News
Janne Schaffer supports the FIM campaign about “musical instruments on planes”!
Janne Schaffer is a Swedish guitar player. He played in 55 ABBA tracks, published 12 solo albums and took part in more than 5,000 sound recording sessions.
"As is the case with most professional guitar players, I constantly travel abroad.
There is actually no other way for a musician to develop an international reputation: you must be ready to move as soon as your phone rings, especially at the beginning of your career.
But there's a problem... You think you're well prepared because you've been practicing 12 hours a day 7 days a week and your public will love your playing. But you're not quite ready yet: you need to be authorised to fly with your instrument in the cabin and that is often a big challenge...
A musical instrument is not a piece of luggage. Not at all. I and my colleagues regard it as part of the musician's body that you can't allow to be transported in the cargo hold of a plane. It is absolutely vital to professional musicians that appropriate rules apply to all airline companies which ensure that they receive a fair treatment when travelling on planes with their instruments.
I strongly support the <a href="/https://www.change.org/petitions/fair-treatment-for-musicians-traveling-on-planes-with-their-instruments" target="_blank">FIM campaign</a> and encourage all musicians to do the same. I also urge European Commissioner Siim Kallas to listen to our request. It is time for airlines to be fair to music performers!"
Janne Schaffer
The 2nd European Meeting for WIMUST
The 2nd European Meeting for WIMUST - Women In Music Uniting Strategies for Talent took place in Fiuggi (Italy) on 6 & 7 July 2012.The Plenary Session determined on a number of activities to be undertaken in 2013, in order to endorse the 2009 European Parliamentary Resolution insisting on Equal Opportunities for women working in the arts and culture sectors, and to ensure that this Resolution is finally put into force by all European Governments.
Patricia Adkins Chiti, President of the Foundation Donne in Musica and Scientific Director of the WIMUST project, stressed in her speech during the meeting that "the status of contemporary European women composers is constantly under threat. In most countries, they are equal in number to male composers, and in some countries more, however, only 1 % of their music (traditional, popular, classical, contemporary) is programmed by public funded institutions and 89 % of public arts and culture institutions are directed by men."
Italian MEP Silvia Costa, who has recently been designated rapporteur for the programme "Creative Europe", has expressed her commitment, underlining that "women composers and creators should be recognised and supported at all levels, as cultural industries lead the European economic development, influencing the GNP in each country".
WIMUST will focus in 2012 and 2013 on orchestras, youth orchestras and jazz festivals and a petition will be shortly sent to every single Culture Ministry in the EU, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey and to all members of national parliaments country by country.
1st of June official start of the VOICE project
VOICE - Vision On Innovation for Choral music in Europe”, which is suported by the European Union under its Culture Programme. The first events of VOICE in the coming months are the Eurochoir session 2012 in Lomnice nad Popelkou, Czech Republic, July 7th to 15th 2013 (www.eurochoir2012.cz) and the festival EUROPA CANTAT XVIII in Turin, Italy, July 27th to August 5th 2012 (www.ectorino2012.it). Please read our special newsflash on the start of VOICE here:
Atelier for Young Festival Managers LJUBLJANA 2012: great response after first Alumni meeting, deadline extended
Following four editions of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers – Görlitz/Germany (2006), Varna/Bulgaria (2009), Singapore (2011) and Izmir, Turkey (2011) – 20 Alumni gathered for the first time from 23-25 May in Bergen, at the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the European Festivals Association (EFA). Together with presenters such as Bernard Faivre d'Arcier, Steve Austen, Hugo De Greef and Ching-Lee Goh, they discussed the personal and professional impacts of the Atelier as well as its future and their involvement in it. Due to the high interest of managers in the past few days and the great response following the exchanges with 180 Jubilee Gala participants, including delegates of sister festival networks from Asia, Africa and the Arab region, EFA extends the deadline of application for the fifth edition in Ljubljana (14-21 October 2012) until 30 June 2012.
60 Years On: The European Festivals Association celebrates its Diamond Jubilee in Bergen
From 23-25 May 2012, the European Festivals Association (EFA) celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation in Bergen, Norway. Embracing the motto “60 Years On: Festivals and the World”, 180 representatives of festivals, sister festival associations, cultural networks, policy and media from 46 countries and regions of the world will participate to celebrate, commemorate and in particular reflect on the present and future of arts festivals. On the agenda: the setting of the ‘Bergen Agenda’, discussion of festival policies (“Europe for Festivals – Festivals for Europe”), exchanges with alumni of the Atelier for Young Festival Managers, release of a Jubilee publication and film – all embedded in an exciting artistic programme of the Bergen International Festival, co-organising the event and itself celebrating its Diamond Jubilee in 2012.
European Award for Choral Composers 2012 - Results
On April 16th 2012 the Jury of the European Award for Choral Composers selected the winning compositions of the European Award for Choral Composers 2012 of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat. 38 compositions from 11 countries were submitted to the competition. Three compositions by Pierre Chépélov (FR), Levente Gyöngyösi (HU) and Maarten Van Ingelgem (BE) were chosen as winners. Two further compositions by Pärt Uusberg (EE) and Uršula Jaševec (SI) received a special mention. You will find further information and details on the winning scores and the composers in the official Press Release here. A French and German translation will follow soon.
US NMC co-sponsors Arts Advocacy Day
Tuesday, April 17th, is Arts Advocacy Day in the US. A day when supporters of the arts and arts education gather on Capitol Hill to speak to legislators about the importance of the arts in our nation and schools. As co-sponsor of Arts Advocacy Day, the Board of the US NMC drafted a message to the attention of policy makers in Washington about how much the arts impact our society and economy. In this message the Board of Directors of the National Music Council urges the Congress to support a budget of $155 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the Fiscal Year 2013 Interior Appropriations bill to preserve citizen access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts and to advance creativity and innovation in communities across the United States.
EMCY General Assembly 2012 in Ohrid (Macedonia)
The 28th General Assembly of the European Union of Music Competitions for Youth (EMCY) took place successfully from 30th March to 2nd April 2012 in Ohrid, Macedonia.
The main topics of the General Assembly and accompanying workshops were: similarities, differences and cooperation between national and international competitions; the new EU Creative Europe programme; Volunteering at competitions; Expansion of EMCY (stylistic and geographical), and jury work. The results are summarised in the Ohrid Declaration. The General Assembly also awarded Honorary Membership to Peter Weinstock from the Charles Hennen Concours, Netherlands, for his significant contribution to the work of EMCY over the past twenty years. Upcoming events include a range of concerts across Europe as well as a meeting for competitions working with non-classical categories October 2012 in Austria and a conference for national competitions November 2013 in Slovakia. For more information please read here.
Campaign wins International Award
The Award was accepted on behalf of the Music Council of Australia by Music: Play for Life campaign director, Tina Broad, who joined more than 200 delegates from music organisations all over the world at the IMC’s recent 4th World Forum on Music in Tallinn, Estonia recently.