{"id":2380,"date":"2020-09-15T09:45:27","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T07:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/?p=2380"},"modified":"2020-09-15T11:38:58","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T09:38:58","slug":"magazine-27-september20-brave-answers-to-our-common-challenge-by-amp-concerts-sori-festival-charts-time-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/newsletter\/magazine-27-september20-brave-answers-to-our-common-challenge-by-amp-concerts-sori-festival-charts-time-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Magazine #27 September’20 – Brave answers to our common challenge by AMP Concerts, Sori Festival, charts time and +"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Brave answers to our common challenge<\/h3>\n

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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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I am contacting you from El Carpio de Tajo<\/a>,\u00a0Vig\u00fcela<\/a>‘s village. Tomorrow, Wednesday 16th, it will be the online opening gala concert of\u00a0Jeonju Intl’ Sori Festival<\/a>. For some days we are working in the preparation, making technical checks and rehearsals. 9\u00a0bands from different countries and from their locations will play together. Yes, together!\u00a0Check the details below. This is one of the creative responses to the situation we are facing.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Neal Copperman, from\u00a0AMP Concerts<\/a>, explains us how they are keeping the activity, with live offline events too. I find their experience very inspiring!<\/p>\n

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\u00a0see what they surprise us with.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, I really miss our old normality. Some drops of hope take place day by day. The new tour\u00a0Klangkosmos<\/a>, the first one after the beginning of the pandemic, organized by alba Kultur in North Rhine-Westphalia,\u00a0is taking place and, so far, it is going well.\u00a0The band on tour is\u00a0Haratago<\/a>, from Iparralde (North Basque Country). You can learn more about Birgit Ellinghaus, director of alba Kultur,\u00a0on this edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Do you want to share any useful experience<\/strong>\u00a0you 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\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Thanks for your attention and remember that during the reading you can listen to some great music by our artists collaborators –><\/div>\n
–<\/span><\/div>\n
Araceli Tzigane |\u00a0info@mundimapa.com |\u00a0+34 676\u00a030 28 82\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
Subscription\u00a0is available here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/strong><\/div>\n
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\"Forward<\/a><\/td>\nForward to a friend right from here<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Summary<\/strong>:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
\u00b7 And more difficult still: 9 artists from 9 locations, playing together for\u00a0Sori Festival’s gala concert<\/span><\/h6>\n
\u00b7 Rethinking the program, with\u00a0<\/span>Neal Copperman<\/span>\u00a0from AMP Concerts<\/span><\/h6>\n
\u00b7 Our value proposal or<\/span> how to make virtue from the neccesity. The online event for ILO by Vig\u00fcela + Mapamundi\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\n
\u00b7 Interesting\u00a0dates<\/span><\/h6>\n
\u00b7 News from our\u00a0sister projects<\/span><\/h6>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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AND MORE DIFFICULT STILL!!!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

9 artists from 9 locations will play together online for the Sori Festival’s Opening Gala.\u00a0Tomorrow, Wednesday, at 19:40 UTC+9\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This issue of the monthly magazine has as the main topic the bravity\u00a0of our community when facing the situation that is making our lifes and works so complicated.<\/div>\n

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\u00a0the festival’s Youtube channel<\/a>.<\/p>\n


\nThe artists will be:\u00a0Khoomei Beat (Tuva Republic, Russia), ESSE-Quintet (St. Petersburg, \u00a0Russia), Sebastian Gramss (Germany), Cube Band (Taiwan), Constantinople (Canada, Iran), Vig\u00fcela (Spain), Toine Thys’ Overseas (Belgium, Egypt, \u00a0Luxembourg, Brazil), Boi Akih Duo (Netherlands), Imran Khan & Naim Khan (India), 2020 Sori Festival Sinawi (South Korea).<\/div>\n
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RETHINKING THE PROGRAM FOR THE NEW CHALLENGE WITH NEAL COPPERMAN FROM AMP CONCERTS<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a>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!\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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Mapamundi M\u00fasica: <\/strong>Thanks for taking the time to chat with me Neal. Can you quickly introduce yourself?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neal Copperman:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s always nice to chat with you Araceli. I\u2019m sorry I won\u2019t be seeing you at WOMEX this year!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m the founder and executive director of\u00a0AMP Concerts<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

MM: I think in your region the pandemic didn’t affect that much as in other places of the USA, did it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NC:\u00a0<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n

MM:\u00a0Despite the situation you have been able to do some nice things, haven\u2019t you? Please, tell us what you\u2019ve been doing during the pandemic.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NC:\u00a0<\/strong>Obviously none of the things we usually do have been possible since March. We\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a real gift from the musicians to their neighbors.<\/p>\n

We have also produced a community art contest (Art As Antibodies<\/a>), a series of single song videos in iconic locations around Santa Fe (Postcards from Santa Fe<\/a>) and we are in the midst of a run of drive-in shows on an equestrian center\u2019s polo field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

HIPICO Santa Fe drive-in concert venue\u00a0?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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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?<\/strong><\/p>\n

NC:<\/strong>\u00a0That is an excellent question. Sadly, what we are doing is not a viable business model. We think it\u2019s important and we are working super hard to stay active and engaged, but without putting on viable concerts, we don\u2019t have any regular business income.<\/p>\n

We successfully grabbed a number of bailout and emergency funding opportunities. The government issued a loan that you don\u2019t have to pay back if you use it all for payroll, so we got that and it was 2.5 months of payroll.<\/p>\n

We got emergency grants from a City arts fund and from the National Endowment for the Arts.<\/p>\n

We also reached out to some historical funders the first week of the pandemic and said –\u00a0Look, 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<\/em>. 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

We cut staff salaries at the higher levels by 40% and at the lower levels by 10%.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t happen this year, we asked our main sponsors if we could roll their money into other projects and they have been cool with that.<\/p>\n

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One of the Postcards from Santa Fe ?<\/strong><\/div>\n

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So half of one sponsorship covered the single-song video series <\/span>Postcards from Santa Fe<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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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.<\/p>\n

We take donations on top of everything we do, and people have been pretty generous with that.<\/p>\n

We have probably paid over $30K to local artists and $10K to local tech people since the pandemic started. I\u2019m pretty happy about that!<\/p>\n

I did leave\u00a0Globalquerque<\/a>! – the world music festival that I helped found and run for the last 15 years. It wasn\u2019t 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\u2019ll probably feel it a lot more next year!<\/p>\n

Reminder of voting time for proyect Art as Antibodies\u00a0?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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MM:\u00a0I interviewed Tom Frouge\u00a0in a previous edition<\/a>\u00a0of this magazine about Globalquerque!. Will he continue working on it?<\/strong><\/div>\n

NC:<\/strong>\u00a0Tom will continue to work on \u00a1Globalquerque!. He\u2019s now the main person in charge. Before it was just the two of us.<\/p>\n

MM:\u00a0I 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.<\/strong><\/p>\n

NC:<\/strong>\u00a0That is totally true! We are dedicated and passionate!\u00a0And most of our job is problem solving and figuring how to make impossible things happen \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Check also these links related to the conversation:<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n