{"id":3881,"date":"2025-10-30T14:50:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/?p=3881"},"modified":"2025-10-30T15:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:18:07","slug":"october-25-after-fira-mediterrania-de-manresa-efn-conference-so-alive-music-conference-and-womex-new-calls-and-88","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/newsletter\/october-25-after-fira-mediterrania-de-manresa-efn-conference-so-alive-music-conference-and-womex-new-calls-and-88\/","title":{"rendered":"October 25. After Fira Mediterr\u00e0nia de Manresa & EFN conference, So Alive Music Conference and WOMEX, new calls and + #88"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary\u00a0\ud83d\udc47<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38<\/span><\/span>Editorial
\n\u25ab\ufe0fAfter Fira Mediterr\u00e0nia de Manresa, panel about diversity and inclusion and associated reflections
\n\u25ab\ufe0fSo Alive Music Conference
\n\u25ab\ufe0fWOMEX<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38<\/span><\/span>Brief words about\u00a0FIMU\u00a0with\u00a0 its director,\u00a0Julian Catusse<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38<\/span><\/span>A little something from me: Xabi Aburruzaga’s 1st single from\u00a0Bask<\/em><\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38<\/span><\/span>Brief news from the media, charts and sister projects<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38<\/span><\/span>Open calls and professional events:\u00a0 Sicily Music Conference, Professional Days of Music in Extremadura, FIMU Belfort<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udd38<\/span><\/span>Meet me at \u2708\ufe0f<\/p>\n

\u27a1\ufe0f This is the link for subscription<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Hello, <\/strong>how are you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am well. The picture of this edition was made still in September. On 27th it took place the\u00a012th SON Estrella Galicia Spanish Guitar Conference and 3rd Flamenco Guitar Awards \u201cMaestro Paco de Luc\u00eda \u2013 Molino del Manto\u201d. In the picture I am with the guitarrist Pituquete (whose interesting Youtube channel is\u00a0this<\/a>), the singer Encarna Anillo and Juan Antonio V\u00e1zquez. For more information, in English, about the event, you can check\u00a0this website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Molino del Manto<\/a>\u00a0is a wedding estate in the town of Chinch\u00f3n (province of Madrid) that also hosts musical projects like this one, which included both the concert evening, with the award ceremony,\u00a0and a prior artistic residency.\u00a0I chose this photo because I\u2019m unable to pick just one moment from October. Shortly after this event, I travelled to Germany for Ali Do\u011fan\u2019s tour, then to the Fira Mediterr\u00e0nia de Manresa (at the same time as the annual conference of the European Folk Network), then to the So Alive Music Conference in Sofia, and finally to WOMEX. It feels like that photo was taken six months ago\u2026 So much has happened this month. I\u2019ll pull on the thread of memory to give shape to some of those moments in these lines.<\/p>\n

Many important things will slip my mind. On the other hand, I\u2019ve been so busy traveling (before all this, I was on an international tour with Ali Dogan) that I don\u2019t really have an interview as such. In future editions, I\u2019ll pick up again with Ultranesia, because we talked much more than what I\u2019ve already published, and I have several people in mind \u2014for instance, Sabina Smailagic and Mariana Bondarenko, with whom I spoke at WOMEX\u2014 to share a conversation. In any case, you won\u2019t be short of content, and I hope that some of it moves you, attracts you, or even annoys you.<\/p>\n

I hope you find the reading interesting.\u00a0If you enjoyed any part of this newsletter, feel free to share it with someone who might like it too. Thank you in advance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Remember: if you have any news of interest for our community, let me know. Thank you very much for your attention.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi M\u00fasica\u00a0|\u00a0+34 676\u00a030 28 82\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n
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Fira Mediterr\u00e0nia de Manresa and the Annual Conference of the European Folk Network<\/strong><\/h3>\n

One of my highlights of the conference was the panel I moderated. The topic was broad, and the speakers were able to talk for a few minutes at the beginning, presenting their activities related to the theme: diversity and inclusion. Some of the ideas reminded me of the enriching panel from the previous year in Kaustinen, with the participation of Birgit Ellinghaus (whose full speech can be read\u00a0here<\/a>) and Alan Ibrahim (with whom I had an eye-opening interview about several issues, available\u00a0here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

I am unable to find who made this picture but I need this one specifically because we are all relaxed and look happy, even when the discussion was dense and deep. From left to right, Imed Alibi, Laia Canals, Peter Van Rompaey, Kutay Kugay and me:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Alan Ibrahim spoke last year and also in that interview about the label refugee, which is often placed above one\u2019s artistic abilities (he is a classical guitarist), overshadowing them. Imed Alibi, the Tunisian percussionist, composer and cultural thinker,\u00a0in his intervention at this year\u2019s panel, spoke about the term\u00a0clich\u00e9\u00a0<\/em>in the same line. Peter Van Rompaey explained that the group promoted by MuziekPublique, Refugees for Refugees, decided to change its name to “Refa” precisely to avoid maintaining that\u00a0clich\u00e9<\/em>, so that what was put in value for the public was their art, not their status. He explained that once they changed the name, since the word \u201cRefugee\u201d no longer appeared on the poster, some programmers refused to book the group.<\/p>\n

This, among many other ideas, came up regarding inclusion related to ethnic origin. Another topic we discussed was ageism, and how there is an age when artists are not young anymore but not old enough to be considered legends. The general agreement was that such ageism does exist. I believe this will become a hot topic in our sector in the near future.<\/p>\n

The truth is that this is a subject about which I have strong opinions, and I couldn\u2019t \u2014 nor did I want to \u2014 limit myself to merely moderating. Fortunately, we had an hour and a half in the context of a packed two-day conference, with activities from morning until the start of the evening. Some of my ideas I had already shared last March at Babel Music XP, in the panel \u201cThe New Narratives for Traditional Music in the Face of Current Political Challenges\u201d, to which I was invited as part of the EFN by FAMDT. The full panel is available\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My point then and now is that Europe\u2019s demographic reality is what it is: the population is diverse. In Ireland, 21.8% of the population was born abroad; in Austria, 21.6%; Sweden, 20.4%; Germany, 19.5%; and in my country, Spain, 17.1%.<\/p>\n

At that moment in Babel Music XP, I mentioned Sofia Labropoulou, a Greek kanun player based in Vienna, who runs in her adopted city the music series Unbounded Sounds (there is an interview about this,\u00a0here<\/a>, and here it is the program for 2025), where she performs with one artist living in Austria and another from elsewhere. The last concert of the year will feature\u00a0Shabnam Parvaresh<\/a>, an Iranian artist living in Osnabr\u00fcck, Germany, and Matthias Loibner (Austrian). By the way, Unbounded Sounds will be done again in 2026. Bravo!\u00a0I gave it as an example of the facts, of the current reality in Europe\u2019s music scene \u2014 at least in the field of music connected in some way to the traditions of peoples. I\u2019m not sure if pop music is different in that sense.<\/p>\n

Returning to this year\u2019s panel in Manresa, two other important ideas also emerged. One was the need to collect data that supports the demands we make from this sector to institutions. On this point, Laia Canals explained what they are doing through Tempi, the organization she leads in Denmark. I am sure that from our field of the art, we can improve much in this matter. For my part, I defended the idea that even though there are artistic expressions that are and will likely remain minority ones \u2014 for example, a concert of classical Persian music \u2014 we are supposed to have certain shared values in Europe, and we pay taxes for a reason. Pay attention now:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n