still a need for getting together and cultural exchange and that people reached out, stayed positive minded and interactive. We were thrilled to see that 1,130 delegates registered to take part.
One other advantage certainly was that we could invite conference speakers that typically would not have had the opportunity or means to travel to a physical event. We could be more inclusive this way. We sincerely hope that everyone will be able to manage these financially challenging times and stay in good health – physically and mentally – until we meet again next year in October in Porto, Portugal.

Credits:

BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • The 1st  annual compilation done by Transglobal World Music Chart will be released by ARC Music very very soon! ? You can preorder it on the website.
  • About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums: Gusle, the Epic Tradition of Serbia (V.A.), Sisyphus by Sofia Labropoulou and Live in Berlin by Barmer Boys.
  • Songlines has released their list of the 50 best albums of the last 5 years. The list is here. Congratulations to everyone! I am personally happy for Daniel Rosenberg, whose project Yiddish Glory is included. How would I like to celebrate in person! 

Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap

OPEN CALLS AND PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

  • Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. The call for artistic projects is open until Wednesday 27 January at 24h. It will take place from 14 to 17 of October 2021. More info and submissions, here.
  • The virtual conference Folk Unlocked, by the Folk Alliance International, will take place from 22nd to 26th of February. I’ve already registered. The complete program seems not to be published yet.
  • It is expected that Creative Europe will open the call for collaboration projects in Spring (postponed from the last Autumn and with the new budget, remarkably increased) but now it is open the application period for residential projects (minimun of 7 days) i-Portunus. The deadline for music projects is 28th of February.
WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

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

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

Magazine #30 December’20 – The power of the human will. MOST Music, Fengaros Festival, Music Before Shabbat and +

Summary ?

  • In depth with MOST Music, bridge for Balkan music
  • Experience again Before Babel Music XP
  • Mini-interview with the team of Fengaros Festival (Cyprus)
  • Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects
  • Open calls, because in spite of everything, life goes on

How are you? I have to confess that I am starting to get emotionally exhausted from this situation although I have great hope for the vaccination. I bring you a story that has lit up my heart today.

I illustrate these words with a photo from this past Sunday. It is in the street in front of the cathedral that señor Justo has been building for 60 years, without any knowledge of architecture and with recycled materials and the money from donations and sponsors. He is now 95 years old and his work is half finished. I don’t think I’ll see him finished in life and the future is uncertain. It is not a cathedral recognised by the Church and has no institutional support, but I would like to think that such a work will not end up collapsing in abandonment.

Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is an example of the power of human will that can serve us all. You can learn about his story and see more pictures of the building (also inside), which looks like it came from a dream, here and here you are a documentary with English subtitles with interviews with señor Justo.

I hope that this story brings you a moment of happiness and that you enjoy the rest of the content, which I find very interesting and also contains examples of dedication and passion, so needed in our reality.

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the global music?

Contact me. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.

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

Subscription is available here. 

IN DEPTH WITH THE TEAM OF MOST MUSIC 

Throughout several previous editions of this magazine I have been sharing some news and interviews with the festivals selected in the MOST Music project (find the links under this interview) and now I have the pleasure of sharing some of the team’s reflections, based on the questions that have come up when I read deeply the website. By the way, the MOST Music website is very detailed and, if you have not visited it, I highly recommend you to do so, both for knowing the project well and for understanding this interview.

Here I will only mention two aspects:

  • MOST Project has four main areas of activity, focused on artists (export), festivals (exchange, and it includes festivals in several regions of Europe), urban policies and management training for emerging professionals.
  • And the activity is focused on the Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo (I copy exactly from their website: This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.
These interview below has been answered by members of the MOST Team: András Sőrés, project manager; Balázs Weyer, programme director.
– – – – –

Mapamundi Música (MM): The project MOST Music is quite complex, involves many participants from four main categories: artists, managers, festivals and institutions. Who had the first idea about this? What was the first objective that he/she wanted to get from this project?

MOST Project team (MPT): MOST Music as a project has been a long time in the making. Members of the consortium have been curating this idea for a long while. The idea started out from V4 and European Capital of Culture projects. Initially partners were applying for funds many times and modifying the project plan according to tender evaluations so that it could realize itself. The first objective is what we have been emphasizing on all platforms: a way for the Balkan world music industry’s untapped potential to be channeled into and better connected with the rest of Europe, where infrastructure is oftentimes better. 

MM: Following the previous question, when did this idea appear in your mind? How was the procedure between this first idea and the design of the complete project? How many profiles have been involved in the design? And during the development, now that it is being done, which are the profiles involved (I mean the team, not the artists, managers, festivals and policy makers that are the participants in the 4 branches)?  

MPT: We applied to Creative Europe four times before the funds were granted. The project plan was modified and expanded according to the detailed feedback that European tenders offer. The fourth version of the tender was accepted.

In terms of project design, you of course know that there are 9 partners in the consortium that’s led by Hangvető, headquartered in Budapest. Leading means that Hangvető takes on project management duties. Otherwise consortium members vote on work teams for each pillar, so that certain partners are responsible for certain pillars. These duties are also rotating, so that each partner will have managed each pillar by the end of the project. Managing a pillar means making executive decisions and deciding on experts involved (such as mentors and trainers).

MM: About the artists part. Every year, 10 artists will be enrolled in this program to receive support and greater visibility. How was the procedure of selection? Is there any jury? If so, who selected the jury and which were the criteria to select them? 

MPT: The selection procedure is decided by a professional jury. Jury members are also involved on a rotating basis from partner organizations. In the first round of MOST Music the members of the jury were Balázs Weyer, programme director of Hangvető, Budapest; Olsi Sulejmani, president of Balkan World Music Management; and Simon Broughton, editor-in-chief of Songlines Magazine.

The selection criteria (apart from citizenship of at least one of the 9 target countries) are as follows:
●    artist’s international potential
●    diversity of selected artists by style, to match the profile of showcase events
●    popularity/artistic quality
●    long-term engagement with the project
●    artist’s basic infrastructure (web, communication…)
●    artist’s local audience size
●    quality of existing audio and video material (technical and artistically)
●    diversity of selected artists by sub-scenes in world music (e.g. sevdah, brass bands, etc.)
●    diversity of selected artists by gender
●    diversity of selected artists by geography

MM: In the current selection of artists there are no artists from Albania, Croatia, Montenegro or North Macedonia. Of course, this has been the first round of selection and in future rounds they may be. But this arose some questions about this:
1.    Did you receive applications from those countries? Albania and Croatia, for instance, have musical styles that are recognized by the UNESCO as immaterial legacy. Didn’t you have applications?
2.    If you didn’t have applications from those countries or if you had very few ones, which do you think are the reasons?
3.    As with the artists, has it happened the same with the call for management training?

MPT: We had open calls in all the countries listed here, so the reason why one or the other might not be represented in a certain pillar is that there weren’t any or a lot of applicants from them. We have participants from Croatia and North Macedonia in other pillars, such as Management Training and Festival Exchange. However, Albania and Montenegro were hard for us to reach, we had very few applications altogether. In Montenegro one hardship was that we did not have a partner with their local network to help us spread the word. But all in all, we must certainly work on our communication in those regions in future rounds.

MM: About the part of urban policies, you mention “Projects will then be presented by the tandem (urban creative + policy maker)”. So, I understand you will involve policy makers. Let me see if I understand well. Would those be, for instance, the councillor of culture of a city? I mean, they are real politicians or people assigned by politicians, that can make real decisions, aren’t they? I think so, as you mention that “winning initiatives will be implemented in their respective cities.” How did you get the engagement of those people? Are they guaranteeing some budget from their cities to develop the winning initiatives?

MPT: We are only starting up MOST Music and the environment we planned it for was for a very different normal, so please excuse me, but I can only answer in terms of our goals, plans, and hopes, and not in terms of anything that has already been actualized.

Our goal is to involve real decision-makers: politicians, municipalities, local governments, and more. We hope that such connections between creative industry professionals and decision-makers will bring a certain openness and sensitivity to the situation of creative professionals.

MM: About the budget, the project is co-funded by Creative Europe. Can you tell me the overall budget? Which were the other co-funders?  

MPT: The overall budget is 4 million Euros, half of that is provided by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme (2 million Euros). The rest of the funding was raised by partner organizations and varies from country to country. 

MM: So far, apart from the emergence of the pandemic, that has made you change some activities to an online environment, did any other event or new idea arose that made you rethink any of the activities planned? 

MPT: Online activities are currently happening in three pillars – we just finished a week-long online training in the Balkan Music Exchange pillar and are currently in the process of training Urban Creatives and Management Trainees, both are longer, less time-intensive training programmes. Of course one key element of this whole programme is networking and making professional connections – this is not impossible per se, but it’s certainly not as natural as it could be if we could meet up in real life, as originally planned. We are making every effort to substitute these offline connections in online ways, and to bring in new opportunities for participants to meet and network, such as providing them passes to virtualWOMEX, and more.

Previous interviews about festivals included in MOST Music project are available: 

Note that some of these interviews are from before the start of MOST Music and before the pandemic.

EXPERIENCE AGAIN BEFORE BABEL MUSIC XP

As announced previously, Before Babel Music Xp took place in online format, on days 26 and 27 of November. They have now released the conferenfes in shape of podcast. Find them here.

I participated in a round table: New collaborations and solidarity for professionals relaunching their careers. Here below you see the moderator, Ludovic Tomas, and me with the other participants: Birgit Ellinghaus, Umair Jaffar, Emad Mabrouk and Amobé Mévégué.

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CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS 

In this occasion, we travel to Cyprus, to talk with the team of the Fengaros Festival.

MINI INTERVIEW WITH MARIA KAIMAKLIOTI, ANDREAS TRACHONITIS & LEFTERIS MOUMTZIS FROM THE FENGAROS FESTIVAL (CYPRUS)

 

The Fengaros Festival takes place since 2011 in Kato Drys, a village with less than 150 inhabitants in the district of Larnaca, Cyprus, and combines a festival with concerts and an educational project called “Music Village”. 

Mapamundi Música (MM) – What do you search for in an artist when you program?

Fengaros Festival team (FFT) –  Besides music that catches our attention, Fengaros Festival – especially the festival founders, Lefteris Moumtzis and Andreas Trachonitis, particularly look for artists that play very well live, have entertaining and sophisticated stage presence and whose music is authentic and unique. This might not be whatever is mainstream according to western media.

We want to also provide a platform for local Cypriot acts and while we encourage all Cypriot acts to get in touch with us, one of our criteria is to see that the local acts are thinking about long-term plans for their career. We try to learn about more local acts by watching them and meeting them at live shows.

We started Fengaros Music Village in 2014, three years after Fengaros Festival was founded. FMV takes place one week ahead of the festival and is a series of workshops that allows for participants to meet each other, jam together, and potentially form new bands. We’ve booked a good handful of acts that were formed from Fengaros Music Village (FMV), or took off after FMV, or that came to our attention at the workshops in the past. We also think about the festival audience a lot. We understand that there is heavy reliance on the Greek music scene, however one of our goals is to unravel this and also create partnerships with the surrounding region. We know how our audience reacts to various genres and we are in a happy position where the audience is challenged but at the end of the day, they trust the festival.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
FFT – Our main objective is to produce a festival with acts that we want to show to our audience and that we believe is important for Cypriots to hear. Another important goal is to produce a festival that fits and reflects our identity. Our festival does not try to copy the many fantastic festivals abroad. It’s impossible because of the many unique aspects that come into play simply by being a festival in Cyprus. We are an island; our culture and experiences have overlaps with the west and east; it’s extremely hot in the summer… Every aspect of Fengaros reflects this unique position, including the lineup, festival grounds and administrative procedures. So an important goal is to showcase this unique perspective, offer something that is not necessarily presented by the radio and mainstream media, and create reminders to embrace many aspects of Cypriot experiences, such as rural landscapes and interesting locations.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
FFT – A difficulty is dealing with local policies and funding opportunities. Most of the limited institutions in Cyprus are still very much in development and require intense pushing towards arts policies that make sense and that are formulated by those with experience in arts, international festivals and tourism.
A second issue is travel – flight tickets are expensive to Cyprus, not to mention the environmental cost.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
FFT – Apart from economic hurdles, our main goal is being able to sustain the trust and attention that our audience has for Fengaros. It’s important to expose the audience to our entire programme.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
FFT – Fengaros is three days of living in a traditional Cypriot village discovering new experiences every turn you take, all the while being surrounded by music and artists that seriously believe in the power of music.

MM – What has happened with the edition of 2020 in the current situation of the pandemic?
FFT – Although there were not any official laws against festivals in the summer, we decided in the springtime to postpone our festival to July 29-31 2021. Cases were between 0-10 each day in July 2020 and we were able to go ahead with safely hosting our series of workshops at Fengaros Music Village although with slight changes in our instructors lineup. This turned out to be hugely successful and we had double our usual turnout, even with many precautionary restrictions in place! We are now planning an online edition of Fengaros for early 2021 that will showcase Cypriot acts to local and international audiences. Stay tuned!

Credits:

  • The portraits are provided by the team.
  • The banner is from the website of the festival.
  • The landscapes are from the festival’s Facebook page.
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BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums Wiązanka by Wowakin, Silver Sanctuary by Zedashe and At Royal College of Music, Stockholm by Akkarai Sisters.
  • Transglobal World Music Chart has moved the annual charts to September, but some news will come soon.
  • Our colleagues from World Music Charts Europe have announced their list for 2020, and it is available here. They have recently made a big change, passing the management to Radio Proglas, in Brno, Czech Republic, with Milan Tesař as the new coordinator.
  • The Songlines Awards for 2020 have been announced this last Sunday and the show is available in their website. The winners this year are: Best Artist: Bassekoy Kouyaté, Best Group: Cimarrón, Africa: Blick Bassy, Americas: Leyla McCalla, Asia: Jambinai, Europe: Lankum, Fusion: Kefaya + Elaha Soroor, World Pioneers Award: Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela, Newcomer award: Elaha Soroor.
  • After one year of one weekly email of Music Before Shabbat and hosting the editions inside the website of Mapamundi Música, I decided to launch a new website for this initiative. The last Friday, www.musicbeforeshabbat.com was launched, with all the editions and the new one, for Shabbat of Hanukkah. 

 

Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap.

OPEN CALLS

  • The Afro Pepites Show 10th edition. Since 2009 the Afro Pepites Show connects artists to professionals and fans of African cultures. The call for artistic projects is open until 15 january 2021. This time it will be online. More info and registration, here.
  • Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. The call for artistic projects is open until Wednesday 27 January at 24h. It will take place from 14 to 17 of October 2021. More info and submissions, here. 

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

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

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

 

Magazine #29 November’20 – Thrilling experience by Kajsa Bacos, festivals Kamičak Etno & Hillside, Mundial Montreal & before-Babel Music XP and +!

Summary ? 

  • A relevant date for our community (and a reason to be more than proud for me): before-Babel Music XP.
  • A thrilling experience facing the pandemic with live music, by Kajsa Bacos from Kulturverket Onsjö.
  • Mini interviews with festival manager: Anđela Galić from Kamičak Etno Festival and Samir Baijal from Hillside Festival (continuing the series of interviews about challenges for festivals and about MOST Music participants)
  • News from the charts and sister projects
  • What’s next? Mundial Montreal and before-Babel Med XP!
How are you? I hope well. I am not quite happy. My toilet has been flooded due to a breakdown, in a way that I thought that happened only in the films. I am soaked and I am waiting for the plumber… In the meantime, I got to close the water valve and I don’t have water in the house and, did you know? We are in the middle of a pandemic ?
.

However, life goes on and during the rest of this month there are some exciting events to pay attention to and interesting colleagues to learn from.

.

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the global music?

Contact me. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that during the reading you can listen to some great music by our artists collaborators –>

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

Subscription is available here.

BRIEFTLY, A RELEVANT DATE FOR OUR COMMUNITY

In the latest editions the rebirth of Babel Med, now Babel Music XP, have had some place. I am happy to remind you once more that the before-Babel will take place online on 26 and 27 of November and I will happy particitipate in a round table: New collaborations and solidarity for professionals relaunching their careers. It will be moderated by Ludovic Tomas and I will share the table with Birgit Ellinghaus, Umair Jaffar, Emad Mabrouk and Amobé Mévégué. What a pleasure.


By the way, if you want to learn more about me, check the interview that Erick van Monckhoven made me for his World Music Lab Italia. Remember I made an interview with him in this previous edition. I am pleased that he found my insights interesting and I opened totally.

And the interview announced in the previous edition, with Noam Vazana in her project Why Do it Yourself Music, is available here. We talked more than one hour and it was really fantastic! I felt such an easy communication with this wise lady!

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THE EXPERIENCE OF KAJSA BACOS FROM KULTURVERKET ONSJÖ (HALMSTAD, SWEDEN)

In the latest edition I asked if any of the readers would like to share their experiences of the last months in dealing with the pandemic and the activity of live music and Kajsa Bacos (her portrait is from her profile at Womex website), from Kulturverket Onsjö, in Halmstad, in the province of Halland replied with this experience:

“From April to August we closed down completely. We planned Summer concerts in July but when the rain poured down for 2 weeks we gave that up. We can seldom trust the weather, so it is difficult to plan outside concerts.

In September we started with concerts. We have a small place and 50-60 persona are the maximum. 45 feels full. So we decided to use our funding thus: Instead of one concert with 2 sets (1,5 hour), we had two concerts with one set (60 minutes). The musicians had an hour to rest and eat in between.

“It was a success. People who have been isolated for long, who can’t even go shopping, came.” 

We told the audience that for the first concert only risk group persona were welcome. And only 15 people for each concert. That is 70 + or persons with an underlying condition. The response was big, so we ended up with two concerts for the risk group.It was a success. People who have been isolated for long, who can’t even go shopping, came. We can do this for our venue is not commercially driven, our funding pays for the music.

This way, we keep people happy, we use the funding that either could be paid without the musicians playing or we could pay it back to the government, the musicians are really happy to meet an audience, we show that we still do good work, and we keep our cooperations running, and our network intact. We can’t just give up while we wait for better times. 

“We have to work, musicians have to play. People who come here are really good at keeping a social distance. We just have to learn to adjust. And continue.” 

We have many times organized events for marginalized groups like children, immigrants etc. In Western Europe today we have more and more old people and because of the pandemic they are marginalized. We need to keep their spirits up also. They can’t see their families, go places, go to dinners. I planned carefully so they arrived in separate groups 10 minutes apart so there was no queue. They came in through one entrance and the musicians came in another. I desinfected all handles, put chairs 1,5 metres apart. And if I didn’t know somebody, I interviewed them on their lifestyle. If they had been at a social event recently they couldn’t come.

We have to work, musicians have to play. People who come here are really good at keeping a social distance. We just have to learn to adjust. And continue.

No musician has been indefinitely cancelled, we have just postponed ther concert. There is a life after corona.”

Thank you very much, Kajsa!!! 
This is the Kulturverket place, from Google Maps Street View:

 

CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS 

In this occasion, we have two interviews: about Kamičak Etno Festival, from Croatia (that continues the series of festivals included in project MOST) and about Hillside Festival, from Canada. I really hope they can retake their usual shape soon. To attend a concert or festival, gathering together with people you don’t know, but that are willing to share a emotional experience, is inimitable. It is a ritual, from the moment you chose the clothes you will wear. Or even from before. I am thanksful to Kajsa, Anđela and Samir and so many people that are keeping the flame alive in this time of added dificulties.


MINI INTERVIEW WITH ANĐELA GALIĆ FROM THE KAMIČAK ETHNO FESTIVAL (SINJ, CROATIA) 

 

The third edition was planned to be held on days day 21 and 22 of August at the 18th century fortress of Sinj, in Croatia. This edition included concerts by Croatian, Argentine, Serbian, Macedonian, Bosnian and Irish artists, traditional crafts made by local producers and gastronomic local specialties.

The edition of this year had to be cancelled and although some things will have to be rethought, the festival is included in MOST Project and planned to come back in 2021. Anđela Galić, organizer of the festival, shares their insights and vision.

Mapamundi Música – What do you search for in an artist when you program?

Anđela Galić –  We are looking for creative, talented, individuals or groups whose music grows out of a certain musical tradition but at the same moment brings contemporary approach to its interpretation. Kind of music that brings interesting fusion of styles and stays in your ears for a long time.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
AG – We want to profile our Festival as one of the best world music festivals in Croatia, but also in the wider Balkan region. Our goal is to make Sinj (Croatia) and Kamičak Ethno Festival a recognizable festival gem where you can hear great performers from all around the world.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
AG – The most complicated and difficult part is to provide enough funds, which implies constant engagement on the application of the festival to various funding tenders. Also the hard part is the fact that if you want to orginaze good festival you need a lot of planning and organization, which means involvement of many people, in our case volunteers, without whom the realization of the Festival would not be possible.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
AG – Due to the epidemiological situation it is difficult and uncertain to plan ahead. Anything that involves complex organization and engagement of international artists is considerably aggravated at the moment. The whole situation is extremely unpredictable for all involved in music industry and requires quick adaptation to new circumstances.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
AG – Excellent music in beautiful ambience of historic fortress at the top of the city with a view of the entire Cetina region, are just some of the reasons to visit Kamičak Ethno Festival. Plus, great fun is guaranteed.

MM – What has happened with the edition of 2020 in the current situation of the pandemic?
AG – Sure, except from canceling the last edition, we have to think about alternatives for next edition, so we are considering limiting the number of visitors or organizing festival only with local performers.

Credits:

  • The portrait of Anđela is provided by herself.
  • The logo is from their facebook site
  • The aereal picture is from the website of the festival
  • The picture of the concert is from the facebook site (concert by Patrick Walker Trio at the edition of 2019)

MINI INTERVIEW WITH SAMIR BAIJAL FROM THE HILLSIDE FESTIVAL (GUELPH, CANADA)  

 

I am sure you will agree with me in the idea that it sounds like magic: to spend three days of Summer in an island in a lake in Canada, full of music, with a program in which diversity of culture, of musical heritage and style, of age, geography and influence is a guiding line. This is what the Hillside Festival state about itself on the website. It helds two editions, the Summer one and also another, in February.

This year the Winter edition was normal but the Summer one had to take an alternative shape: Homeside 2020. Samir Baijal, the artistic director, explains more about the festival in general and about this special edition too.

Mapamundi Música – What do you search for in an artist when you program?
Samir Baijal –  Once I appreciate that they are a skilled and strong live artist, it is always about trying to picture them on one of our stages. We program all kinds of music and our audience is very open to new artists and form all around the world so I think of how they will respond. I look for performers who can have a strong connection to the audience and in most case willing to collaborate with other artists at the festival.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
SB – Typically, it would be the weather gets harsh as we on an island outdoors.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
SB – Maintaining a festival that is non-commercial that has strong values and environmental/sustainable practices – hence also maintaining a unique identity in a very competitive market. But right now it is enduring the period of the pandemic when we are not able our regular event(s) and revenue is not possible.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
SB – A family friendly festival in a beautiful setting, that challenges the audience to check their tastes at the gate and with more than just music.

MM – What has happened with Hillside Festival 2020? I think you were able to make the February edition normally, but for the Summer edition, you reshaped it for an online format. How was it? 
SB – We called it Hillside Homeside 2020. It went better than we expected, the event was completely free to view and what we noticed the most is how much the audience appreciated us offering this presentation. It felt very personal and I think that it was a sense of connection between our patrons and our festival during a very challenging and unprecedented time.

MM – How did you shape the experience of the attendants?
SB – This was to be our 37th year, so we had a series called 37 songs where 37 artists offered a personalized recording of a song and monologue/message to the Hillside viewer. There were virtual workshops on everything from yoga to cooking and also links to our craft and food vendors – we had some archival footage with current day interviews (called Now and Then). We used the same different stage template as if it were on site.

MM – How did you get their engagement? 
SB – We had our mailing list, newsletter and media gave a lot of coverage that it was happening.

MM – Any positive insight of this reshaped edition, that you could even keep for future editions when the pandemic ended?
SB – I think we would put more attention on more specific archiving and look at showing these during the year.

Credits:

  • The portrait of Samir is from his profile at Womex
  • The logo is from their facebook site
  • The aereal picture and the picture of the workshop are from the website of the festival
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NEWS FROM THE CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

  • In the previous edition I announced that Transglobal World Music Chart turned 5 years old. I am happy to announce now that the compilation album The Best of Transglobal World Music Chart 2020, will be released by ARC Music in January. Follow our Facebook and visit our website of News to be updated and learn more. And during the last weeks we have incorporated new panelists, from Brazil, UK, Cuba and India.
  • About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the last albums by Niqolah Seeva, Kaito Winse and The Rheingans Sisters. For some weeks now the radio show is been broadcasted in Ràdio Túria, in L’Eliana, Valencia, Spain. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

In spite of everything, we are still in the season of professional dates. 
  • Mundial Montreal. The professional’s platform will be working from tomorrow to day 28th. Yesterday I decided to sign up and the true is that I am quite excited! 
  • Before Babel Music XP. As announced above, it will take place on November 26-27.  I a proudly included in the program. Remember that there is an interview with Olivier Rey from Babel Music XP, here.

WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

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

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

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

 

Magazine #28 October’20 – Mera Festival, World Music Lab Italy, a success story and +

Summary ? 

  • Mini interviews with festival manager: András Bethlendi from Mera World Music Festival (continuing the series of interviews about challenges for festivals and about MOST Music participants)
  • In deep with World Music Lab Italy, by Eric E. van Monckhoven
  • Transferring the emotion of the contact with the public to an online environment: our experience of Conciertajo, by Vigüela + Mapamundi. – Don’t miss to read this, because I reveal bellow all we did and I am available for any questions – 
  • News from the charts and sister projects
  • What’s next?

How are you? Until not so many weeks ago I was planining to be in Budapest right now. You too? Instead, I am in my confined city, Alcorcón. This is the week of Womex, a special moment in the year, after Fira Mediterrània. Very sad in these circumstances ?

However, life goes on and, before paying attention to other colleagues’ iniatives, in this edition I illustrate this editorial not with a portrait of me, but with a moment of the Conciertajo, the online live interactive event we made last Saturday with Vigüela for International Labour Organization. Click the picture to see the event. It has been a thrilling success that deserves to be explained in more detail ✌️. I reveal it all for you more below.

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the global music?

Contact me. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that during the reading you can listen to some great music by our artists collaborators –>

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

Subscription is available here.

CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS 

This festival that is our focus today is also included in the project MOST, about which I talked in a previous issue. Other interviews with festivals involved in this project are:
And from before, they were also interviews these directors of festivals also included in MOST:

MINI INTERVIEW WITH ANDRÁS BETHLENDI FROM THE MERA WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL (MERA, ROMANIA) 

You’ll see below an aerial image of the location of Mera World Music Festival, in the Romanian location of Mera, very near to the airport of Cluj-Napoja. I think that picture includes around 1/4 of the village. It is a very little village that you can visit right now in Google Maps street view ?. I am writting this words from a confined city, at least until next Friday. I have never been there in the flesh and I think it is really appealing, a festival that has a global focus and that, at the same time, enhances the value of the local culture, which music is distinctive and captivating.

As the world overcomes this situation, let’s talk to András about their festival, how it has been affected, and let’s wish they will be able to make a full edition in 2021.

Mapamundi Música – What do you search for in an artist when you program?

András Bethlendi –  Méra World Music Festival is an international world music festival with an acknowledged focus on local music. Therefore, on one hand, we are looking for local artists who can play the traditional music from Transylvania or Romania, on the other hand, we are looking for artists from abroad who can play authentic folk music or music inspired from their local musical traditions.

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
AB – We have multiple universal objectives. On the international level, we try to show the rich folk culture of Méra and the region of Kalotaszeg/Țara Călatei to the world. Therefore on this level, we are the global promoters of this region. On a local level, we believe that through our project we can empower the local culture, and we can form the taste of the youngest generation to the benefit of the local community and culture.

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
AB – We are a small festival with a tiny budget, so it is challenging to find those international artists, who are so much attracted by the magic of our barn stage, that decide to participate in our festival despite the modest fee what we can offer.

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
AB – COVID-19 has changed the rules by which cultural management works nowadays. The biggest challenge is to recalibrate our project in a way which makes possible to organise the next edition.

MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
AB – In Méra World Music while you can get engaged to the local culture of Transylvania in its most pure form, you will also have the opportunity to dance to Latin-American or African beats.

MM – What has happened with Mera 2020 in the current situation of the pandemic?
AB – Because of the global pandemic, the Festival couldn’t be organised in August as we wished originally. Though, in September we organised a lite edition of it, called Méra World Music LITE, with 100 participants per day.

Credits:

  • The portrait of András is one of his facebook profiles, credited to Bethlendi Tamás
  • The logo is from their facebook site
  • The other pictures are from the website of the festival

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

ABOUT WORLD MUSIC LAB ITALY, IN DEEP WITH ERIC E. VAN MONCKHOVEN (MUSIC4YOU)

Eric is a Belgian settled in Sicily, founder of the agency Music4you. He is one of the regulars at Womex and other events, so you might have met him.

The last time we met was in Brussels at the meeting of the European Folk Network, last November. He is the kind of profile with whom I can feel more or less identified: an independent agent working from a country of the South of Europe facing many difficulties and surpassing them with courage.

He contacted me in July with the idea of translating some of the content from Mapamundi Música’s monthly newsletter into the Italian in his new initative: World Music Lab Italy. I welcomed the idea with open arms and the first one has been the interview with Olivier Rey from Babel Music XP, that you can read here in English and now also here in Italian.

I am very happy that Eric wanted to share this content to make it easier for the Italian community of world music. And I though his World Music Lab Italy deserves more attention too. So find here below a little interview about it.

Mapamundi Música – What is WorldMusicLab?
Eric Van Monckhoven – World Music Lab is a combination of two concepts: World Music & Business Lab. Many artists, including those involved with world music (world, folk, roots, trad, ethnic, etc.), do not see their activity as a business. They don’t easily understand that accepting to become an entrepreneur or making a living with their music shall not automatically transform them into greedy capitalists. Very few artists make a living being only “creators”.
If you’re not sponsored by someone or some institution, you need to access the market, distribute your products and services and sell them to be able to pay your bill at the end of the months. This is an integral part of today’s musician job. You can always dream that a label or an agent shall make the work for you, but this will not happen easily, unless you already have some reputation. And when it happens, if you don’t know anything about contracts, sales, production, etc. you might go the wrong way.
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“Many artists, including those involved with world music, do not see their activity as a business.”

The main idea behind World Music Lab is to help artists become their own bosses, get acquainted with the business side of their activity and be able to create a blueprint that works for them. For us this means “education and training”.World Music Lab is still a very small baby. We have to assess the artists’ needs, and also test and validate the idea and concept. It all starts with Italy because I’m based in Sicily.

Mapamundi Música –  Why did it start?
EVM – It started during the covid-19 crisis. In March, I was in lockdown and I saw that I could not go anywhere with my activity as a booking agent. I had to look into a new direction that was not too far from what I’m doing as an agent. By experience, I know that artists do not get proper training in “musician business”. Most of the time, they have good artistic proposals (not always), but they don’t know how to market and sell them. In the end, much of my job has to do with coaching the artists with whom I’m collaborating, give them a blueprint to develop their career, and help them get to the next level.

In Italy, very little is done in such a direction. Of course, I might be wrong because I’m not involved that much with the music sector in Italy. But it looks to me that music schools do not train artists in the music business. There are some master courses at the university level, etc. but the approach is very academic and it’s not for everyone. I’ve always been interested in capacity building and action-learning. Action-learning tackles problems through a process of first asking questions to clarify the exact nature of the problem, reflecting and identifying possible solutions, and only then taking action.

“Much of my job has to do with coaching the artists with whom I’m collaborating, give them a blueprint to develop their career, and help them get to the next level.”

Italy is a big country and there is no true effort to support music creators at large. Some music genres are supported, but when it comes to world music, much is left to the artists themselves and the private initiative. Nothing to compare with what happens in France or Scandinavia, to say something.The year 2017 saw the birth of Italian World Beat (IWB), a new brand and platform to promote the Italian world music sector, in particular at regional and international events like Babel Med Music, Womex, Visa for Music, etc. The idea came from two music professionals who put their own money, contacts, and experience in the project to bring under one roof artists, festivals, venues, labels, etc. representative of the sector. The result was amazing and highly welcome by the international world music community.

However, much work still needs to be done in Italy to strengthen the sector, especially at the “grassroots” level with the artists. World Music Lab-Italy can be seen as a startup project of IWB, even if we have not formalized it yet because of the situation of emergency imposed by the novel coronavirus. But we shall meet soon and see what steps can be taken together to put the project forward.

Mapamundi Música –  What are the services that you offer?
EVM – At this pre-startup stage, we are offering a basic information service through our blog/website (beta version) and facebook page. We also have a monthly newsletter and we have published two mini-guides: the first one deals with the use of VirtualWomex and the second one is introducing the artists to the European showcase festivals, which are good places to market themselves, grow their list of contacts, etc. All the information is available in Italian because the use of English is a real barrier for many Italians.

Mapamundi Música –  What are the future plans?
EVM – We hope to become a training provider for world music artists (both online and offline), with a specific focus on business and digital education, and internationalization (music export). This of course does not mean that we’ll need to create all the courses and learning paths ourselves. We’ll have to build working partnerships with various stakeholders. There are already a lot of valid contents available on the internet produced by artists and professionals on how musicians can run their own business and benefit from various income streams. Here again, the main issue is the language. Most of what is available is in English.

“We’ll have to build working partnerships with various stakeholders.”

But without looking so far, our future plan is to run some workshops in various Italian cities to discuss the project with the potential beneficiaries, scout their needs, collect their ideas, and check their interest. We had planned to run such workshops earlier this year but the covid crisis has forced us to slow down our enthusiasm. And while many things can be done online, I believe strongly in face-to-face meetings.

We are also working on a short introductory course that shall explore some important issues: how the music industry is changing in the digital age? What does that mean for independent artists? How to build a personal brand? How to find a niche and grow a fanbase? Based on the participation in the introductory course, artists could choose to enter a kind of startup acceleration program or more conventional blended education programs on specific topic (music marketing & promotion, production, etc.).

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Mapamundi Música –  Who are you and what else do you do (related to music)?
EVM – I’m originally from Belgium but I feel to be a citizen of the world. For almost 40 years I have helped local communities, social enterprises, non-profit organizations all over the world as an eco-social consultant and grant writer.

Besides that, I have always had a strong passion for music. But I’m not a musician. In every country I visited – in Africa, the Mediterranean, Finland, Canada, Brazil, Indonesia – I’ve been impressed by the diversity and richness of local cultural and musical traditions. I decided to bring my own contribution and started Music4You to promote some artists with whom I have a special feeling and affinity and find them gig opportunities. My motto is “Live Music with Roots”. Of course, this was before Covid-19.

Credits:

  • Portrait of Eric, provided by him
  • World Music Lab Italy logo, from the site at Facebook
  • Banner from the Facebook cover of Musci4you
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TRANSFERRING THE EMOTION OF THE CONTACT WITH THE PUBLIC TO AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT: OUR EXPERIENCE OF CONCIERTAJO, BY VIGÜELA + MAPAMUNDI

In the previous edition I talked about our plan for this online event, Conciertajo.com. It has been part of LaborArte festival, by the Spanish office of the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

It took place the last Saturday and I think it was a success in various aspects. The main one is that we got to transfer the emotion of the direct contact with the public, to an online environment. How did we get that? There are several features that allowed us to get that:

  • For one month we developed the engagement of the public. We provided them several ways for the participation in the creation of the lyrics. We have been publishing special videos done with lyrics that were sent by the followers or that have been created about the topics that are relevant for them (confinement, health workers, masks, the situation of the cultural workers, the shocking news about our crown…). Check the videos here.
  • We made a contest of stories. The one that won is a portrait of Andrés José, a Colombian immigrant in Valencia, who ends up working as a delivery man on a bicycle to support his family (parents and two younger sisters). The first day he works on that, his little sister is very happy because he comes back home very early: his bicycle has been stolen. Juan Antonio Torres made it in shape of a romance with the zambomba. Check it here.
  • Some more videos were made for media friends, like WorldMusicCentral and Mundofonías.
  • During the event I was presenting, explaining the band the requests and comments from the chat and chatting with the public.
  • Of the repertoire for an event of two hours it was prefixed only the 4 first pieces and the very last one. Between that, that band sang about the topics that the public was asking, using the traditional styles (jota, several variants of fandango, seguidilla, son). For this, we prepared more than 100 new couplets organiced in the main topics of our nowadays and of the field of world of ILO. And the band decided the specific style to apply to those lyrics in that very moment.
  • All this was accompained by a campaign of advertisements in Youtube, Facebook, TikTok and Spotify.
  • The technical part was very professional, the responsible of video was Jaime Massieu and the sound engineer was Toni Quintana. The location is so nice that it looks like a ethnography museum but it is not: it was Juan Antonio Torres’ house in El Carpio de Tajo.

NEWS FROM THE CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS

Some brief news from some of the world music charts:

  • Transglobal World Music Chart turns 5 years old! Happy birthday to my partners, founders and administrators, Juan Antonio Vázquez and Ángel Romero! And thanks and congratulations to all the panelists! We are 59 people, quite diverse, I think. Nevertheless we have the objective of increasing that diversity, specially from the regions that are still underrepresented.
  • A big change is announced from World Music Charts Europe. After so many years of work, Johannes Theurer passes the baton to Milan Tesař, music director in Radio Proglas, from Brno, in Czech Republic. Congratulations, Milan! 
  • Balkan World Music Chart is now in Facebook. Visit the site here.
About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the last albums by Sandeep Das & The Hum Ensemble, Dembo Konte & Kausu Kuyateh and Yukihiro Atsumi. For some weeks now the radio show is been broadcasted in Radio Universidade de Coimbra, in Portugal. It is a big joy to reach more friends in my beloved Portugal. 

WHAT’S NEXT?

Yes, this is the week of Womex so you are more than aware. More dates to write down:

  • On 5th November I will participate in Noam Vazana‘s proyect of interviews in the frame of her Why DIY initiative. I am proud for being considered interesting enough to be in this list of interviewed that includes, between many others, Davide Mancini (check also my interview with him about the festival Musicastrada, here), Minna Huuskonen, Martyna Markowska or Balázs Weyer.
  • Mundial Montreal will host a special edition, online too, on November 23-24. It will be the 10th edition of this meeting / festival.  
  • Before Babel Music XP. The previous online event, wishing that the Babel Music XP in flesh will be possible in March 2021, will take place on November 26-27. Remember that there is an interview with Olivier Rey from Babel Music XP, here.
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WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS 

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

We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 49 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

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

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

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

 

Magazine #27 September’20 – Brave answers to our common challenge by AMP Concerts, Sori Festival, charts time and +

Brave answers to our common challenge

How are you? I hope well. In this edition we’ll pay attention to some ways of facing the current challenge for our activities of live music as well as to some interesting dates for our community. 

I am contacting you from El Carpio de Tajo, Vigüela‘s village. Tomorrow, Wednesday 16th, it will be the online opening gala concert of Jeonju Intl’ Sori Festival. For some days we are working in the preparation, making technical checks and rehearsals. 9 bands from different countries and from their locations will play together. Yes, together! Check the details below. This is one of the creative responses to the situation we are facing.

The Spanish office of the International Labour Organization has provided us the chance to make a virtue of necessity. On October 17th we have an online event that will be the culmination of one month of participation of the public in the design of a concert in which the repertoire is created with their direct support. Learn more below too.

Neal Copperman, from AMP Concerts, explains us how they are keeping the activity, with live offline events too. I find their experience very inspiring!

And sadly, WOMEX had to announce the decision of cancelling the on-site event and the change into an online event. I am curious to see what they surprise us with.

Meanwhile, I really miss our old normality. Some drops of hope take place day by day. The new tour Klangkosmos, the first one after the beginning of the pandemic, organized by alba Kultur in North Rhine-Westphalia, is taking place and, so far, it is going well. The band on tour is Haratago, from Iparralde (North Basque Country). You can learn more about Birgit Ellinghaus, director of alba Kultur, on this edition.

Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the global music? Contact me. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that during the reading you can listen to some great music by our artists collaborators –>
–
Araceli Tzigane | info@mundimapa.com | +34 676 30 28 82 
Subscription is available here.
Summary: 
· And more difficult still: 9 artists from 9 locations, playing together for Sori Festival’s gala concert
· Rethinking the program, with Neal Copperman from AMP Concerts
· Our value proposal or how to make virtue from the neccesity. The online event for ILO by Vigüela + Mapamundi 
· Interesting dates
· News from our sister projects

AND MORE DIFFICULT STILL!!! 

9 artists from 9 locations will play together online for the Sori Festival’s Opening Gala. Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 19:40 UTC+9 

This issue of the monthly magazine has as the main topic the bravity of our community when facing the situation that is making our lifes and works so complicated.

This morning I found this picture in Facebook. The team of Sori Festival, in South Korea, are preparing for the online gala concert that will take place on Wednesday. I have been directly involved so I know for how long all this has been organiced to make it possible. 9 artists, from their locations, will play together, listening to each others. It will be not just a succession of performances. The show can be watched from the festival’s Youtube channel.


The artists will be: Khoomei Beat (Tuva Republic, Russia), ESSE-Quintet (St. Petersburg,  Russia), Sebastian Gramss (Germany), Cube Band (Taiwan), Constantinople (Canada, Iran), Vigüela (Spain), Toine Thys’ Overseas (Belgium, Egypt,  Luxembourg, Brazil), Boi Akih Duo (Netherlands), Imran Khan & Naim Khan (India), 2020 Sori Festival Sinawi (South Korea).

RETHINKING THE PROGRAM FOR THE NEW CHALLENGE WITH NEAL COPPERMAN FROM AMP CONCERTS

You might already know Neal Copperman. He is one of the usual attendants of Womex as well as co-director of Globalquerque! for years, as well as director of AMP Concerts, the non-profit organization that has keep going on many activities despite the pandemics, in their state of New Mexico. In this meaningful interview he explaines more about their usual activities and the current ones they are developing in the context of the pandemic. Really thrilling! 

Mapamundi Música: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me Neal. Can you quickly introduce yourself? 

Neal Copperman: It’s always nice to chat with you Araceli. I’m sorry I won’t be seeing you at WOMEX this year!

I’m the founder and executive director of AMP Concerts. We are a non-profit that presents events across the state of New Mexico, in the United States. In a usual year, we put on over 200 events, ranging from free monthly events in the local libraries to large outdoor concerts for 8,000 people. And everything in between. We do not have our own venue and rent spaces of all sizes across the state, whatever makes sense for the event. A third of our programs are free, and we have a nice mix of school programs, workshops and residencies too.

MM: I think in your region the pandemic didn’t affect that much as in other places of the USA, did it?

NC: New Mexico is pretty isolated. With small populations and spread out population centers. And our Governor was once the Secretary of Health for New Mexico. As soon as things started to go South, she took it very seriously and has never let go. Sometimes that is frustrating, but mostly we support her efforts to keep our community safe. We are surrounded by some states with really terrible statistics, like Arizona and Texas. The other good thing about New Mexico is that we can go outside. We have mountains that rise out of my city that I can get to the top of within an hour. I can go on great bike rides.

MM: Despite the situation you have been able to do some nice things, haven’t you? Please, tell us what you’ve been doing during the pandemic.

NC: Obviously none of the things we usually do have been possible since March. We’ve been constantly reinventing ourselves, coming up with new programs and activities to bring music and arts to people virtually, keep local musicians employed and just stay connected with our community.

We started streaming as soon as the pandemic shut down our shows and have presented 20 streaming events. We film them in closed theaters, outdoor spaces and my favorite – the socially distanced neighborhood block party, where audiences watch from their porch, front yard or driveway. The musicians usually live on the same block, so it’s a real gift from the musicians to their neighbors.

We have also produced a community art contest (Art As Antibodies), a series of single song videos in iconic locations around Santa Fe (Postcards from Santa Fe) and we are in the midst of a run of drive-in shows on an equestrian center’s polo field.

HIPICO Santa Fe drive-in concert venue ?

MM: How are you managing to keep the finances alive within the company? Are you managing to make these initiatives profitable or at least, not losing money with them?

NC: That is an excellent question. Sadly, what we are doing is not a viable business model. We think it’s important and we are working super hard to stay active and engaged, but without putting on viable concerts, we don’t have any regular business income.

We successfully grabbed a number of bailout and emergency funding opportunities. The government issued a loan that you don’t have to pay back if you use it all for payroll, so we got that and it was 2.5 months of payroll.

We got emergency grants from a City arts fund and from the National Endowment for the Arts.

We also reached out to some historical funders the first week of the pandemic and said – Look, things are falling apart and no one knows what is going to happen. But we are primed and ready to make interesting things happen in the community regardless of the limitations, and we will pay local artists and keep people employed. Anything you can give us will help us make that happen. And one funder (who had actually cut our funding) gave us $5K, which is what we started with. And the City gave us $12K to do virtual programs.

Some projects cost very little. Like the art competition. We gave out $2,000 in cash prizes, but I think it would have been just as successful had we just given out donated prizes. Beside the $2K in prizes, it probably only cost a few hundred dollars.

We cut staff salaries at the higher levels by 40% and at the lower levels by 10%.

Most of the live streams do not pay for themselves. But we use the money that we raise, alongside audience donations, to help cover the costs.

The Drive-Ins are the most expensive projects. They cost upwards of $15K night. They are not paying for themselves either. However, we would usually do a free concert and movie series all summer. We raise enough money in sponsorships to pay for that project. Since it didn’t happen this year, we asked our main sponsors if we could roll their money into other projects and they have been cool with that.

One of the Postcards from Santa Fe ?

So half of one sponsorship covered the single-song video series Postcards from Santa Fe.

The remaining sponsorships we are using towards the Drive-Ins. We are hopeful that some of the Drive-Ins will pay for themselves. But we are able to make up the difference right now too.

We take donations on top of everything we do, and people have been pretty generous with that.

We have probably paid over $30K to local artists and $10K to local tech people since the pandemic started. I’m pretty happy about that!

I did leave Globalquerque! – the world music festival that I helped found and run for the last 15 years. It wasn’t going to happen this year anyway and I decided to focus my energy full time in making my company be as vibrant as possible during the pandemic and poised to come out the other side once it was done. But that was a bittersweet decision. I might not feel it so much this fall, but I’ll probably feel it a lot more next year!

Reminder of voting time for proyect Art as Antibodies ?
MM: I interviewed Tom Frouge in a previous edition of this magazine about Globalquerque!. Will he continue working on it?

NC: Tom will continue to work on ¡Globalquerque!. He’s now the main person in charge. Before it was just the two of us.

MM: I think our community are people used to facing complications and we are also quite stubborn because we have a strong vision that allows us to pursue our dreams despite the obstacles.

NC: That is totally true! We are dedicated and passionate! And most of our job is problem solving and figuring how to make impossible things happen 🙂

Check also these links related to the conversation:

Credits:
  • The portraits of Neal are provided by himself.
  • Hipico venue, Carlos Medina’s Postcards from Santa Fe flyer, Art as Antibodies flyer, from the Facebook page of AMP Concerts.
**** Do you have a world music festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews? Contact us. ****

 The series of Challenges for the festivals will continue soon

VIRTUE FROM NECESSITY. OUR ONLINE EVENT WITH A TWIST

Technology can be not only a way to reach our audience from a screen but also to engage them in the artistic creation itself. Let me explain you our value proposal for the festival Laborarte.  

For some years, the office for Spain of the International Labour Organization has been doing the festival Laborarte (you can guess it is a game of words with labor -work- and arte -art-) in Madrid. It used to include conferences, concerts and exhibitions.

The director of the office has had in mind for some time to book Vigüela for 2020 its edition. In 2019 the festival didn’t take place. In the picture you see a frame of the 2018 promo video.

Considering the current situation, already in May he asked us a proposal for an online event for Laborarte. But he didn’t want just a concert in streaming. He wanted something else. What? That was his challenge: something online different than a streaming.

We started to reflect on how can we use the technology to strengthen our value proposal, taking into account the artistic possibilities of the music we work with. Popular music that has given the voice to the people by channelling their claims, needs and complaints of their daily life. So let’s give the voice to the people! With this idea in mind we decided to develope three ways of collaboration by the public, two previous and one during the event:

  • Survey to check the most relevant topics nowadays for our public, in the field of labour. We are now dealing with the tele-work, working from home with kids, temporary layoff, physical conditions of isolation at work, 8 hours at work with the mask, reaching the work place by subway during a pandemic… Which are the topics that produce more headaches to our public? The results will feed the band to create new lyrics about the most relevant ones. The lyrics in the music styles of jota, fandango and seguidilla are couplets. In just four verses you transmit a strong idea. 
  • Contest of life stories related to work. In a short text (300 words), any person can submit a life story, real or invented. A professional jury of journalists will chose the best one, that will become a song in shape of romance, the term used for story telling songs in Spanish tradition.
  • During the event, there will be time for performing the results of the previous tools as well as some free time in which the band will improvise about the topics that the public requested in the chat. Musicians has been always at the service of the clients, as in any other profession. Do you want us to dedicate a song to you mom? Do you want us to sing about flirting in mask times? About the Sunday blues? Tell us! 

We have set up the website www.conciertajo.com (Tajo is the river that passes by the village and tajo is an informal way of saying work in Spain) to collect all the infos and participation tools.

Of course, all this is not possible without a band that is open to do any crazy and demanding idea and of an organization like ILO Spain that has trusted us. We’ll find out soon how does all it result ?.

INTERESTING DATES

Hundreds of online events are taking place this season and many are really appealing. For instance: 

  • Arts Midwest + Western Arts Alliance 2020 Conference. October 6-9. Described as “a four-day virtual convening to hear from thought leaders, gather new ideas, connect with colleagues, and map a way forward.” The registration for professionals is open, here.
  • Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. October 13-18. This year it will combine on site and online activities. The registration for professionals is open, here.
  • And, ehem, a moment for self-promotion. On 5th November I will participate in Noam Vazana‘s proyect of interviews in the frame of her Why DIY initiative. I am proud for being considered interesting enough to be in this list of interviewed that includes, between many others, Davide Mancini (check also my interview with him about the festival Musicastrada, here), Minna Huuskonen, Martyna Markowska or Balázs Weyer. 
  • Global Music Month 2020. The team of BU Global Music Festival will host the program of day 1st October, as a part of Global Music Month 2020, “with 19 festivals and presenters from the US and Canada joining together for a month of online celebration of music from around the world, from August 29 to October 1.” So, we are in that month. Check the complete program here. You can read the interview with Marié Abe from the BU Global Music Festival made at the beginning of the pandemic in Europe, here.

NEWS FROM SISTER PROJECTS + CHART TIME

Two brief news from Transglobal World Music Chart of enough interest to share with all the colleagues and friends:

  • A step to break the language barrier by TWMC: “For around three weeks now, if you access the website, it now includes a plugin to translate the website automatically to all the languages included in Google translator. It is very intuitive to use and shows clearly our intention to be open to other languages. The Album Submissions page has also been edited to reflect this approach. Nowadays, technology allows us to resolve this situation, not perfectly but reasonably. We expect that the most internationally-oriented producers will continue communicating in English but now we can also welcome others that don’t have those skills and might be producing musical jewels that wouldn’t reach us if they had to communicate in English.”
  • The Best TWMC albums of 2019-2020 Season are here! Congratulations for the great work, artists, producers, panelists! Check the link to read about the change of period for the annual chart.

About Mundofonías, we have re-started the activity after a break in August and our monthly favourites are the last albums by Khusugtun, Trio Tekke and L’Attirail.

Juan Antonio Vázquez re-starts A La Fuente, for Radio Clásica-RNE, in October. In the meantime, during July-September, his work for that station has been La Ruta de las Especias.

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 49 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

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

Magazine #26 August’20 | Babel Music XP, Mikołajki Folkowe & a life that deserves a movie

Magazine #26 | August’20. Babel Music XP, Mikołajki Folkowe & a life that deserves a movie

How are you? Today it would be my grandmother Manuela’s birthday, August 18th. And I still miss her quite often. Even so, I’m glad she’s not going through this nightmare. They already had their disaster… In Spain we are having upbreaks of the virus, you might now. This picture is 10 days old. Masks were already mandatory all over the country, all the time, but this was done somewhere deserted in Castilla-La Mancha, between two magnificent windmills, with no one around. The municipality is Tembleque, in Toledo province.

The day after the picture, we had the first concert by Vigüela after the start of the situation. It was openair, with control of access, with mandatory masks and hydroalcoholic gel for the hands and paired chairs with distance between them. Beside some rare cases, in Spain the population is following the safety measures. We felt totally safe and the public too. This is how the place looked like before the arrival of the public:

 

We still can do this kind of little events, but the restrictions are increasing. In other countries, like Israel, the restrictions are even bigger: there, they can’t host more than 20 people in the audience.

Today, Tuesday 18th, we are together in El Carpio de Tajo, preparing some things related to the online events we will have in September.

Nevertheless, music doesn’t stop and our community keeps the flame alive with thrilling plans. Read the interview with Olivier from Babel Music XP, the reincarnation of Babel Med, and with Agnieszka from Mikołajki Folkowe. All the good for you!

Remember that you can send any suggestion of content for the next editions. And if you like this, tell me and share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here. 

Thanks for your attention and remember that during the reading you can listen to some great music by our artists collaborators –>

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

Subscription is available here.

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Summary: 
· How is it going to be: Babel Music XP with an interview with Olivier Rey
· Mini interviews with festival manager: Agnieszka Matecka from Mikołajki Folkowe
· In deep with Andrzej Bieńkowski, a life devoted to the dissemination of the traditional music

BABEL MUSIC XP, THE NEW PROFESSIONAL DATE FOR THE COMMUNITY

I call it “new” because, despite collecting the legacy of Babel Med, Babel Music XP has a new vision, a new team and new ambitions. As already mentioned in the previous edition, it will start in two parts: a professional meeting in November 26th-27th and trade fair with concerts in March 25-27th, in Marseille. Olivier Rey, from Dock des Sud, kindly answered our questions. 
Mapamundi Música: What has happened that made this rebirth possible? 
Olivier Rey: A lot of energy and conviction, a new dialogue with institutionnal partner and a new collaboration with Zone Franche.

MM: Why did Babel Med stop?
OR: Probably a lack of understanding with our principal partner, Region Sud, mixed with some political change and decision at this moment. That was the main reasons for the money cuts. In 2017, It was violent for all the members involved in the organisation of Babel Med Music.

“That’s our ambition: to become again a international platform for the music sector, a Mediterranean gate for music exchange”
But we have to say, maybe, the event hadn’t evolved enough. In 2005, Babel Med Music was pioneer – with Womex – in  world music forum. 14 years later, many meetings had grown everywhere with success and music had changed: creativity, tools, business, live, interactions between artists, pros, audience. So Babel Med Music was great to connect all the music family under the same roof (and we want to keep this human atmosphere which is specifical to Babel) but we have now “to upgrade”  the event whith this new context.

That’s our ambition: to become again a international platform for the music sector, a Mediterranean gate for music exchange, to develope economical impact for the world music sector and also to add some new societal contents connected to the musical sphere (innovation, women’s role in the music industry, environmental responsability…).

I have to say that, today, discussions are much more appeased with Region Sud which supports us in this rebirth. We are grateful for this new essential chapter between us.

MM: The name of this initiative is not exactly the same. It was Babel Med, it is Babel Music XP. Has this change of name any transcendental meaning? What is the meaning of “XP”?
OR: We have to mean the change and also to affirm our heritage. So we propose a new experience (XP) of Babel. As we have a much different experience in music. And for many pro in the world, Babel Music is linked with Marseille. So we can be proud of that.

“Past, present and future of music from the world is our credo.”
MM: You have already closed the application period for the showcases. Will the event keep the same artistic line? Babel Med’s offer of showcases was very diverse, with many acts related to the cultures that have been historically connected to France, but not exclusively. There were from totally acoustic and quite traditional performances to miscegenated and electric ones. Will this approach be kept?
OR: Yes, from acoustic to digital music, we want to propose a photography of world music at the instant. Past, present and future of music from the world is our credo.
Same artistic line than Babel Med Music:  open-minded to the world sounds…

MM: I think that many of the selected acts for Babel Med were produced or represented by French companies. Correct me if I am wrong, as I don’t have the data, this is just my insight after the editions I attended so I might be biased. Will Babel Music XP be more open to other countries’ presenters than Babel Med was? 
OR: The selection of bands which have to answer to the call for application. Historically, it was 50% produced or represented by French companies. Today, we have many propositions from Europe, Argentina, Caribean, North African, Mediterranean area, Indian Ocean and Francophonic Africa.  Our project is to work with different musical ambassadors all over the world who can incite local producers to answer to the call for application. That’s a point to expand.
.
MM: Who are the people in the jury for the selection of showcases?
OR: They are artistic directors, programmers of festival, journalists or artists. We’ll publish the list this Autumn. The only thing we can say today is the “honorary patron” for this year is Gilles Peterson. He’s an outstanding headhunter and he’s at the same time DJ, producer, label founder, media… A different approach of worldmusic…
.
MM: What will happen in the pre-edition in November? If the current situation of the pandemic didn’t allow it to be as planned, do you have a plan B?

OR: The pre-edition in november is a particular rebirth with Covid-crisis. All the musical sector have to gather, to discuss and to imagine new collaboration in this context. The Before Babel Music XP must be used for that. In November, we organize professionnal meetings (without stand or forum) and few concerts. In March we’ll find again the fundaments of Babel: international exhibition, stands, agora, meetings and presentations for pros and 30 concerts for pros and general public.

.

MM: Which is the calendar for the next steps? I mean, to register for the events in November, to register for March’s event, to publish the line up of selected artists…
OR: More news in September (and the selection for March will be revealed in November – or at the early December.

.

Credits:

  • The portrait of Olivier is provided by himself and the photographer is Jean de Peña.
  • The banner is their cover picture in Facebook.

**** 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 

And this festival that is our focus today is also included in the project MOST, about which I talked in a previous issue.

MINI INTERVIEW WITH AGNIESZKA MATECKA FROM THE MIKOŁAJKI FOLKOWE FESTIVAL (LUBLIN, POLAND)

For already 29 years, Agnieszka and her team have been developing this festival in the beautiful city of Lublin, at the East of Poland. Remember this city hosts also the Jagiellonian Fair, about which we talked with Karolina Waszczuk and Bartek Drozd in this issue.

I met Agnieszka in person was in Scotland, the last September, at The Visit. I hope they will be able to make a proper celebration of the 30 anniversary, and ephemeris worth celebrating. In the meantime, let’s discover more in her own words.
Mapamundi Música – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 
Agnieszka Matecka: Mikołajki Folkowe is an intimate festival which takes place in December indoors. We can invite no more than 8-10 artists (groups) a year, this is why we choose the performers very carefully so that their music meets the expectations of our audience. Musicians both from Poland and abroad (3-4 bands) perform at the festival. We typically organize concerts on two stages (for 400 and 150 people). At the main Saturday concert there are usually larger and lively bands who play, as we call it, “folk of the centre”. On the other hand, the Sunday concert, on the smaller stage, presents more avant-garde, experimental music.
.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
AM: Mikołajki Folkowe is an interdisciplinary festival. The goal of our festival is to popularize culture, especially traditional music, in a form that is accessible to modern audiences, while respecting in crudo music. Therefore, an important part of the festival is the competition for beginner musicians, to which foreign artists can also apply. We try to follow the idea that folk culture must be alive in order to survive. It cannot be an archaic closed form.We also want to show through workshops that everyone can benefit from folk culture for their own needs. One does not have to be an educated musician, dancer or visual artist.Another goal of the festival is to break down the national prejudices in accordance with a saying “culture is the best ambassador of nations”. Mikołajki Folkowe is accompanied by an interdisciplinary international scientific conference.We also promote handicraft inspired by folk art, through organizing a handicraft fair.
.
MM: What are the most complicated or difficult issues you have to deal with at your festival?
AM: It’s hard to say. After 30 years of work, we have already developed many patterns of conduct. Each year seems different, poses new challenges, but with a well-coordinated organizational team all difficulties can be overcome.
.
MM: What are the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposal like yours right now?
AM: Maintaining the interest of the audience and creating an interesting program, taking into account the financial and spatial capacity of the event.
.
MM: In one sentence, summarize the reasons why you should go to your festival.
AM: Mikołajki Folkowe is almost a family festival. Owing to its date, all people interested in the same cultural phenomenon stay in one building for three days. One can feel an extraordinary bond that develops among the audience.
.
MM: Is this the experience we are experiencing now, the coronavirus crisis, changing your festival in any way (apart from postponing this year’s edition, if so)?
AM: This year’s festival takes place in December (10-13/12) and we still hope it will go on normally. We follow the news about the virus on an ongoing basis and consider various scenarios. In previous years we used to have the program ready before the summer holidays. We are currently waiting for the situation to develop. Will it be a festival with bands from abroad, or a typically Polish edition? How many viewers will be able to take part in the festival and what will happen to revenue from ticket sale? We are also ready for the “virtual variant” of the festival, we plan to broadcast concerts. There are so many unknowns, now there are holidays, but from September we are getting back to hard work. It is a pity that it happened to us just at the 30th jubilee festival.
—-

Thank you very much, Agnieszka! 

Pictures’ credits:
  • Portrait from her FB profile
  • Banner, cover of the Facebook page of the festival

IN DEEP WITH ANDRZEJ BIEŃKOWSKI

Andrzej’s life would be perfect for a film or a novel without having to invent anything. Learn more, here. 

In this occasion the content is not going to be included here. This is just an announcement of the report that is published at the website Culture.pl about and with an interview with a person that devoted his life and made many sacrifices in order to record and disseminate the legacy of the rural music from his country.

I had the luck of visiting Andrzej in his house in Warsaw 3 years ago, when I made this picture.

More recently, my friend Ewa Gomółka made me the big favour to meet him and record his answers to some questions, thought out using the memory of what he had already told me before and with some new curiosities. She made the translation from Polish to English, so you can imagine what a huge work she did.

By the way, the website Culture.pl is an amazing source of information related to Poland and to the events, culture and art of this country that has been in the axis of the hurricane of Europe’s History.

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 49 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.

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

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Magazine #25 July 2020 | 2 years + interviews, news and rebirths

July’20. 2 years + interviews, news and rebirths

How are you? I have just realiced that this initiative of the monthly magazine is becoming 2 years old. This is the edition 25!

The first issue was launched on 17th of July of 2018. At that moment, my Sherezade was here with me, still working before her August holidays (my expectation is to recover her in October). I had just been in Poland for EthnoKrakow with Vigüela and I was leaving to FMM Sines (Portugal) two days later, where Monsieur Doumani would perform.

My commitment with our community has not weakened, I hope this monthly date with interviews and news is useful and inspiring for you. And in the meantime I think my English has improved ?

<– Click the picture to read that first issue.

This Summer, you know… Despite the critical situation that is still present in many places of the world and also the outbreaks that we are having here in Spain, music goes on.

I have just had a confirmation minutes ago of a concert in November with Apa, the beast of the Valencian cant d’estil, and his partners of Citra Trio. Vigüela has a date with the stage in Madrid on 9th of August and some exciting acts are planned for Autumn. Janusz Prusinowski is launching a series of online workshops, recorded and also in real time, about the masters of the Polish music (more info below), Hudaki Village Band are preparing a new video and will retake the rehearsals in Ukraine in August.

On the other side, news about cancelations of festivals are still arriving, but also a thrilling rebirth, of Babel Med, now Babel Music XP, with renewed team, has been announced recently.

Read more about these and other matters below. Remember that you can send any suggestion of content for the next editions. And if you like this, tell me and share it with your friends. 

Thanks for your attention.

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

Subscription is available here.

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Summary: 

· The return of the Marseillaise date: Babel Music XP

· In the quest for the sustainability of the recorded music business, with Edith Lei, from Naxos Music Library + 3 months free trial for the first 3 requests

· Mini interviews with festival manager: Béla Pap, from Örökség Világzenei Fesztivál / Heritage World Music Festival

· In deep with Angie Lemon PR

BABEL MED REBIRTHS AS BABEL MUSIC XP

I think this is a quite long-waited news! Probably you are already aware. Babel Med becomes Babel Music XP, with a totally renewed team and co-produced by Zone Franche, and will start in two parts: a professional meeting in November 26th-27th and trade fair with concerts in March 25-27th, in Marseille. Application period for concerts is open here until 29th of July.

IN THE QUEST FOR THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE RECORD MUSIC BUSINESS, WITH EDITH LEI, FROM NAXOS MUSIC LIBRARY

Our “industry”, let me use this term despite the situation, is facing many challenges. There is one that impacts on all the genres of music: the progressive drop of incomes for artists and producers from the recorded music. In this interview, Ms. Edith Lei, Managing Director at Naxos Digital Services Ltd answers about one of their most ambitious initiative: Naxos Music Library. Note that I announced this interview would be with Ina Schröder instead, who considered these were questions for Ms. Lei. I am really thankful to Ina for the intermediation. 

Hey! Do you want a free 3 months trial for Naxos Music Library? Email me and tell me. The first 3 requests will have it.

Mapamundi Música – For what I know so far, the Naxos Music Library is an archive with more than 2 million tracks of music that the subscribers can listen to in streaming. Who is the client/user for Naxos Music Library? 

Edith Lei – At least 97% of Naxos Music Library (NML) subscribers are institutions or music-related organisations – universities, public libraries, conservatories, schools, orchestras. The other 3% or so are musicians, performing artists, classical music lovers, journalists, critics, radio presenters, music teachers etc.

MM –  Much of your catalogue is Western classical music but there are also many tracks of other kinds of music, like jazz and world music. I think you are interested in including more references. How can a record label include their catalogue in the Library? 
EL – We have subsidiary platforms, one is NML Jazz and the other is NML World. So obviously we take jazz and world music labels too.

There are contracts in place with aggregators, so the first step is to check which distribution partners labels are working with and request content from them. If that is not an option we can look into individual contracts.

Labels with classical, jazz and world music content who want to be part of the NML suite can write to my colleague Helen at Helen.Kwan@Naxos.com

MM –  And the independent artists, can they also include their works in the catalogue? 
EL – This depends on how large their catalogue is. For those who only have a couple of albums with standard repertoire, the amount of administrative work (contracting, reporting, royalties payment etc.) required cannot be justified. If the artist’s intention is to merely make their recordings available on NML so that they can be heard, we can consider taking them under different conditions. 

MM –  What is the return for the producer that has tracks in the Library? For sure you are aware of the critics from the industry of music about the model of return of the most popular music streaming platforms. 
EL – Our per-stream rate for labels is many times more than that from other platforms. Referring to this article on Digital Music in January 2018, Naxos paid $0.05 per stream, while Spotify $0.00397, Apple $0.00783, Amazon $0.0074, Qobuz $0.03816. Though this article is from two years ago, it gives you a general idea on how much each platform pays labels. 

MM – What are your next goals with the Library? 
EL – To expand into countries where we do not have a distributor yet. 

MM – What are the synergies between the Library and Naxos World?  
EL – Naxos Music Library is our flagship platform focusing on classical music, while NML World complements NML and offers world music which is becoming very popular and being studied widely in universities. 

MM – Do you think this model of streaming for subscribers can face the crisis of sales of physical albums? I am sure you have much more knowledge than me in the situation and expectations for the future of the business of recorded music, that’s why I ask you. 
EL – Streaming is now the most widely means to music listening, especially for the young generation. For them, physical CD is not an option. Most of them do not have a CD player.

MM – What is Naxos World doing now? Give me a scoop! 
EL – Under Naxos World we continue to release both very traditional folk music recordings, as well as contemporary and crossover/fusion productions. We are also looking into projects that will bring world music and classical music closer together. 

Pictures’ credits:
  • Ms. Edith Lei and Mr. Klaus Heymann (Founding Chairman of Naxos Music Group) at Naxos XX anniversary gala evening in Hong Kong. From the website.
  • Banner from the 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 

This festival that is our focus today is also included in the project MOST, about which I talked in a previous issue.

MINI INTERVIEW WITH BÉLA PAP FROM THE ÖRÖKSÉG VILÁGZENEI FESZTIVÁL (HERITAGE WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL) (SZOLNOK, HUNGARY)

I know Béla Pap for many years, in the second edition of Without Borders meeting in Varna (Bulgaria), organized by Yasen Kazandjiev. Béla sent me two pictures, the one I used in the previous edition and also these one. If you know him, you know he is the joyful man, cool and lighthearted who teaches about palinka and he also organices a festival in Hungary, in Szolnok, at the heart of the Great Hungarian Plain.

The festival is planned for August 19th-23rd… now with question marks.

MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme? 
BP:  Above all, in the invited artists, we are looking for how instinctively they experience the music they perform, and how they can build on the diverse folk music heritage in order to reach out in an exciting way to the contemporary audiences.It is really important for our festival to engage new talents and see how they can convey their emotions through their music.

 

MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
BP: We aim to present contemporary art forms and genres to young audiences, mostly those that are based on folk traditions in their content and also express the general feelings, experiences of today’s youth and links to the cultural heritage of previous generations.The primary aim is to contribute effectively to the wide-range popularization of the values based upon the folk cultural heritage of Hungary and other nations (among others basically that of the Visegrad 4 and Balkan countries).

 

“Since the very start of the festival, we have firmly believed that one of the bases of understanding and tolerating the social changes and geo-political events taking place in the world is a dialogue between generations.“

 

One of the festival’s primary objectives is involving young children in the events by means of art forms relying on folk traditions, thus motivating family participation and strengthening the links between generations.Since the very start of the festival, we have firmly believed that one of the bases of understanding and tolerating the social changes and geo-political events taking place in the world is a dialogue between generations. By means of the international language of music, the artistic productions of the young musicians building upon the heritage of their ancestors mediate ideas and notions which shared with the audience facilitate to understand the elements of contemporary world vision.

 

MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival? 
BP: As our festival is organised with 25 years of experience, we rarely face challenges we have never encountered before.
The difficulties of finding financial resources, which are reoccurring year after year, are familiar to all professionals – it is boring to talk about, I would say -, but I believe these difficulties are compensated by the realised festival program.

 

MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
BP: The biggest challenge, I think, is that people’s ears are “flooded” by the mainstream information and music offerings that attract large crowds.That is why it is a difficult, but at the same time important challenge to try to reach the current young audience with all the old and new tools and channels, to constantly spread the musical delicacies, and to give as many opportunities as possible to experience the magic of live music (especially world music).Fortunately, we have truly potential allies in this: those contemporary young musicians whose music draws on traditions and combine those with experimental elements to enter the world of quality music creation.MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason/s to go to your festival. 
BP: It is worth coming to the “Heritage” World Music Festival because better and better, fresh music is played almost continuously on two stages for three days, whether Hungarian or foreign artists are playing. Important to note, that apart from the colourful music offer, there is a great variety of Central European food and drink, like a good Hungarian apricot “palinka”, followed by an aromatic freshly sparkling Czech beer, awww… 🙂

 

MM – Is this experience we are living now, the crisis of the coronavirus, changing your festival in any way (apart from postponing this year’s edition, if so)? 
BP: When I write these lines, there is still a lot of uncertainty all over the world, including Hungary. However, there are indications that we can organise the festival on its original dates, during the celebration of the founding of the state at the end of August. Of course, at this point, I envisage long queues of people patiently waiting one and a half meters apart for refreshments, while only 4-6 people are sitting at each table.Moreover, it is also possible to draw circles in front of the stage, indicating how many people may be standing or dancing there at one time.
Even if keeping the distance in a festival might be a bit strange, the lack of dancing together in a large crowd is almost impossible to imagine, it does not change what is really important: the melodies floating in the air, the rhythms beating in the heart connect everyone and it cannot be stopped by neither a virus nor any border.
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Thank you very much, Béla! 

Pictures’ credits:
  • Portrait and logo provided by Béla
  • Poster of the first edition, from the website
  • Cover of the Facebook page of the festival

IN DEEP WITH ANGIE LEMON PR

One of the purposes of this newsletter is to give visibility to the great work done by many professional that are not seen at the stage but without who, all this community would not exist. Initiators of festivals, disseminators… and also PR and publicists. Like Angie Lemon. She can be also useful for you, in case you are needing some support in communication.

I have been in touch with Angie Lemon, first because of her work of publicist for ARC Music, as she has been working with their releases and I am, thanks of Mundofonías radio show, one of their targets. When ARC released some albums by artists that have been collaborators of Mapamundi Música, like El Naán, La Jose and Vigüela, Angie got deeply involved. She and the team of ARC Music were the responsible for the performance by El Naán to BBC Radio 3 and many other good things that happened to us.

A few years ago she established her own brand, Angie Lemon PR, with which she continued the collaborations with ARC Music (the press release for Thraki/Thrace – The Paths of Dionysus, by Rodopi Ensemble was a joy to read) and other clients.

In this times of reflections and memories of better times, Angie came to my mind often, so I decided to ask her to explain me more in depth what is she currently offering.

Mapamundi Música: What kind of services do you provide? 

Angie Lemon: I promote world and folk albums and musicians to media in the UK, EU, USA, Canada and Australia/New Zealand. I work with many wonderful magazine editors, radio producers, radio presenters, bloggers, press music journalists, freelance journalists and chart panellists mainly the Transglobal World Music Charts and World Music Charts Europe.

I regularly send newsletters to media I work with and keep them updated with campaigns, projects and news. I work directly with musicians who are self-publishing but also work with indie labels, managers and promoters.

I also consult with artists for project preparation or ideas blasting sessions about specific projects to help timeline events and work out the best possible release schedule or consult about aspects of the project.

I assist artists with bios and press releases and am happy to work with both signed artists and self-published musicians whether solo artists or in groups.

MM. What is your professional background? 
AL: I have been a professional publicist working in the arts sector for over 20 years and started my career in book publishing. I have worked with authors, painters, composers, cake designers, photographers, inventors and since 2014, world and folk musicians.

I managed and co-fronted the indie folk band, Rivers & Roads in Sydney, Australia for 10 years booking concerts, radio shows, securing national TV with many other well-recognised accomplishments.

I worked as the in-house PR for the UK label ARC Music for 4 years where I had the privilege of campaigning top quality world and folk musicians at a national and international level. In 2018 I took the plunge into the world of freelance publicity focusing on building and developing media relations both in the UK and internationally.

MM. Which is your distinctiveness? 
AL: What I bring to the mix is firstly a personal love of music and secondly, experience as a publicist. I work with my clients, not for them, I establish what they need and do my best to make it happen and when it does, it’s pure magic! For more information, please write to me: angielemonpr@gmail.com

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. 

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