These are the main topics:<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0<\/strong>So, planes and airlines are once more a day-to-day issue… I have to thank Juan Antonio V\u00e1zquez (whose radio show\u00a0The Spice Road\u00a0<\/strong>is featured below)\u00a0for the scale model. It will be sufficient until I save enough for my\u00a0red<\/a>\u00a0Bombardier Challenger<\/a><\/strong>…<\/p>\n \u00b7<\/strong>\u00a0My dear Sherezade will stay in the office until August, when she will travel to Calabria to eat much pizza and pasta to gather\u00a0strenghts\u00a0?\u00a0for Autumn challenges: we have\u00a0showcases\u00a0<\/strong>at the Fira Mediterr\u00e0nia de Manresa<\/strong>\u00a0(Vig\u00fcela + the Valencian artists Apa and Eduard Navarro<\/a>) and\u00a0WOMEX\u00a0<\/strong>(Monsieur Doumani<\/a>). Yeah!<\/span><\/p>\n \u00b7\u00a0<\/strong>On the other hand, a\u00a0festival that takes place, not in Summer, but\u00a0at the end of Winter,\u00a0is the\u00a0Mediterranean Music Festival<\/a>\u00a0in Switzerland, whose director,\u00a0Alkis Zopoglou<\/strong>,\u00a0is in this issue the interviewed in the series about challenges for festivals. By the way, he is a member of the\u00a0Rodopi Ensemble<\/a>, that will have their\u00a0Spanish debut<\/strong>\u00a0on day 18th of July in Palma de Mallorca! Interview, below.<\/p>\n \u00b7<\/strong>\u00a0A brief mention to Mapamundi concert’s calendar is included. We have one more\u00a0debut in Spain, by a Polish band<\/strong>. Guess which? Check below!<\/p>\n \u00b7<\/strong>\u00a0And, in the previous issue you already met\u00a0Carlos Gomes<\/strong>, from\u00a0Transiberia Productions<\/a>. We announced recently\u00a0the concerts programme Transiberia Mundi, that we have developed together, with the fundings of the city council of Evora. Learn more about Carlos and about our\u00a0Transiberia Mundi<\/strong>, here below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If you haven\u00b4t read them, you can find the previous interviews clicking on the names:\u00a0Michal Schmidt<\/a>\u00a0(Folk Holidays, CZ) –\u00a0Jun-Lin Yeoh<\/a>\u00a0(Rainforest WMF, MY) –\u00a0Luis Lles<\/a>\u00a0(Pirineos Sur, ES) –\u00a0Amitava Bhattacharya<\/a>\u00a0(Sur Jahan, IN) –\u00a0Nicolas Ribalet<\/a>\u00a0(Sukiyaki Meets the World, JP) –\u00a0Sergio Zaera<\/a>\u00a0(Poborina Folk, ES) –\u00a0Per Idar Alm\u00e5s<\/a>\u00a0(F\u00f8rdefestivalen, NO) –\u00a0Bo\u017cena Szota<\/a>\u00a0(EthnoPort, PL) –\u00a0Ken Day<\/a>\u00a0(Urkult, SE) –\u00a0Mads Olesen<\/a>\u00a0(5 Continents, CH) –\u00a0Karolina Waszczuk & Bartek Drozd<\/a>\u00a0(Jagiellonian Fair, PL)<\/strong><\/p>\n There are several connections between Alkis and Mapamundi M\u00fasica and it is a pleasure to collaborate with him in all senses. I first knew about him thanks to Antonis Antoniou, from\u00a0Monsieur Doumani<\/a>, who is a generous links creator, and introduced my band\u00a0Vig\u00fcela<\/a>\u00a0to Alkis for the festival. They played in 2017. In 2018 it was the Portuguese quartet\u00a0\u00c0 Porta do Cante<\/em>\u00a0which was included in Alkis’s program. In 2019 it was the premiere of\u00a0Rebetiko Meet Fado and Cante Alentejano<\/em>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n The Mediterranean Music Festival in Switzerland takes place in February and\/or\u00a0March in Zurich and Bern. Its name is quite explicit about the topic. The focus is acoustic music, the performances are mostly in little venues, with the public very close to the artists, and with no amplification. Check the details\u00a0at the website<\/a>. Rodopi will play for the first time in Spain next July 18th in\u00a0Can\u00e7ons de la Mediterr\u00e0nia<\/a>, in Palma de Mallorca. They will also play at\u00a0the\u00a0Jagiellonian Fair<\/a>, of which we talked in the previous issue,\u00a0on 17th August.<\/p>\n So, grateful to Alkis for the kind answers. Without further ado, here you are the interview:<\/p>\n MM – What do you search in an artist when you create the programme?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n AZ:\u00a0<\/strong>The most crucial issue in my opinion is to find a special and innovative musical idiom in each music ensemble, which will also be interesting for the audience of my festival.<\/p>\n Each music ensemble should have a clear cultural stance as a Mediterranean country and those next to them but at the same time it should present a spectacle in an authentic and honest way. And I\u2019d like to emphasize this last issue particularly, as on the altar of spectacle and competition in the music market, many misinterpretations and exaggerations are being made, firstly from the artists themselves, while at the same time there is the pressure from the organizers to overcome the spectacle presented at their festivals.<\/p>\n MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?<\/strong><\/p>\n Another important point, as I am a musician myself and know very well how difficult it is for an artist to enter a market, is to give space to very special requests made especially from young artists.<\/p>\n Furthermore, especially at the Mediterranean Music Festival, which takes place in small venues during the winter, I aim to keep the sound authentic, to reach the audience\u2019s ears as it is produced by the human voice or the musical instruments. That\u2019s why I avoid making use of sound amplifiers during the concerts and this has been appreciated a lot by our audience so far. It\u2019s like having a group of musicians in your home.<\/p>\n MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n AZ: \u00a0<\/strong>Unfortunately the most difficult issues initially always have to do with the funding of such musical events. \u00a0There is a great difficulty in finding the financial resources but in any case I believe that the Swiss authorities are still supportive towards culture and whatever notable appears.<\/p>\n On a second level I believe that a great problem is the possibility, especially of small projects, to attract a sufficient number of listeners in order to have both happy, artists and organizers. It is a global phenomenon that the world is directed more and more by the brands, slowly losing its sense of personal judgement but also the wish to discover new things. We\u2019re getting more and more used to find everything ready and this is stultifying us without even being conscious of it.\u00a0I hope once we\u2019ll wake up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?<\/strong>AZ:\u00a0<\/strong>Along with the issue I stressed before it\u2019s a great challenge for me personally, using the festival as a vehicle, to awaken people who love music and make them get out of their homes, where they have almost everything available on a screen, getting them to know the great feelings that live music provides you and let them live in a world of interaction, that arises from the exchange of feelings between artists and audience.<\/p>\n MM – In one sentence, summarise the reason\/s to go to your festival.\u00a0<\/strong> As a Greek, I think I am totally involved with this cultural dimension of the phenomenon.<\/p>\n Our festival is a small cradle of culture and forms in its own way and by the forces it has, a healthy cultural view among the people visiting it. We are very glad that our audience speaks about the festival with enthusiasm and that\u2019s why they\u2018ve all become warm supporters of it. There is certainly room for even more people who are always welcome.<\/p>\n Pictures’ credits<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In June’s issue we presented Carlos Gomes,\u00a0the founder and director of\u00a0Transiberia Productions<\/a>, cultural management company, settled in Lisbon. And the previous week I sent the\u00a0mailing about Transiberia Mundi<\/a>, the concert programme we have developed together and that will take place in the city of Evora from 1st to 4th of August, funded by the city council and part of the program Artes \u00c0 Rua.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Carlos is an entrepreneur with a strong, inspiring\u00a0and thrilling vision that I want to share with the community of world music. In the picture it is linked a little video (in Portuguese) with his statements about Transiberia Mundi, made after the presentation in Lisbon last 4th of July. And here below you’ll find his answers to this special\u00a0questionnaire.<\/p>\n CG:\u00a0<\/strong>Transiberia is a cultural production company, created in 2015, focused on Ibero-American music and market, on a non-exclusive basis and open to other music and cultures of the world. Its activity includes the conception and production of shows, the organization, production and programming of festivals, music events and thematic parties, the cultural programming for other institutions, both public and privates, and the booking and management of artists.<\/span><\/p>\n MM: Which were your objectives when you created it?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n CG:\u00a0<\/strong>Transiberia\u2019s mission was always and continues to be to strengthen the relationship between Ibero-American producers, agents and artists, starting with our neighbouring country, Spain, and pursuing to enlarge its field of action to the countries from South and Central America, from a cosmovision that is Portuguese, inclusive, open to the other and to the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CG:\u00a0<\/strong>My vision and what I am most interested in working is based mainly on the awesome book by the Portuguese writer Jos\u00e9 Saramago, named \u201cThe Stone Raft\u201d, that captures the human nature, especially the nature of the people from Iberian Peninsula after an extraordinary event: the segregation of the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe and its Atlantic drift. I understood it as a metaphor of the liberation of the Iberian Peninsula from that kind of political constraint that is to be considered as peripheral territory from the center of Europe.<\/span>\u00a0I think that the nature of Iberian people is close to the South American nature and I also believe that, if we overcome that hierarchical political organization of the world, especially of the navel-gazing of Europe, the relationship between cultures, mediated by the freshness of the Atlantic, it will be one of the centers of the future world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n CG:\u00a0<\/strong>My personal relationship with music comes mainly from an inner vibe and from the dance. For me good music doesn\u2019t have to make me dance but must be able to make me vibrate. If it makes me dance, even better. I think that the union of music and dance is one of the happiest expressions of human beings. I think that a human being who likes to dance and can\u00b4t hold the vibration of music in his\/her body is probably a good human being.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n MM: Tell us one or two of Transiberia’s main achievements.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n CG:\u00a0<\/strong>Two of the main achievements by Transiberia have been so far the creation of the Festival Emergente<\/strong> in Lisbon and the program Transiberia Mundi<\/strong>, in collaboration with Mapamundi M\u00fasica.<\/span><\/p>\n The first one, because it emerged from a raising awareness of the responsibility of supporting and contributing to an unbelievable moment of creativity, production and expression that the Portuguese music is currently experiencing. I\u2019d like also to mention that it is of much and special joy to co-produce with EGEAC (cultural institution of Lisbon\u2019s city council) the program\u00a0\u201cDan\u00e7ar a Cidade\u201d in Lisbon<\/strong>\u00a0(to dance the city) which calls its citizens to dance several dance styles of the world in the public spaces. I love to dance and to provide the others the joy of dance is extremely rewarding.<\/p>\n MM: Which is your next dream to be fullfilled?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n CG:\u00a0<\/strong>I can\u00b4t unveil my next dream yet. But I can say that it will be a transnational project out of Lisbon.<\/span> <\/p>\n For the second year, this Summer Juan Antonio V\u00e1zquez is doing the radio show La Ruta de las Especias (the spice road) for Radio Cl\u00e1sica, of Spain’s National Radio. As the name indicates, it is focused on music of Orient, or, as he likes to say, “the many Orients”. Click the picture to listen 2018’s editions and also the new ones, in August and September:<\/p>\n As you probably know, with Juan Antonio I make the radio show\u00a0Mundofon\u00edas<\/a>, our own production, broadcasted in 17 countries in 46 radio stations.<\/p>\n Very brieftly: our concerts calendar is\u00a0here at our website<\/a>\u00a0and also at our\u00a0Facebook events<\/a>. And, apart of Rodopi Ensemble’s,\u00a0I want to highlight the debut of a Polish band in Spain. It will be on 23rd of August and they are WoWaKin Trio, known for many of our community as they performed in WOMEX Katowice 2017.<\/p>\n Mapamundi M\u00fasica is an agency of management and booking.\u00a0Learn more here<\/a>. Check our proposals at\u00a0our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n We also offer you our\u00a0Mundofon\u00edas<\/a>\u00a0radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 46 stations in 17 countries). We produce\u00a0the\u00a0Transglobal World Music Chart<\/a>\u00a0with our partner \u00c1ngel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the\u00a0Asociaci\u00f3n para la Difusi\u00f3n de los Estilos<\/a>.<\/p>\n Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us,\u00a0get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82),\u00a0our website<\/a>\u00a0or at\u00a0our Facebook<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u00a0am Araceli Tzigane. Welcome to\u00a0Mapamundi M\u00fasica‘s July’s monthly newsletter. I hope it will be a pleasant reading for you in an awesome Summer \u26f1\u00a0. The insights of the collaborators are really worth of it. These are the main topics: \u00b7\u00a0July is the month with more festivals\u00a0in\u00a0many countries in Europe. I am sending this newsletter from\u00a0Ostrava, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[118,47,142,53,134,125,46,96,140,143,100,50,48],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsletter","tag-alkis-zopoglou","tag-booking-of-artists","tag-czech-music-crossroads","tag-festival-director","tag-juan-antonio-vazquez","tag-mediterranean-music-festival","tag-resources-for-artists","tag-transglobal-world-music-chart","tag-transiberia-mundi","tag-transiberia-productions","tag-world-music","tag-world-music-fair","tag-world-music-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions\/1834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/fdd18223-b4fa-4d0e-a55f-4fb6241b31a5.png\")
<\/a>\u00b7\u00a0<\/strong>July is the month with more festivals\u00a0in\u00a0many countries in Europe. I am sending this newsletter from\u00a0Ostrava<\/strong>, where I am attending the\u00a0Czech Music Crossroads<\/a>, before leaving to Germany for\u00a0Horizonte Festival<\/a>. Nice events list, below.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\nSummary<\/strong>:<\/span><\/h5>\n
\u00b7 Mini interview with festival manager: Alkis Zopoglou from <\/span>Mediterranean Music Festival\u00a0<\/span><\/span>(Switzerland)\u00a0<\/span>
\n\u00b7 I<\/span>n depth:\u00a0<\/span>Carlos Gomes<\/span>\u00a0& inspirations for\u00a0<\/span>Transiberia Mundi<\/span>
\n\u00b7 Find me at…
\n\u00b7 Mapamundi M\u00fasica concerts calendar
\n\u00b7 Mapamundi M\u00fasica introduces:\u00a0<\/span>La Ruta de las Especias<\/span>\u00a0(The Spice Road) by Juan Antonio V\u00e1zquez<\/span><\/h6>\n
\n<\/div>\n**** Do you have a world music\u00a0festival and you want to be included in our mini interviews?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Contact us.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span>**** <\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n
\n***<\/strong><\/span>CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nMINI INTERVIEW WITH ALKIS ZOPOGLOU\u00a0FROM MEDITERRANEAN MUSIC FESTIVAL<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/d824960c-a230-4d9d-adeb-4b7e6852e0db.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/8edb9aac-3f07-42b3-94fa-5e84ca15b9bf.jpg\")
\nIn the meantime, Alkis introduced me his band in which he plays kanun,\u00a0Rodopi Ensemble<\/a>, traditional acoustic music from the Greek Thrace, of which I felt in love inmediatly and started to work together about it and about the Greek-Portuguese project\u00a0Rebetiko meets Fado & Cante Alentejano<\/a>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/5359ea1b-8f6c-441d-9954-4a3a36f2eade.jpg\")
AZ:\u00a0<\/strong>My first and most important concern is to highlight the musical idioms of the traditions of the population around the Mediterranean, which are truly many and very beautiful each, with their similarities and differences.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/bb917d2c-666e-4351-862e-f15894eca710.jpg\")
<\/div>\n
\nAZ:\u00a0<\/strong>The \u201csquare\u201d, which includes the creators in their real dimension together with the audience, ready to evaluate participating live in this process, is the basic principle of our culture, as it was born and started in Ancient Greece and travelled to the ancient theatres of all Mediterranean countries, which are still preserved up to this day and continue hosting similar activities after thousands of years.<\/p>\n\n
\nDo you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click HERE.<\/a><\/h4>\n
\nIN DEPTH: CARLOS GOMES AND INSPIRATIONS FOR TRANSIBERIA MUNDI<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/span>MM: In few words, what is Transiberia Productions?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/6e950e3b-6b17-43ea-8b04-d9fc3df803d7.jpg\")
<\/a>M<\/strong><\/span>M: If is is not too secret, let us know your vision.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/cc495952-9c08-4cd1-910a-051c7289a306.jpg\")
MM:\u00a0What is your personal relationship with music?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
\n![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/3a185f14-f7b6-4358-aeac-bbfe3fc019ed.jpg\")
\nIn the second case means the realization of an old ambition of having a Transiberian and transnational partnership that was born as Iberian and that would lead the way to something with an undefined scope, enhancing the name of the company and undertaking Samarago\u2019s vision.<\/p>\n
\n—
\nThank you, obrigado, gracias, Carlos.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nFIND ME AT…<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
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\n<\/div>\nMAPAMUNDI M\u00daSICA INTRODUCES… THE SPICE ROAD, AT RADIO CL\u00c1SICA, SPAIN’S NATIONAL RADIO. BY JUAN ANTONIO V\u00c1ZQUEZ<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/6f994abf-6b23-49e0-b66d-5bc9ebf56f67.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMAPAMUNDI M\u00daSICA CONCERT\u00a0CALENDAR<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
![](\"https:\/\/gallery.mailchimp.com\/993c677d53044839b1b39b2dc\/images\/782455da-bffa-4ff0-83a9-86b9bab17d4b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nDo you like our newsletter? Tell us! To sign up, click HERE.<\/a><\/h4>\n
\nThis newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
\nWHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h4>\n