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European Music Council
Haus der Kultur
Weberstr. 59a
53113 Bonn
Germany
Tel.: +49 228 96699664
Fax: +49 228 96699665
www.emc-imc.org
Timo Klemettinen
Christian Höppner
Stef Coninx
Erling Aksdal, Claire Goddard , Helena Maffli,
Frank Stahmer, Kaie Tanner
Simone Dudt (sd)
Julia Osada (jo)
Merveille Mubakemeschi (mm)
Simone Dudt, Merveille Mubakemeschi
Judith Buschfeld, Isabelle Métrope, Julia Osada
kominform design, Hamburg (www.kominform.net)
Leppelt Grafik & Druck GmbH, Bonn
Photo on front page by Vincent Kenis
Photographers as credited
The European Music Council is supported by:
© 2010 European Music Council. All rights are reserved. The
views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not
necessarily of the publisher or editor. No part of this publication
may be reproduced in any format without permission of the
European Music Council.
The European Music Council (EMC) is a platform for
representatives of National Music Councils and organisations
involved in various fields of music from many European
countries. As a European umbrella organisation, it gathers
the European members of the International Music Council
(IMC).
The European Music Council contributes to a better mutual
understanding among peoples and their different cultures
and to the right for all musical cultures to coexist. Therefore
it provides exceptional value to its membership by building
knowledge; creating networking opportunities as well as
supporting and enhancing the visibility of initiatives that
help sustain people’s participation in music and cultural
life.
The Problem With Good Intentions
Erling Aksdal
Music: A Tool for Development and Social Sustainability
Andris Piebalgs
Tallinn to Host the Music World – The IMC World Forum
on Music comes to Europe
Silja Fischer
Pop Stars and the Aid Revolution
Peter Gill
Fair Culture – Protecting and Promoting Diversity of Cultural
Expressions in International Co-operation
Federal Coalition for Cultural Diversity Germany
The IMC Music Sector Development Programme
Blasko Smilevski
The Millennium Development Goals and Culture
Setting the Agenda for Cultural Change for the 21st Century
Anne Bamford
we are more – EU Budget Negotiations now underway
2005 UNESCO Convention - Further Steps towards its
Implementation
Silja Fischer
Made in the Congo
Andy Morgan
A Better Conductor Equals A Better Choir!
Kaie Tanner
Sound Told Fairy Tales
Sílvia Seixas Rodrigues & Jakub Szczypa
A Cultural Europe! A Citizen’s Europe!
Kathrin Deventer
Institute for Modern Music
Jaroslav Raušer, Jana Tomášková, Radek Adamec
Fair Play! Music Against Corruption
Kate Declerck
Mixages!
Edgar Garcia
Volcanic Ash Meets Musical Diversity – The 1st European
Forum on Music
Jamie Munn
It’s all about Access! – European Youth Forum on Music
Claire Goddard
Good deeds may be born from good intentions, but good
intentions never guarantee good deeds, not simply because
the intentions are not acted upon, but rather because they
are. And deeds aren’t necessarily good, even if they are
assessed so by clients/customers/participants/students.
Unfortunately, doing ‘good’ may be a complicated
undertaking.
This is particularly evident in issues of development. In the cultural
field, UNESCO has established multiple platforms to help with such
cases: Intercultural Dialogue, The World Commission on Culture
and Development (1991), and two conventions: The Convention
for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) and
The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of
Cultural Expressions (2005). The EMC’s business has in recent years
largely been directed towards the latter convention which in practice
has served as an ideological platform for much of its work.
The problem with conventions and similar documents is that
they do not generate automatic actions. They need interpretation.
Interpretations are often made with specific interests in mind, and
we have seen that even commercial interests have been able to make
use of these conventions. This is unavoidable. In our globalised world,
moving towards free markets and the free flow of capital, this is the
order of the day. In some special cases this may even serve cultural
diversity. But it is not the norm, and very rarely the intention. The
furious pace of globalisation is neither controlled by ideology (perhaps
by ultra-liberalism?) nor ethics. There are, however, two types of
body that have a great potential for doing ‘good’: State governments
that have ratified the Convention of 2005, that are committed to its
implementation, and many publicly supported NGOs, other civil
Gode gjerninger kan være født av gode intensjoner, men gode
intensjoner garanterer aldri gode gjerninger, ikke bare fordi
intensjonene ikke blir omsatt i handlinger, snarere fordi de
blir det. Og gjerninger er ikke nødvendigvis gode selv om
de blir vurdert slik av klienter/kunder/deltakere/studenter.
En god gjerning kan være en problemfylt oppgave.
I utviklingsarbeid er dette særlig tydelig. I det kulturelle feltet har
UNESCO opprettet flere plattformer for å hjelpe oss: Interkulturell
dialog, Verdenskommisjonen for kultur og utvikling (1991), og to
konvensjoner: Konvensjonen for vern av den immaterielle kulturarven
(2003) og Konvensjonen om vern og fremme av et mangfold av
kulturuttrykk (2005). EMC‘s virksomhet har i de senere årene i stor
grad vært rettet mot sistnevnte konvensjon, som i praksis har fungert
som en ideologisk plattform for mye av arbeidet.
Problemet med konvensjoner og liknende dokumenter er at de
ikke genererer automatiske handlinger. De trenger tolkning. Tolkninger
er ofte gjort med spesifikke interesser i tankene, og vi har sett at også
kommersielle interesser har vært i stand til å utnytte konvensjonene.
Dette er uunngåelig. I vår globaliserte verden, som beveger seg mot
frie markeder og fri flyt av kapital, er dette dagsorden. I noen spesielle
tilfeller kan dette også tjene det kulturelle mangfold. Men det er
ikke normen, og svært sjelden intensjonen. Globaliseringens rasende
tempo er verken styrt av ideologi (kanskje av en ultra-liberalisme?)
eller etikk. Det er imidlertid to områder som har et stort potensial for
’gode gjerninger’: Stater som har ratifisert konvensjonen av 2005, er
forpliktet til å implementere den, og mange offentlig støttede frivillige
organisasjoner, andre sivile aksjonsgrupper og utdanningsinstitusjoner
skal- om ikke juridisk, så i hvert fall moralsk - opptre i samsvar med
den.
Vestens økonomiske og politiske hegemoni overgås kanskje bare av
dens kulturelle hegemoni. På musikkområdet kan vi til og med si at vi
har vunnet. Som grunnleggende musikalsk språk, i strukturell forstand,
har vår musikk nådd ut til nesten alle folkeslag, vunnet høystatus og
blitt mer eller mindre assimilert. Likesvevende temperatur, dur- og
molltonalitet, rytme- og formstrukturer, vår musikalske persepsjon og
forståelse er sjeldent fremmed. I mange tilfeller har regionale og lokale
musikkulturer blitt redusert til tryllestøv som man drysser over vestlige
strukturer i egen musikkproduksjon, slik som vi i Vesten i ekotistisk
narsissisme drysser etnisk lånt tryllestøv over våre egne strukturer med
sikte på kunstnerisk selvrealisering.
Poenget her er at møter mellom ulike musikalske kulturer og
vestlig musikk ikke er møter på like vilkår, enten vi tror det eller ei,
og manglene er på vår side. Spesielt når disse møtene er konkrete,
fysiske møter mellom representanter for ulike musikk-kulturer (’spille
sammen’). Det er derfor de fleste samarbeidsprosjekter i stor grad er
på vestlige vilkår, best egnet til å styrke våre musikalske strukturer,
vår musikalske kultur. (Bevisstheten om dette er vanligvis svært lav.
Mange handler i god tro basert på grunn tekning.) Denne mangelen
på balanse forsterkes ytterligere når vestlige penger kommer inn i
bildet, noe som vanligvis er tilfelle. I de fattige deler av verden har
man ikke råd til å si nei til vestlig genererte ’samarbeidsprosjekter’.
Dessuten innebærer slike møter enestående individuelle og kollektive
muligheter som mange ellers ville være avskåret fra.
Jeg skal være den første til å innrømme at dette er et lite vakkert
perspektiv, men et perspektiv sjelden tegnet. Det er enkelt å forstå
hvorfor. Hvem ønsker å tale nedsettende om prosjekter omgitt av glade,
smilende barn? Eller om fattige kunstnere inspirert av forventning om
å vinne nye markeder og mulig velstand? Eller om små samfunn som
blomstrer under oppmerksomhet og tilførsel av eksterne ressurser?
Slikt kan lett forveksles med ’negative intensjoner’.
Det som står på spill her er kulturens status i utviklingsarbeid.
Mange vestlige kulturorganisasjoner, utdanninger og statlig politikk
på kulturområdet står i fare for bare å drive velferdsprosjekter. Eller
som verre er, å bare være agenter for egen kultur. Nå er det ikke noe
galt med dette. Problemet er: Hvis slike organisasjoner, institusjoner
og policies ikke fremmer og verner om et bærekraftig mangfold av
kulturuttrykk, hvem gjør det da?
Men det er håp. Selv om mange prosjekter er drevet av spesielle
interesser, er nok like mange drevet av intensjoner om gode gjerninger.
Så hinderet er ikke nødvendigvis motstridende interesser. Hinderet er
å ikke ha klart hva vi ønsker å oppnå i forhold til konvensjonen. Først
må vi erkjenne og oppdage utfordringene med å implementere våre
beste intensjoner ved å stille det grunnleggende spørsmålet: Vil mitt
prosjekt støtte konvensjonens ånd i det lange løp? Deretter vi må finne
gode eksempler på de som gjør det. Heldigvis finnes de!
Det neo-kolonialistiske spøkelset hjemsøker oss alle om vi er
snille’ eller ’slemme’. Det beånder til og med den teksten du nå leser.
Men så lenge vi er ansvarlige for vurderinger om hva som er bra eller
dårlig for andre og for verden, har vi i det minste en forpliktelse til å
forsøke å ikke gi næring til dette spøkelset.
action groups, and educational institutions which should – if not
legally, at least morally – act in accordance with it.
The economic and political hegemony of the Western World is
perhaps surpassed only by its cultural hegemony. In the field of music,
we may even claim victory. As basic musical language, in structural
terms, our music has reached out to almost all peoples, gained high
status, and become more or less assimilated. Equal temperament,
major and minor tonality, rhythm and form structures, our musical
perception and comprehension are alien to very few. In many cases,
regional and local music cultures which in their own music making
have been reduced to a magic dust that is sprinkled over Western
structures, much as we in the West, in exotic narcissism, sprinkle
ethnically borrowed magic dust over our own structures to achieve
artistic self-realisation.
The point here is that meetings between non-Western and
Western music cultures are not meetings on equal terms, whether
we choose to think so or not, and that the shortcomings are on our
part, especially when these meetings are concrete, physical meetings
between representatives of different music cultures (‘playing together’).
That is why, to a large extent, most collaborative projects are displays
of working on Western terms, in the end reinforcing our musical
structures, our musical culture (awareness of this is usually very low,
many act in good faith due to shallow thinking). This lack of balance
is further enhanced when Western money comes into play, which is
usually the case. The poor parts of the world cannot afford to say no
to Western generated ‘collaborations’. Moreover, such meetings often
offer unique individual and collective opportunities that many would
otherwise be precluded from.
I will be the first to admit that this is a grim perspective, but a
perspective seldom drawn. And it is easy to understand why. Who wants
to put down projects with happy, smiling children? Or with poor artists
inspired by the prospect of gaining new markets and possible affluence?
Or with small communities thriving on attention and external resources?
Such put-downs may easily be confused with ‘bad intentions’.
What is at stake here is the status of culture in development
work. Many Western cultural institutions, organisations, educational
institutions and state policies in the cultural field face the risk of merely
running welfare projects, if not worse, of primarily being agents for
the promotion of their own culture. There is nothing wrong with
either. The problem is: If such institutions, organisations, educational
institutions and policies do not work for the promotion and protection
of a sustainable diversity of cultural expressions, then who does?
But there is hope. Although many projects are driven by special
interests, just as many are driven by intentions of doing ‘good’. So the
obstacle is not necessarily a conflict of interests. The obstacle is not being
clear about what we want to achieve in relation to the convention. First,
we must acknowledge and detect the challenges in the implementation
of our best intentions by asking the fundamental question: Will my
project support the convention’s spirit in the long run? We must then
look to best practices in the process. Fortunately they do exist!
The neo-colonialist ghost haunts us all whether we are ‘good’
or ‘bad’. It even imbues this very text which you are reading. But as
long as we are responsible for judgments on what is good or bad for
others as well as the world, we at least have an obligation to try and
not nurture this ghost.
I come from a country that illustrates a fascinating example
of how the musical heritage has helped to develop and foster
a modern state.
Over a million of our folk songs, nurtured throughout centuries,
have been passed on from generation to generation and they still
live today as a unique part of the UNESCO world heritage. This
outstanding musical heritage has enabled us to accumulate knowledge
that has been a vital element in building national identity and guiding
the nation’s development.
It is important to note that I am not merely talking about the
historic value of music. It is a tool in creating dialogue between
different groups within a society as well as between different nations
and cultures. Music is more than a symbol of community or social
inclusion and plays an important role of individuals’ creative and
innovative expression. It is an essential part of personality development
from a very young age.
Education is another crucial area where music brings in enormous
value and enhances a cultural identity. Countries that have succeeded
in creating strong music industry traditions give us evidence of a
correlating impact on their national brand reputation – it activates
international visibility and awareness, contributes to export growth
and tourism flows. Thus the link between music, development and
social stability is clear. It is for this reason that in recent years the
European Commission has engaged in a number of projects providing
support to musical education, local music industries and various
socially-oriented musical projects. Through programmes launched in
the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso and other developing countries,
we have encouraged young musicians to develop musical careers,
supported the strengthening of music sectors, and fostered access of
local musicians to the international music market.
I firmly believe that culture, and especially music, can be used in
support of reaching the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). I am
proud to say that the European Commission and the EU Member States
together with UNESCO are at this moment in the lead to increase
the importance of culture and cultural industries in development
policies. Music will prove to be more than just a soundtrack for this
ambitious strategy.
2011 will mark a special year as
the European Music Council has
decided to join forces with the
International and Estonian Music
Council for the 4th IMC World
Forum on Music.
It is the first time that the IMC
World Forum on Music will come to
the European continent and the EMC is
happy to have the possibility of joining
this gathering of the Estonian, European
and international music life in Tallinn.
After the first European Forum on Music
in Vienna in 2010 and before the second
European Forum on Music in Istanbul
in 2012, the international music sector
will exchange and discuss “Music and
Social Change”.
The IMC World Forum on Music
(WFM) is a global knowledge-building
platform on music and society in
the 21st century, it explores a variety
of topics from diverse perspectives:
cultural, political and economical.
Topics go beyond the aesthetic aspects
of music production and address
those mechanisms and incentives that
undermine or foster people’s active
participation in cultural experiences.
A non-commercial initiative, the Forum provides the opportunity
for government officials, private sector executives, music managers,
activists, scholars and practitioners to engage in high-level, cross-
disciplinary debates and to design the course of action for the
future.
The 2011 World Forum on Music will focus on five areas which
the IMC and EMC consider of crucial importance to the world of
music:
Music as a tool for social change
Youth: informal spaces
Current challenges and opportunities for music education
Music content, distribution and export
Music and development
2011. aasta on eriline, sest Euroopa
Muusikanõukogu (European Music
Council – EMC) on otsustanud
ühendada jõud Rahvusvahelise
Muusikanõukogu (International
Music Council – IMC) ning Eesti
Muusikanõukoguga, et korraldada
üheskoos IV IMC Ülemaailmne
Muusikafoorumang.
Eelmised kolm muusikafoorumit
on toimunud Los Angeleses, Pekingis
ning Tunises. 2011. aastal koguneb
rahvusvaheline muusikamaailm
esmakordselt Euroopas – Tallinnas –
ning arutleb teemal „Muusika ning
sotsiaalsed muutused“.
Maailma Muusika Foorum
on ülemaailmselt mõjukas üritus,
mis süvendab teadmisi muusika ja
ühiskonna vahelistest seostest ning
vastastikustest mõjudest 21. sajandil.
Varieeruvaid teemasid käsitletakse
kultuurilisest, poliitilisest ja
majanduslikust vaatevinklist. Teemad
lähevad kaugemale muusikaga seotud
esteetilistest aspektidest ning vaatlevad
mehhanisme ning ajendeid, mis
õõnestavad või edendavad inimeste
võimalust aktiivselt kultuuri kogemises
osaleda. Mittetulundusliku algena pakub foorum võimalust ametnikele,
erasektori esindajatele, muusikaelu korraldajatele, aktivistidele,
teaduritele ja praktiseerijatele osaleda kõiki distsipliine hõlmavates
kõrgetasemelistes diskussioonides ning kujundada seeläbi tegevuskava
tulevikuks.
2011. aasta Maailma Muusika Foorum keskendub viiele valdkonnale,
mille arengul on otsustav tähtsus muusikamaailmale.
Muusika kui vahend sotsiaalseks muutuseks
Noored ja inforuum
Muusikaharidus
Muusika levik ja eksport
Muusika ning arendustegevused
TALLINN TO HOST THE MUSIC WORLDTHE IMC WORLD FORUM ON MUSIC COMES TO EUROPE
TALLINN VÕÕRUSTAB MUUSIKAMAAILMARAHVUSVAHELISE MUUSIKANÕUKOGU MAAILMA
MUUSIKA FOORUM TULEB EUROOPASSE
26 SEPTEMBER – 2 OCTOBER 2011, TALLINN, ESTONIA
By seeking synergies across different sectors, this high-level forum
will provide exceptional opportunities for scholars, government
officials, private sector executives, civil society professionals, artists
and students to engage in serious debates on current key issues. The
conference sessions will be of a diverse nature; there will be panel
discussions, open discussion rounds, project presentations, workshops,
live music presentations, presentations of research papers, etc. Poster
presentations and an exhibition area will complete the conference
programme.
The 4th IMC World Forum will again be an outstanding opportunity
for representatives of the music world to meet directly with each other
and the EMC and IMC leadership, and to engage with expert advisors
from the fields most relevant to their new endeavours.
The Forum will involve a broad audience of music actors and
people engaged in and in a position to make decisions regarding the
improvement of the conditions under which music is celebrated –
created, performed, disseminated, taught and learnt, preserved, shared,
etc. – in various parts of the world.
The Forum participants will consist of
Invited speakers and presenters (from the world of music, but also
from governments, intergovernmental organisations, development
agencies, foundations, and the business sector)
A broad audience of people from all aspects of music,
including members of IMC member organisations and those from
the broader music community.
Representatives of Estonian music organisations
Music students and musicians from Estonia
IMC and EMC strongly encourage youth participation in their activities
and therefore make a special call to their member organisations to
include youth representatives in their delegations.
The organisers will also endeavour to support the participation
of delegates from developing countries.
The outreach of the Forum does not limit itself to the audience
present: We can count on an enormous multiplying effect since
every participant is an opinion leader and decision maker for his/
her organisational constituency, which can comprise up to millions
of people. IMC acts as a switchboard for gathering people and
disseminating information and new knowledge production in the
field of music.
Moreover, the some 30 different Forum sessions will be made
available as live streams and podcasts on the Internet, which will ensure
an unprecedented outreach for the Forum with a potential of a web
audience of thousands in 150 countries around the world.
Thanks to Tallinn’s buzzing cultural life, Forum participants will
be offered an exciting artistic and social programme which will benefit
from the exceptional atmosphere created as the city celebrates its year
as European Culture Capital 2011. Estonian culture will be present
throughout the city during concerts, performances, festivals etc.
In the framework of the Forum, IMC members will also gather
for the 34th General Assembly. Likewise, the EMC will hold its
Annual Meeting of members in Tallinn. Both assemblies will consider
the programme implementation and formal matters of the two
associations.
Otsides sünergiat erinevate sektorite vahel, pakub see kõrgetasemeline
foorum kõikidele osalejatele erakordset võimalust kaasa
rääkida päevakajalisi võtmeküsimusi puudutavates aruteludes.
Konverentsi sessioonid on erineva loomusega: toimuvad nii avatud
paneeldiskussioonid, projektide presentatsioonid, workshop’id, elava
muusika ettekanded, uuringutulemuste esitlused ja palju muud.
Konverentsi kava täiendavad näitused ja väljapanekud.
IV Maailma Muusika Foorum on väljapaistev võimalus erinevatel
muusikamaailma esindajatel nii üksteisega kui ka EMC ja IMC
juhtkonnaga vahetult kohtuda ning saada oma ala ekspertidelt head
nõu edaspidisteks ettevõtmisteks.
Foorumi avar publik koosneb nii muusikainimestest kui ka
erinevatest maailma nurkadest pärit ekspertidest, kelle igapäevase
töö hulka kuulub muusika loomise, esitamise, levitamise, õpetamise,
säilitamise, jagamise jms edendamisega seotud otsuste vastu
võtmine.
Foorumist võtavad osa:
lektorid, esinejad (peamiselt muusikavaldkonna esindajad ja
arvamusliidrid, aga samuti avaliku ja erasektori esindajad);
muusikavaldkonna rahvusvahelise avalikkuse esindajad;
Eesti muusikaorganisatsioonide ja haridusasutuste esindajad;
Eesti muusikavaldkonna üliõpilased ja muusikud
IMC ja EMC julgustab noori oma tegevustes osalema ja saadab
seega välja eraldi kutsed IMC liikmesorganisatsioonidele kaasamaks
oma delegatsioonidesse noori muusikuid. IMC püüab ka leida
toetusvõimalusi delegaatidele arengumaadest.
Foorumi ulatus ei piirne kaugeltki vaid foorumi publiku ja
osalejatega. Konverentsiga kaasneb jõuline multiplikaatorefekt.
Kuna enamus osavõtjatest on oma organisatsiooni arvamusliidrid
ja otsustajad, siis jõuab info läbi nende isikute ja organisatsioonide
veelgi laiema sihtgrupini üle kogu maailma (70 osalevat riiki üle kogu
maailma).
Lisaks sellele tehakse suur osa sessioonidest publikule avatuks
interneti-ülekannetena. See teeb foorumi kättesaadavaks tuhandetesse
ulatuvatele veebikasutajatele üle kogu maailma.
Foorumi külastajatele pakutakse põnevat kultuurilist ja
meelelahutuslikku programmi. Erakordset atmosfääri lisab kireva
kultuurieluga Tallinn, mis kannab 2011. aastal ka Euroopa
Kultuuripealinna tiitlit. Linnas toimuvad kontsertid, performance´id,
festivalid ja muu pakub võimalust Eesti kultuuriga lähemalt
tutvuda.
Paralleelselt foorumiga toimub ka Rahvusvahelise Muusikanõukogu
34. peaassamblee. Samuti peab Euroopa Muusikanõukogu Tallinnas
oma iga-aastast kohtumist.
Corporation. Sleepless one night in 1984 over all the terrible images he
was editing, he decided to cut pictures to that melancholy hit ‘Drive’
by The Cars. “Who’s gonna tell you when/ it’s too late? Who’s gonna
tell you things/ aren’t so great?”. For a time the editor thought he might
have done something in terrible taste. But months later the tape was
shown to Geldof and then introduced at ‘Live Aid’ by David Bowie.
One image in the video haunted all those who saw it. It was that
of a little girl, emaciated and dehydrated, apparently on the point
of death. Her name was Birhan Woldu. But she did not die, thanks
to the care of Irish Roman Catholic sisters. She grew up and was
supported through her education by the Canadian reporter whose
crew had filmed her. Twenty years on from the famine at the ‘Live 8’
concert in London’s Hyde Park – organised to put pressure on that
summer’s G8 conference with its focus on African poverty – Birhan
was brought on stage by Bob Geldof in a triumphant illustration of
what aid could achieve. The little girl on the point of death in 1984
had been transformed into a beautiful young woman, now a graduate
in agriculture from her hometown university. She was photographed
in a smiling embrace with Madonna, and one of the press pictures of
2005 was created.
In October 1984 the Irish pop singer Bob Geldof watched
a horrifying BBC Television news story about deaths from
starvation in the famine camps of northern Ethiopia.
His first thought was to give the profits of his next record to
charity, but his group was not doing well and he knew it would be only
a paltry sum. He set out instead to mobilise friends in the pop world
to do something directly for the cause of African hunger. Thus ‘Band
Aid’ and its chart-topping single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’.
What followed in 1985 was the global concert ‘Live Aid’ and the
start of an extraordinary relationship between celebrity singers and
aid activists that has sustained the drive for development for the past
quarter century.
Among the most memorable performances at ‘Live Aid’ was that
of the young singer with U2. Like his fellow Irishman Geldof, Bono
too applied his celebrity status to combating world poverty. He took
the message to the United States where fame gave him access to the
highest reaches of government and where he founded DATA (now
ONE) which expanded the pop agenda beyond money-raising to
well-grounded campaigns on Third World debt, western aid, trade
imbalances and HIV/AIDS.
The high point of the concert for emotional content was a pop
video which stunned the audience and television viewers into silence.
It was the work of a tape editor with CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting
offered the only route to salvation until, of course, the free market
failed even in the stable West. The cost of this pursuit of fashion
has been to downplay the obvious: the imperative of agricultural
development and the poor world’s staggering population increase.
A faltering confidence in the West is balanced by growing
assertiveness in the East. China has its own answers to the development
conundrum, and has raised many millions of its own people out of
poverty, certainly many times the figure that western aid has ever
achieved. The Chinese are messianic about infrastructure and are
building roads and telecommunications links throughout Africa, as
they have done at home. That surely helps China’s trading ambitions,
but it enables poor producers to find new markets as well. Beijing’s
lack of commitment to individual rights appals the West, but we also
need to ask whether it was liberal values that made Europe rich or
whether commerce, statehood and empire gave us the foundation of
our prosperity – and our liberalism.
When the history of post-colonial development in
Africa comes to be written, the role of pop musicians
will have to be recognised and honoured. They
did more than either the politicians or the aid
professionals to focus the attention of a generation
on the shame of world poverty. Without them,
certainly in Britain and North America, it is
doubtful that popular interest in the objective of
banishing poverty could have been sustained. But
25 years on from ‘Live Aid’ the age of ‘celebrity
aid’ may be drawing to a close.
Bob Geldof himself sometimes seems disenchanted.
Reflecting recently on the pop events of the 1980s, he told
an interviewer he had been responsible for two of the worst songs
in history. One was ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ and the other was
‘We are the World’, the song composed by Michael Jackson and Lionel
Richie and recorded by USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for
Africa). Geldof complained that carol singers now came to his house
each Christmas to inflict the Band Aid song upon him in the same
breath as ‘Silent Night’.
The schizophrenic British media continues both to flatter Geldof
as a national treasure and take its customary delight in tearing him
down. In the past year alone, the BBC has devoted a long and
expensive TV drama to the story of ‘Live Aid’ and produced a radio
documentary seeking to prove that much of the money the public
originally contributed to Band Aid went astray, in fact to buy weapons
for Ethiopian rebels. Then another television channel, Channel Four,
screened a tendentious documentary arguing that Band Aid was
concerned more with self-promotion than with helping Africa and –
again – that the funds were misused.
The simple fact about popular music’s engagement with aid and
development is that all those years ago individuals with a following
wanted to use their fame to respond to an African tragedy. The cause of
life-saving in one emergency was instantly transformed into ‘Feed the
World’. Then Pop found itself part of an aid business that claimed to
have all the answers to world poverty. Such hubris is now exposed and
it is apparent that only politicians and the people themselves, not the
aid-givers, will ever unlock the problem. Yet the instincts of 25 years
ago were still honourable. The need for charity will endure.
That G8 Africa summit at Gleneagles, in Scotland, in 2005 (Tony
Blair’s ‘Year of Africa’) was also the summit of the western world’s
self-confident engagement with the anti-poverty drive in Africa. As
our prosperity increased at the end of the last century and into the
21st, there was a feeling that global hunger, like world communism,
could be banished by the application of assertive capitalism.
Britain took the lead, proud of this deployment of ‘soft power’ to
balance its participation in US-led ‘hard power’ exercises in Iraq
and Afghanistan. The Labour government’s new Department for
International Development (DFID) issued a series of policy papers
with the grandiose aim of ‘Eliminating World Poverty’ and when pop
singers and aid activists needed an arresting brand name for their G8
campaign, they chose ‘Make Poverty History.’ For the whole post-
colonial era western statesmen had promised to end extreme poverty
and the final spurt was to be led by the stars of ‘Celebrity Aid.’ Yet now,
more than five years on from Gleneagles and with less than five years
to go to the realisation of the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals, the problem of Africa’s desperate
poverty appears as intractable as ever.
The financial meltdown of 2008 and the
recession that followed has cast growing doubt
on the West’s commitment to sustain, let alone
increase, its aid levels to developing countries.
Several European countries have cut back on their
overseas assistance, Ireland and Italy in the lead.
Some major players have trimmed their aid budgets,
including Germany and France. In a continuing
exercise of ‘soft power’ politics, Britain’s Conservative-
led coalition has so far held to its commitment not only to
maintain aid levels, but actually to increase them to the United
Nations target of 0.7 per cent of national income by 2013. At a time
of unprecedented cuts in the rest of government spending, this promise
is proving increasingly unpopular among British voters and it has yet
to be seen whether the government will follow through on an aid
increase of several billion pounds.
Worse than the West’s disinclination to keep up its aid spending is
its lack of drive in the field of trade reform. It is now almost a decade
since the World Trade Organisation held the ministerial meeting that
launched the Doha Development Round, the trade negotiations that
would level the playing field between the rich West and poor Rest.
They were to be concluded within two years. Seven years later they are
still mired in international wrangles, between rich and poor but also
within the rich world, with the Europeans and the Americans at odds
over the concessions they must make. When the financial hurricane hit
western economies in 2008-9, the prospects for helping poor countries
trade their way out of poverty receded further. Initiatives on the table
would have reduced the rich world’s subsidies to its own farmers so as
to benefit their counterparts in the poor world and taken down some
of Europe’s trade barriers so as to aid exporters from the developing
world. Neither has happened nor looks like happening. Where, after
all, is the western politician ready to risk antagonising powerful groups
at home in order help the poor in faraway places?
Our failure to fix the relationship between rich and poor or to make
serious progress in transforming the prospects for the world’s poorest
economies is accompanied by a sense that we do not even have the
answers any more. For decades we have adopted ever more novel
approaches to the problem of poverty – the philosopher’s stones of
development – while often ignoring the basics. Was gender equality the
key to prosperity? If we could only sort out environmental degradation!
We must demand democracy and ‘good governance’ if there is ever to
be progress... and all this time we held to the faith that free markets
her. Her visit falls through due to difficulties related to obtaining
her visa. Meanwhile, a composer from Columbia, whose well-loved
music is performed in Germany, neither receives GEMA1 royalties nor
benefits from the Künstlersozialkasse (Artists’ Social Welfare Fund).
Throughout the world there are worthwhile individual attempts
that need a boost. So for example, even if a music conservatory
in Malawi can fall back on highly specialised experts, there are no
permanent structures that would allow their knowledge to be shared.
A mobile library in Bolivia receives start-up help from Germany
in the form of financial and in-kind contributions, but no local
sponsor to ensure its survival can be found. Arts administrators in
developing countries work on contemporary art projects, but they
lack connections with counterparts in neighbouring countries, and the
network required for international exchange is still in its infancy.
The UNESCO Convention creates the conditions to promote
international dialogue by way of cultural policy; to improve cultural
exchange programmes; and to promote partnerships with civil society,
non-governmental organisations and the private sector. It calls for the
integration of culture in national development policies with regard
to sustainable development and poverty reduction. In particular the
cultural industries need to be enhanced in developing countries.
(Planning) capacities in the cultural sector have to be improved
through exchanges and co-operation, and cultural management know-
how has to be passed on (Articles 12 – 15).
The industrialised nations are called upon to simplify cultural
exchange by creating suitable legal frameworks (meaning preferential
treatment) for artists and cultural intermediaries, as well as for cultural
goods and services from the South; in situations of serious threat to
cultural expressions, help is to be granted (Articles 8, 16, 17). An
international fund for cultural diversity is being established through
voluntary donations to highlight exemplary demonstration projects.
This fund currently (March 2010) has an approximate value of $ 2.4
million, contributed by fourteen Parties and one private party. On the
occasion of the first Conference of Parties in Paris in June 2007, the
German Government held out the prospect of a six-figure contribution
to the fund.
A large number of developing countries have pursued
initiatives over the past ten years that reflect a consciousness
of the inter-relation of culture and development. These
initiatives include Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers for
the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Meanwhile, various industrialised nations (including the Nordic
countries, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain, and
Germany) have been working to integrate the sociocultural dimension
into their development co-operation policies, partly through sustained
political support, partly through exemplary programme commitments.
For the first time, the UNESCO Convention is connecting these
efforts with an agreement under international law, the general principle
of which is the “integration of culture in sustainable development”
(Article 13). The basis for these efforts is the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. Co-operation should be the foundation on which a
dynamic cultural sector in developing countries is built.
The UNESCO Convention creates a new basis under international law for partner-based international cooperation in culture and development
First initiated as a counterbalance to trade agreements, the Convention
represents a corrective for the State Parties and for the European Union
since 1 December 2009 that should hinder further liberalisation in
the WTO with regard to cultural goods and services.
The states thereby maintain broad leeway to shape cultural policy
and pursue a new quality of global co-operation.
Throughout Germany one finds a wealth of examples of private
and public co-operation with artists from developing countries and
emerging markets. It is worthwhile to grasp the quantity and quality
of this ‘invisible’ aspect of international cooperation. The practical
and logistical frameworks of these initiatives, however, often pose
challenges for event organisers and artists that one can hardly fathom.
So for example, a film festival invites an Indonesian director to the
premiere of her film in Germany, but must in the end make do without
The diversity of cultural expressions must be continuously protected and promoted around the world, irrespective of national interests.
Thanks to the UNDP’s $ 500 million fund for implementation
of the UN Millennium Development Goals, Culture and Sustainable
Development programmes garnered tremendous visibility since
2007.
UNESCO is in charge of its technical implementation. Until now
solely a Spanish initiative, starting in 2010 this fund will be increased
considerably as a joint fund of Spain, Great Britain, and Norway.
The European Agenda for Culture in a Globalised World, adopted in
December 2007 by the European Council, includes the UNESCO
Convention in the normative foundation of European cultural policy.
In November 2008, the Council of Ministers expressly declared the
goal of “Enhancement of Cultural Diversity” a part of the political
dialogue and of co-operation in EU foreign relations. Initial budgets
have been established. Furthermore, the two Directorates-General
(Education and Culture, Development Co-operation) continue to jointly
move the implementation process forward.
These include, for instance, artists’ professional organisations,
cultural networks, and the strengthening of communication and
management capacities among artists, curators, organisers, fundraisers,
journalists, broadcast managers, technicians and other cultural
intermediaries. Nations that want to modernise and further develop
their cultural policies can be supported in this strategic planning
with the assistance of cultural policy reviews. Measures for capacity
development in administration and consulting services – for example
in connection with copyrights – also help to improve and promote
the infrastructure and the general conditions for the exchange of
artistic and cultural activities, goods and services. At the same time
it is important to ensure that the activities are not limited to only
the privileged elites and the higher middle-class in the capitals and
metropolises, but that they reach a wider circle of the population across
the entire country. Such approaches enhance a more balanced cultural
sector in the partner country and ensure the sustainability of cultural
policy initiatives. Research, education and training programmes are
also important.
All the stages of cultural expressions – the complete cycle from the
artistic idea to production, dissemination, distribution, consumption,
and enjoyment – are based in different contexts, as is the case in the
established sectors of development co-operation such as education,
local administration or health. The inherent power of culture and its
effect on development processes is difficult to measure. It should be
verified whether instruments of promotion and forms of co-operation
that have been common in development co-operation thus far can be
transferred to the sector of cultural expressions without hesitation,
even if Official Development Assistance (ODA) resources are being
used. The UNESCO Convention provides a binding legal framework
for this purpose.
International cultural exchange is to be shaped sustainably according to the principles of ‘fair culture’.
Cultural policy, like most policy areas, has been internationalised by
the global interconnectedness of its players and goods. Internationally
agreed upon standards are therefore of fundamental importance –
be it for the cultural industries or the exchange of artists. In order
to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions at home
and abroad, cultural policy know-how regarding the frameworks in
Germany and the partner countries is a must. By the same token,
cultural policy and cultural exchange are politically sensitive topics,
since they touch on questions of identity as well as on power structures
and individual freedoms.
‘Fair culture’: “The cultural sector plays an important role in enabling
sustainable social and cultural development and in reducing poverty.
Fair culture means realising cultural rights and including everyone
in cultural signification, irrespective of age, gender, disability,
or ethnic, religious and cultural background. These are aspects
that should also be guidelines for development co-operation”
(“Fair Culture – Culture for Sustainable Development. Background Paper on
Cultural Sector and Development Work in the Nordic Countries”. Helsinki:
Ministry of Education, 2006).
Three things are of vital importance for successful communication
and co-operation: respect for the cultural sovereignty of the partner
country; an on-going exchange regarding individual and collective
rights to cultural free expression and development; and a general
awareness of the particular cultural context in which the partners are
situated. German organisations and their partners must be sensitive
to these relationships, and to the possibility of tensions arising. In
international cultural exchange, it is important to develop a sense
of ‘fair play’ to promote co-operation. Increased mobility of artists
and cultural intermediaries is a relatively simple way to promote the
diversity of cultural expressions.
In civil societies, whether in developing countries and emerging
markets or in Germany, there are a number of experiences and
innovative approaches that may produce fruitful outcomes. In this
regard it is particularly important that on the basis of the UNESCO
Convention the Parties expressly acknowledge the participation of
civil society when promoting the diversity of cultural expressions
(Article 11).
The Convention lists a comprehensive catalogue of objectives for
international co-operation, ‘next steps’, and areas of responsibility.
International co-operation, and global protection and promotion of
the diversity of cultural expressions affect a multitude of stakeholders
in Germany. In addition to policymaking, the Convention specifically
encourages the engagement of civil society. This poses a great
opportunity, which is at the same time a difficulty. The Convention
applies just as much to an artist, a religious charitable organisation, or
a public or privately run cultural festival, as it does to domestic and
foreign development policies of the Federal Republic of Germany or
the programme work of intermediary organisations. This places special
demands on consultation and co-ordination.
The key ministries of the German Federal Government have not yet acknowledged ‘Culture and Development’ as an important area for action.
In 2009, the Federal Government looked into the possibility of
establishing a special programme for ‘Culture and Development’.
However, the Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and
Development and the Federal Foreign Office have yet to take a
clear position on a ‘Culture and Development’ focus. This is highly
regrettable, given the internationally acknowledged wealth of
experience embodied in German cultural policy, and the outstanding
global networking of cultural intermediaries and development
co-operation organisations. It delays development of a medium and
long-term strategy, as well as timely positioning in the co-operation
with possible European partners.
It is worth revisiting the topic through interministerial
co-ordination and sector policy and furthermore to increase German
public awareness of culture and development in the field of global
learning. Politics can provide a motivating and financial contribution.
Germany has committed itself to increase Official Development
Assistance expenditures to 0.7% of GDP by 2015.
The Federal Government, the German Bundestag (National
Parliament) and the Länder (States) can all give impetus to these
efforts, notably in co-operation with the other EU Member States that
negotiated the Convention and made it possible. In October 2008 the
Prime Ministers of the German states voted to actively support the
implementation of the UNESCO Convention through international
co-operation (cf. Zukunftsfähigkeiten sichern: Entwicklungspolitik
in gemeinsamer Verantwortung von Bund, Länder und Kommunen
–Ensuring Sustainability: Shared Federal, State, and Community
Responsibility for Development Policy, resolved 22 October 2008).
It is essential that the cultural institutions in the Federal Government,
the Länder, cities and local governments promote the diversity of
cultural expressions in their contexts, strengthen exchange through
partner projects and partner groups, and develop creative forms of
public awareness-raising.
To understand cultural and creative activities as an object of
development, and to promote them as a contribution towards the
development of a country, backing from the public and from within
institutions is needed.
The direct contributions towards the implementation of the
Convention could be much more significant if both the implementing
organisations of development co-operation and the intermediary
organisations of foreign cultural and educational policy invested more
in the internal training of their executive staff and employees, as well
as in institutional awareness raising and inter-ministerial knowledge-
sharing. Employees require appropriate training. The ‘Culture and
Development’ area of action must be placed on a sturdy footing, both
in terms of personnel and finances, to ensure that the basis for success
goes beyond a handful of engaged individuals.
A solid empirical basis is important.
Within the context of the new generation of EU Economic
Partnership Agreements, the European Commission developed a
cultural supplemental protocol at the end of 2007 based on the spirit
and text of the UNESCO Convention. This cultural supplemental
protocol contains inter-sectorial tasks (development of cultural policies,
cultural exchange, mobility of artists, technical co-operation) and
sector-specific projects (audio-visual services and cinema, performing
arts, literature, monument conservation). It is based on principles
of cultural co-operation and should not lead to further trade
liberalisation. The Commission hereby refers to Article 20 of the
UNESCO Convention in its arguments. This article is interpreted
to mean that the European Community shall have to consider the
objectives of the Convention in all future international agreements,
including trade agreements. The first cultural supplemental protocol
was agreed on in 2008 between the EU and the Caribbean states
(CARIFORUM Agreement, Official Journal of the European Union,
L.289/i/3, 30 October 2008); a second one was signed in October
2009 between the EU and South Korea. The chapter contained in the
agreement dealing with culture gave rise to very critical comments
arising from both European and South Korean civil society. Further
comparable agreements are currently being prepared and negotiated
with Canada, India and South Africa.
Certain universities in Germany have committed themselves to the
topic. So far, however, there are no inter-disciplinary research clusters,
networks or inter-disciplinary co-operative efforts among political,
cultural and development experts. It would be worthwhile to create
near- and medium-term possibilities for PhD students and partnerships
with foundations, and particularly to sound out the creation of a
‘special research field’ through the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
(German Research Foundation), or comparable programmes.
Like any instrument under international law, this UNESCO
Convention is primarily a political agreement negotiated by the
Parties to lay out their national cultural policies in such a manner
that the artistic creation, production, dissemination, distribution
and enjoyment is ensured, and a diversity of cultural expressions and
international exchange and co-operation is intensified. However, a solid
empirical initial basis for the appraisal of the cultural infrastructure
does not yet exist in many countries. In October 2009 the UNESCO
Institute for Statistics (UIS) published Statistical Framework for
Culture, a modern, up-to-date work instrument. In this connection,
too, co-operation on the part of German universities could be of
service and result in visible outcomes.
as a catalyst for sustainable, social transformation and economic
development of the societies.
Addressing the different approaches necessary for cultural
development in both, the Global North and the Global South, the
IMC attaches special attention to the importance of international
co-operation. The International Music Council launched its Music
Sector Development Programme (MSDP) in order to assist countries,
in particular developing ones, in their effort to establish integrated
and sustainable national music sectors that respond to local needs.
Guided by the key principle and right of having access to music for
all, the MSDP refers to demand driven, grass rooted and integrated
programmes aiming to either develop the national music sectors as
a whole or to develop only specific aspects of the music sectors like
education, promotion and/or research… As such, the MSDP consists
of and promotes a full menu of activities that support the music sector
development which include, inter alia:
Having closely followed the discourse surrounding culture
and its importance for the overall human development, the
ongoing work at the International Music Council (IMC) has
actively engaged in understanding culture in the context of
international cooperation and development purposes.
Our working methods were greatly influenced by key cultural
instruments such as UNESCO’s 2005 Convention and other documents
such as the 2009 Brussels declaration of artists or the conclusions of the
2010 EU-Spain conference on culture and development in Girona.
The IMC has been strongly advocating the importance of music,
cultural and creative industries (CCIs) and their surrounding technical
infrastructure in development strategies and international cooperation,
focusing on how music can help strengthen the cultural sector and
how culture can help to accelerate progress towards achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We therefore strive to
enhance and further the debate with regards to music and culture
of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and community leaders. The
inauguration represented the culmination of several years of planning
and hard work overcoming the obstacles that were the legacy of thirty
years of war and the Taliban’s prohibition of music.
The examples given in this article demonstrate the social,
economic, and environmental potential provided by music and
cultural development programmes as part of a transversal approach
to international development.
comprehensive general and specialised music education
development
development of sustainable local music infrastructure
socio-economic development of the key actors in the music
field with special attention to young people, young musicians
and women
continuous knowledge development and training of key actors
in the music field
advocacy actions at the national and international level
music policy development
music legislation and partnership.
Ongoing activities in the MSDP presently include the Sustainable
Futures for Music Traditions: Towards an Ecology of Musical Diversity
project. In music, one of the great concerns is the survival and
revitalisation of traditional music. The IMC has entered into a
partnership to discover and describe projects across the world that are
successful in returning traditional music to everyday life. Sustainable
Futures for Music Traditions investigates key characteristics of musical
sustainability and aims at enabling communities across the world
to forge musical futures on their own terms while protecting and
promoting our global cultural expressions. The IMC is the senior
non-academic partner in this five-year project, led by the Queensland
Conservatorium Research Centre, Brisbane, with seven universities on
five continents. The project will produce an accessible and user-friendly
online interface for disseminating findings to assist communities and
governments across the world.
Other key activities include capacity building projects in East
Africa. Taking into account the specific needs of potential beneficiaries,
UNESCO and the IMC launched a pilot project training module
in East Africa with the objective of developing capacities for music
sector operators to access increasing international development aid
funding, and sensitising and involving government officials and
decision makers in the donor community. This ongoing programme
aims to turn creative projects into sustainable cultural industries. The
training project was carried out under UNESCO’s Global Alliance for
Cultural Diversity with the financial support of the Spanish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. The workshop is now being
followed by a coaching phase during which the trainees receive
individual and collective guidance in formulating their concept notes
and applications. Upon completion of the training it is expected that
many of these applications will result in successful project and grant
proposals, thus making a positive contribution to the musical life and
infrastructure of East Africa. It is expected that this project will further
contribute to the development of sustainable cultural industries in
Tanzania and Uganda as well as fostering cultural partnerships between
the two countries.
Furthermore, the IMC assisted efforts to rebuild music education
in Afghanistan and establish the first national institute of music (cf.
Sounds in Europe #5, p. 37). IMC was instrumental in connecting
the project initiator, Dr. Ahmad Sarmast, a music professor from
Afghanistan, with music educators from around the world as well as
with NAMM, the International Music Products Association, a non-
profit organisation of music instrument manufacturers. The IMC also
provided moral support to Dr. Sarmast with letters to the Ministers
of Education and Culture in Afghanistan underlining the importance
of the initiative. Throughout this process the IMC has been happy to
provide valuable resources and networks that have helped to facilitate
education, intercultural dialogue and international co-operation in
Afghanistan. The Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) was
formally inaugurated in June 2010 in Kabul, in front of an audience
of dignitaries including Ambassadors, officials from the government
world’s most deprived – all U.N. Member States committed to active
peace keeping, protection of the environment, and a contribution to
combating poverty as their core objectives. This historical pledge was
intended to be a significant step towards passing over the threshold
to an era of global equality and opportunities for all.
However, now, ten years after the Millennium Summit, and with
the financial crisis behind us, the ammunition with which the U.N.
was fighting the cause has proved itself ineffective, mostly due to the
lack of commitment by wealthy Member States. Today, the situation
of the poorest countries is still alarming and it has even become
apparent that we’ve taken retrograde steps on the path to sustainable
development.
It was on 9 September 2000, more than ten years ago, that
189 Member States of the United Nations Organisation,
both rich and poor countries, decided to join forces to fight
against the ever-expanding gap between the world’s most
prosperous and most poverty stricken nations.
“End Poverty 2015” was declared the slogan of the U.N.’s
international campaign, created to mobilise not only the governments
of the world, but also each and every single person inhabiting the
landmasses surrounded by the seven seas, to make a stand against
economic inequity. Its target was clear. In adopting the Millennium
Development Goals – a catalogue of explicit, obligatory and highly
ambitious aims with clearly set deadlines for improving the lives of the
universal solution for all our global problems. Alone the engagement
of these stakeholders in the realisation of the aims set out in the
Millennium Development Goals, and in the United Nations latest
resolution respectively, could initiate the necessary change upon which
the world’s development can finally thrive.
Nevertheless, it is undeniable that culture is indeed an enormous
asset, providing massive potential for increasing economic growth
and decreasing poverty. Whereas the long established sectors which
the U.N. Member States have for too long relied on to achieve
sustainable development are now becoming more and more obsolete,
the fast growing innovation-based cultural and creative industries
are gaining in importance. The estimated global value of the cultural
industries today is $ 1.3 Trillion3. On top of that, the culture sector
represents 2-6 per cent of the GDP of most OECD
Member Countries4. Moreover, as stated in the
UNESCO Concept Note of the MDG
Summit High-Level Round Table on
Culture for Development, culture
is a huge contributor to peace and
reconciliation. Only through cultural
dialogue, which enhances mutual
knowledge, understanding and tolerance
between nations, can an open discussion be
held on the areas where interests meet and diverge,
counteracting ignorance, prejudices, marginalisation and the
degradation of people. The potential of culture, however, remains
mainly unrecognised and unutilised by national and international
stakeholders.
The UN Resolution on the Role of Culture for Development represents
a major breakthrough at international level indicating a sign of change,
and sowing the small but sprouting seed of hope that humanity will
soon be passing over the threshold to a fairer world.
.
Long overdue, the U.N. has now decided to revise its existing strategies
to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and to finally listen to
representatives from the cultural sector, who have been preaching for
decades about the importance of culture for development.
In its Resolution on the Role of Culture for Development which was
adopted on 20th December 2010, a physical outcome of the MDG
Summit in September 2010, the U.N. General Assembly recognises
“…that culture is an essential component of human development,
represents a source of identity, innovation and creativity for the
individual and the community and an important factor in the fight
against poverty, providing for economic growth and ownership of
development process…”
By acknowledging international conventions that emphasise the
important role of cultural diversity for social
and economic development such
as the Universal Declaration
on Cultural Diversity1
and the Convention
on the Protection
and Promotion of the
Diversity of Cultural
Expressions2, the document
emphasises that culture is a
resource for the enrichment of and a
contributor to the sustainable development of local
communities and nations. Furthermore, the resolution recognises the
links between cultural and biological variety, stressing the importance
of including local and indigenous traditional knowledge when dealing
with environmental challenges.
Striving to achieve the development objectives set in the Millennium
Development Goals, the U.N. General Assembly urges all Member
States, intergovernmental bodies and organisations to encourage
international cooperation in the cultural field. Within this context,
the U.N. Resolution on the Role of Culture for Development
provides a new set of culture-related aims to which all Member States
have committed themselves, such as raising public awareness of the
importance of cultural diversity for sustainable development, and
promoting its positive value through education and media tools.
Moreover, political stakeholders should guarantee a more visible and
effective integration and mainstreaming of culture in development
policies and strategies at all levels, and also promote capacity-building
for the development of a dynamic cultural and creative sector. In
addition to this, U.N. Member States, intergovernmental bodies and
organisations should enhance national legal frameworks and policies
for the protection and preservation of cultural heritage and property, as
well as support the efforts of developing countries in the development
and consolidation of their cultural industries, by assisting them in
acquiring the necessary skills and infrastructure.
These new objectives are all extremely ambitious and are somehow
reminiscent of the first phase of the Millennium Campaign, when
the former U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Anan, proudly announced
the Development Goals, which ended up in the desk drawers of
most leading economy powers for the following ten years. Today, less
than five years before the Millennium Campaign is due to end, it is
highly questionable whether affluent U.N. Member States, which
find themselves in a key position to change the current economic
and social disparity in the world, will truly abide by their promises
this time round. For one thing is certain: contrary to what most
representatives of culture advocate, culture is the first step but not the
Europe has a strong community sector supporting out-of-school
music learning including local brass bands, music and culture schools,
amateur societies, religious groups, broad or ‘after school’ programmes
and many private providers. These out-of-school provisions are
available locally and frequently heavily subsided to represent good
value for money. Yet the research5 suggests that pupil attendance is
relatively low, with even the most successful models likely to attract
less than a quarter of all the possible children in the area.
The children who do attend tend not to be representative of the
full diversity of learners, with children from different social or ethnic
backgrounds and children with disabilities most likely to miss out.
In many countries, particularly for certain ages of pupils or types of
instrumental learning, there are long waiting lists for getting a place
in out-of-school music provisions.
To increase the participation in, and relevance of, out-of-
school programmes, consideration should be given to offering
more interdisciplinary programmes (for instance, programmes that
combine dance, singing and visual arts or music and digital creation).
For programmes to be accessible to a broader range of children,
music educators need to develop innovative pedagogies and creative
approaches to curricula that will engage a diversity of learners. There
is also evidence6 to suggest that the wider use of group, multi-aged
and intergenerational teaching and learning approaches may also help
to broaden the appeal of music education offers.
The second goal from the Seoul Agenda follows naturally from the first
and focuses on the prerequisites that characterise quality. This goal
places responsibility upon those who design, deliver and manage arts
education to ensure that the activities are of a high quality in terms
of conception and delivery. It is recognised for quality to be improved,
a particular focus must be given to the importance of enhancing the
quality of teaching. The second goal recommends formal qualifications
In May 2010 arts educators, politicians and civil servants
from around the world made the journey to Seoul in the
Republic of Korea.
The reason for this journey was the Second World Conference on
Arts Education. This summit served as a ‘checking point’ following
the launch in Lisbon 2006 of a global focus on the importance of arts
and cultural education in the lives of children1.
A major output from the meeting in Seoul was The Seoul Agenda:
Goals for the Development of Arts Education2. While it could be argued
that the Lisbon Road Map (2006)3 gave a renewed energy to the
arguments surrounding the value of arts education, the Seoul Agenda
proposes three key goals for arts education.
The first of these goals is perhaps the most difficult at both a local and
international level. This primary goal is to ensure that high quality arts
education is accessible to all. It immediately confronts arts educators
with two enormous challenges – how do you ensure quality while at
the same time be as inclusive as possible?
European music struggles to accommodate the complexities of
delivering on this first goal.4 The ideals of ‘accessibility for all’ often
in practice fall short of the espoused aspirations. If music education is
to reach all children, it must be placed solidly within the compulsory
school sector. This means that those people teaching music in the
compulsory school need to be well-trained and confident to deliver
high quality musical learning. This aspiration may be well meaning,
but in reality it is most likely that music will be offered as a mix of in
and out-of-school programmes.
the practices of music education it is possible to understand the role
culture plays in shaping children’s musical learning and thinking. This
may require new paradigms for understanding music education and
its responsibility within an increasingly globalised community where
diversity, hybridity and difference flourish.
Goal three makes explicit reference to the application of arts
education to enhance the creative and innovative capacity of society.
Economic success is largely now dependent upon having a creative
and adaptive workforce. Research findings8 indicate that musical
activities have a positive impact on the development of several key
‘future’ competencies within young people. These include capacities
such as creative problem solving, social communication and tolerance,
flexibility, concentration and collaboration. Music can therefore have
a positive impact on the well-rounded development of learners.
The Seoul Agenda presents three explicit and meaningful goals
for music education now and into the future. While they provide
a vision forward, the goals equally challenge us around the areas of
accessibility, quality and relevance of music education. The cultural
change occurring in the lives of the children will be only matched by
the cultural changes occurring in music education itself.
as a prerequisite for all specialist teachers and community facilitators
of arts education. Generalist teachers currently may have little or no
formal education in the arts. The second goal suggests that both pre-
service teachers (across all discipline areas) and those already working
within schools should be given sustainable professional development to
enable them to integrate artistic and creative principles and practices
within the broader learning of children. Whether there should be
specialist or generalist teachers for music is not the question, but rather
high quality programmes need both sorts of teachers. The specialists
provide discipline skills and knowledge (education in the arts) while
the generalists should receive sufficient training to be able to feel
confident to introduce education in the arts and be sensitive enough
to pursue high quality learning through the arts.
In line with the arguments many professional associations have
been making for the past decade, the second Seoul Agenda goal makes
the direct connection between quality in arts education and the
provision of appropriate facilities and resources for arts education.
Given current budget conditions, music educators are facing challenges
to maintain and develop adequate facilities and resources for effective
teaching. Newer schools are often built without specialist rooms and
facilities for arts education.
One way to enhance quality while working with limited resources
is to more widely partner with community and cultural industries to
deliver arts education. Alternate learning environments can involve
parents, family and community members in partnerships within and
beyond schools to strengthen the quality of arts education.
Once quality and accessibility have been achieved, goal number three of
the Seoul Agenda suggests that the principles and practices of excellent
arts can contribute to resolving the social and cultural challenges
facing today’s world. This is certainly a grand goal! The problem is that
a wide variety of research evidence7 suggests that the arts are capable
of making a difference in everything from educational attainment and
economic growth to anti-social behaviour and community coherence.
The fact that the arts can make a difference across a range of areas does
not mean that a single programme should attempt to answer all these
goals. A general shortcoming apparent in national evaluations of arts
education conducted conclude that arts education programmes often
lack a clear focus and the abundance of supposed aims leaves teachers
and children bewildered as to the significance of their arts learning.
The main focus of music education should be the cultivation
of children’s aesthetic capacity and their full development in music.
When this is the unquestioned aim of the programme, then it is likely
that music education will enhance cultural awareness in general and
contribute to creating and sustaining social cohesion and participation
in societal culture. A focused, high quality and accessible music
programme offers enormous potential to develop and conserve a
child’s identity and to promote diversity and dialogue among cultures.
In some ways this could be considered as being a wonderful bi-
product of the music education process! By examining more deeply
Ah, I see she’s written ‘culture operator’. It looks like
she’s too scared to say ‘lobbyist’. What a coward!
Oh come on! You know that lobbyists have a rather negative
reputation, though it can’t be denied that finding good arguments
for the support of culture is comparable to the work of hard core
lobbyists, who, for example, fight for CO2 emission restrictions
to be relaxed. Engagement in the arts and culture is beneficial for
the whole of society – it encourages fruitful exchanges, promotes
peace, and increases understanding amongst peoples.
Ok, ok, but it doesn’t help if politicians don’t listen; at least
lobbyists know what to do when approaching politicians – present
facts and figures! So what point is she trying to make?
She states that the key attributes of the Europe 2020 strategy
such as the terms ‘smart’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘inclusive’ form the
core of culture and artistic processes, and that the Europe 2020
strategy actually has a lesson to learn from the cultural sector.
Still, you will have to find the right arguments, get the relevant
facts and figures.
You’re funny! Where from? Are we expected to do our own
research on top of everything else that we do? Did you know that
most European and international cultural networks only have
one to three full-time employees? For most of them, advocacy, or
if you like lobby work, forms only a fraction of their workload,
alongside preparing content based activities, such as a workshop
on music education in Europe or the next World Forum on
Music.
But there is evidence all around us, plus a lot of research has
been conducted which is accessible to everyone. For example, you
could refer to the KEA study on The Economy of Culture in Europe
which shows that the culture and creative industries contribute
2.6% of Europe’s GDP, and employed more than 5.8 million people
in 2004. In contrast, the EU budget only allocates 0.04% to the
culture programme.
Will this really help the public funding of arts and culture?
Definitely! Artistic creation is the centre of the culture
and creative industries, without the right framework to
support artistic creation, the CCIs will lack artistic input and
will not be able to contribute to Europe’s growth and economy.
All so-called ‘culture operators’ are facing cuts in their
budgets, especially since the ‘big crisis’ of 2008, following
which a new dimension has come into play when negotiating
funding for culture. Whether looking at the UK or the
Netherlands, or at the local communities in Germany,
culture seems to be paying the price for the gaps in public
budgets as it is a sector dependent on public funding.
One reaction of some policy makers is that the culture sector
should now carry the burden of proving itself: show us that it is worth
spending money on culture – but bear in mind that our assessment is
above all based on economics – so you better find a way of showing
us that every Euro invested in culture returns at least double.
Sitting at my desk, I was planning to write a comprehensive article
on the next EU budget negotiations, presenting the arguments that we
could use when negotiating a budget increase and the continuation of
the EU’s culture programme. However, in the course of my writing, two
strange beings suddenly appeared, one on each one of my shoulders. I
could not exactly tell whether one was a devil and the other an angel
but, past experience of beings on my shoulders taught me that it was
good to let them stay there and to argue with one another.
As I thought it much more entertaining to listen to the quarrelsome
twosome, I have decided to provide you with an excerpt of their
dialogue, rather than the dry and comprehensive (well, who knows if
it actually would have been…) cultural policy article.
And we can still rely on studies for additional arguments.
Yeah, it seems like the combination of the intrinsic and extrinsic
values of the arts and culture will finally be acknowledged!
Let’s hope so – we are more! we are more!
(joining in): we are more!
And off they went…
Once my shoulders were free again and I was able to reflect on what I
had heard, I felt more positive. As was said during the Culture Action
Europe conference in October 2010, the ‘time is NOW’ to act for
culture in Europe. The EU budget negotiations are under way and it
is important to join forces and lobby for support for culture at local,
national and EU level. Only through an active engagement in the
arts and culture will the EU be able to achieve its aim of becoming
a smart, sustainable and inclusive environment.
That’s good. What else?
Well, then there’s the EU’s study on the contribution of culture
to local and regional development. This is a very good example of
how culture can contribute to growth in the regions, and also that
other EU programmes may be used for funding culture.
Oh, you mean like ‘cultural mainstreaming’?
Exactly!
But don’t you think that if we advocate mainstreaming, by
trying to convince all other EU departments (Directorates-
General, DGs) such as enterprise, competition, regional policy,
employment, internal market, information society and media
etc., to incorporate culture, in the end decision makers might
say, “Now that you have culture everywhere you don’t need your
own programme”?
Yes, that is a risk, but have you heard of Culture Action Europe’s
we are more campaign? It focuses on just two programmes, structural
funds and the Culture Programme, and highlights the importance of
culture by presenting a clear argument for why the Culture Programme
should not be replaced – It is the only place for risk-taking, innovative,
artistic and cross-border cooperation in Europe.
It sounds great – how can I get involved?
It’s easy. There’s the manifesto that you can sign online at
www.wearemore.eu/manifesto, and as it is an open source campaign,
you can also make use of and re-design posters which are available
on the website.
It reads well: “The arts, culture and the humanities engage
and inspire us, and stimulate us to challenge the world we live in.
Investing in the arts from kindergarten to old age builds societies
that are creative, innovative, democratic and diverse. Let us
re-imagine long-term public investment that contributes to
human, social and environmental progress.” – I am definitely
subscribing to this one! How many signatures do they need for
the EU to support the campaign’s demands?
Hmm, it’s hard to say, though of course the more the better.
However, the decision on the future EU budget will be made by the
Member States, thus national governments will determine which
EU policy areas they want to strengthen and which EU programmes
will then follow. And then of course, there’s the principle of
subsidiarity…
The principle of what?
Subsidiarity – this means that culture is an area which remains
in the hands of the Member States and therefore the EU does not
have any legislative power in this field. But like I said, it’s up to the
national governments to decide, and they may very well agree that
there is much more to the European idea than just economic aspects.
Solidarity and cultural diversity are real arguments for stability in
Europe, and therefore a thorough Culture Programme at EU level
is necessary.
the least due to the fact that the expert group appointed to evaluate
the funding applications had not been given sufficient guidelines
to accomplish their work: their recommendations greatly exceeded
the amount of funds available. On the spot, Norway pledged a
contribution of $ 1.4 Million but this amount could not be taken
into consideration for the 2010 round of applications. It was decided
that a second round would be launched in 2011.
The lessons learned from the first round translated into the adoption
of additional criteria for the next call for projects, including:
a maximum amount of $ 100.000 can be requested from the
Fund for programmes/projects
the Panel of Experts and the Committee can adapt the amount
of funds attributed to programmes/projects
a Party, a national NGO or an international NGO may present
a maximum of two programmes/projects
It should be noted that among the programmes/projects that will
receive funding from the 2010 budget, there were a good number
of applications from national NGOs that had been presented by the
government of the State Party. We believe this is a very positive sign.
The IMC Secretary General made a statement – on behalf of the
seven NGOs present as observers – on the Fund and its implementation.
Our statement included an appeal to IGC members to formulate better
and clearer guidelines for applicants (clear time-frame, rules and criteria,
including whatever regional and other balances are needed). Moreover,
we launched the idea of an informal market place where State Parties
and civil society groups which are considering potential projects can
meet together informally to review the concepts and explore whether
synergies can be found. This and other NGO statements can be obtained
from the IMC Secretariat: [email protected].
Fundraising for the International Fund for Cultural Diversity
remains high on the agenda: The UNESCO Secretariat was asked to
prepare an information document for the 3rd session of the Conference
of Parties (June 2011) that would succinctly outline the terms of
reference for a future fundraising strategy for the Fund.
Last but not least, the contribution of the IMC and its network to
ensure a large ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection
and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was highlighted
in an information document distributed at the IGC meeting. Only
three organisations have found their way into this document.
The working papers and decisions of the meeting are available on
the UNESCO website: www.unesco.org.
State Parties to the Convention continue to engage in the
effective implementation of the UNESCO Convention on
the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural
Expressions.
At its last meeting from 29 November to 1 December 2010 in
Paris, the Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) of the Convention
adopted further operational guidelines:
a) On information sharing and transparency
(Article 9 of the Convention)
The guidelines include an extensive framework for the periodic
reports on implementation that State Parties are to submit. It is
stated clearly that this reporting should be a participatory process
also involving civil society. The IMC and EMC urge all members to
be prepared to respond to calls for contributions from their national
governments.
b) On the exchange, analysis and dissemination of information
(Article 19 of the Convention)
The guidelines define responsibilities of State Parties and the
UNESCO Secretariat. They also include a short paragraph about
the contribution of civil society. According to the text, civil society
organisations from different regions in the world are encouraged
to establish links between them at the international, regional
and sub-regional levels and to keep the UNESCO Secretariat
informed of their activities. So, regular business for organisations
such as the IMC and EMC…
c) On education and public awareness
(Article 10 of the Convention)
Measures proposed in the guidelines target both secondary and
higher education, as well as training and research institutions.
The guidelines advocate for an integrated approach in the design
and implementation of educational programmes that promote the
objectives and principles of the Convention. Ties between culture
and education should be strengthened at the policy, programme
and institutional levels.
Having invited the UNESCO Secretariat in 2009 to provide a
feasibility study and cost analysis for the creation of an emblem for
the Convention, the Intergovernmental Committee postponed the
decision on this issue to its next session in December 2011.
With regards to the pertinence and feasibility appointing public
persons to promote the Convention, the IGC decided that “each Party
is entitled to choose the mechanism which it deems appropriate to
promote the objectives of the Convention, including the possibility to
appoint a spokesperson.” It seems that no consensus could be found
among State Parties on a general mechanism at international level.
The main part of the IGC meeting was however dedicated to the
implementation of the International Fund for Cultural Diversity. State
Parties engaged in extensive discussions on the use of the funds, not
MADE IN THECONGOArtisan Guitar Maker from Kinshasa supported by Music Fund
Andy Morgan talks to the Kinshasa-based guitar maker Socklo, who makes
the distinctive, hand-crafted guitars played by Staff Benda Bilili
Pairon of Music Fund travelled to Kinshasa in 2007 and met both
guitar-makers. “They’re struggling to survive, which is hard to see,”
he tells me over the phone from Ghent in Belgium. “They’re both
very proud of their work, and they’re very well known locally,
and supported by musicians like Jupiter and Staff for Socklo,
and others for Almaz. I went back to see them with two expert
luthiers from Belgium. They could see a number of problems
with the guitars, but they were completely amazed by both
Socklo and Almaz.”
Music Fund imports the guitars to Europe in batches of ten and
sells them through its website, paying 50% up front, which allows
Socklo and Almaz to buy better materials and support themselves
while they fulfill the orders. Pairon is actively seeking a European
guitar distributor to take over the operation and increase the
marketing push and invites any interested parties to contact him
(email below).
Socklo himself has little doubt that his future survival depends
on finding new markets. “I am VERY happy to work
with Lukas,” he shouts through a telephone blizzard from
Kinshasa. “It’s important for me to sell guitars in Europe.
But to develop, I really need more tools. They’re hard to
find here and very expensive. With tools I could work
faster and produce a higher number of guitars.”
Vincent Kenis, the Belgian producer of many bands
to emerge from the Congo, including Staff Benda
Bilili, is a huge fan of Socklo. “He’s very modest
and very conscientious. I think he makes the best
guitars in Kinshasa. But he’s a bit discouraged with
the economic situation. Nevertheless he manages
to keep going.” Kenis helped Staff Benda Bilili
to adapt their guitars for their European tour,
adding Western tuning mechanisms and piezo mics for
amplification. “These guitars have a real personality. I bought a guitar
from Socklo last December and I was pleased to see that following the
visit of the Belgian luthiers, many basic problems have been ironed
out. They last long too,” Kenis reassures me. It seems that Staff Benda
Bilili’s musical rallying cry also extends to the amazing artisan guitar-
makers of Kinshasa: Très Très Fort!
Last summer, when Staff Benda Bilili wheeled themselves
onto the main stage of the Eurockéennes de Belfort Festival
in France and unveiled their bittersweet rumba to
an exultant European audience, many listeners were
intrigued by their extraordinary guitar sound.
It was powerful, bright, full-bodied and yet as raw as an
uncooked onion, fizzing with the kind of raunch that many rock
guitarists have been searching for in vain since the end of the 60s.
On closer examination, curiosity turned to amazement. The
guitars were unlike anything seen before in Europe. Their shape
and décor varied from electric blue sunburst with classical curlicue
sound holes to blended black and copper red tiger stripes with round
sound holes. The bridges, nuts, frets and other bolt-on mechanisms
were all rough-hewn yet functional. The guitars seemed to be the
product of the eye and imagination of an artist.
Staff Benda Bilili soon revealed their secret. All their guitars
are made by Misoko Nzalagala, universally known as ‘Socklo’,
a guitar-maker from Staff’s home city of Kinshasa, capital
of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Once a guitarist
himself, Socklo now makes two or three instruments per
week in a clapboard shed in the Lembas district of this
enormous teeming city. Tools are rudimentary – just a
heap of hammers, chisels, planes, saws and anvils made
from recycled ordnance, all lying at the feet of the
kind-faced Socklo while he sits and patiently fashions
his artisanal wonders on his lap.
A hand-cranked turning machine serves to make
guitar strings from bicycle brake wire coiled with
copper filament, which has been recycled from old
engines and dynamos. Apart from the plywood used
to make the sound boxes of the guitars, all the other raw
materials are recycled from bits of wood, old engine parts,
refrigerator innards and plastic chairs. Socklo’s workshop is a shrine to
all the positive things mothered by necessity: ingenuity, skill, artistry,
imagination, pride and plenty of invention.
Across the city in Bandal, Socklo’s rival, Almaz, has a few more
mod cons in his workshop. Almaz stands for Atelier Lutherie Mazanza,
but the avuncular white-haired patron is also known by that name.
He owns a few electric tools, but an 11-month power cut made them
inoperable until recently.
Their main market has been Kinshasa’s own legion of hopeful
guitarists. But though a typical Socklo guitar sells for only about $ 25
locally, they’re beyond the reach of most of Kinshasa’s wannabe guitar
heroes, thanks to the relentless economic crises and general poverty
that clings to the DRC like a curse.
But help is at hand. A Belgian NGO called Music Fund has
decided to support both Socklo and Almaz, initially for a year. Lukas
most suitable mentors for their needs: work with a mixed choir, vocal
problems in children’s choirs, folk music interpretation, Estonian
pronunciation (for Russian choirs) etc. Mentors may also be invited to
lead workshops and courses, give lectures, become members of juries,
help regional festivals and other events as artistic consultants.
The Ministry of Culture annually gives about 30 000 € to the
Estonian Choral Association, which acts as co-ordinator for the Mentor
Programme. This funding may only be used to pay the mentors’ salaries
and that of their accompanists, with a small amount also going to the
programme co-ordinators. The regions are responsible for organising
the venues in which the courses take place themselves, and there is no
participation fee for the conductors and music teachers.
In the last 6 years the ECA has organised free courses as part of
the mentors’ programme, and it has proved itself as a flexible and
fast solution to the various problems faced by conductors in Estonia.
Thanks to the programme, the ECA has built up good contacts with
its regions, and therefore has acquired a thorough knowledge of the
choral landscape across the country. Furthermore, this programme has
given employment to Estonia’s high-level conductors and supports the
Song Celebration festivities.
The Estonian Choral Association’s (ECA) Mentor Programme
was born from a board meeting, during which possibilities
for developing Estonian choral music were discussed. By the
end of the discussion a simple formula had been found:
Better educated conductor = better conductor = better choir
There was a mutual consensus on the importance of lifelong learning
and the necessity for adult education, however it soon became apparent
that most of the ECA’s conductors hadn’t attended any new courses
or seminars since graduating from their music academies or colleges.
The main reason behind this being that conductors are not paid very
well for their work, and therefore can’t afford to pay for additional
courses despite there being a need for it, as well as a great interest in
studying!
In co-operation with the Estonian Ministry of Culture, a training
programme was developed which started out as a pilot project in 2005.
It is now functioning as a stable programme with 100 – 200 courses
and workshops taking place every year.
The idea is quite simple:
The Estonian Choral Association (ECA) announces the Mentor
Programme in its newsletters and at its meetings, inviting all good
choir and wind orchestra conductors, as well as vocal coaches, to
apply to become mentors. The successful applicants are then selected
by the ECA’s music commission. As of today, there are 33 mentors
specialised in choirs and brass bands working throughout Estonia.
Each mentor’s specialisations are presented on the ECA homepage,
allowing conductors and music teachers needing help to select the
Setúbal or Seixal, districts situated close to either Lisbon or Porto
which experience severe social problems. Involving the inhabitants of
these areas in cultural and art activities is one of the crucial factors in
the process of their region’s development.
There are plans to introduce Sound Told Fairy Tales in other
countries, with each country presenting stories with accompanying
music by their own authors and musicians. The project’s pedagogical
aspects are also worth mentioning, and from experience it
has become evident that it has the capacity to reinforce
the bond between children and adults (their families
and teachers). On the one hand the project has a
strong and beneficial impact on children’s creative
development but on the other, adults also benefit
from the Sound Told Fairy Tales performances.
Thanks to the project’s unusual context they learn
to appreciate and open themselves up to new
musical forms, which in other circumstances they
would have perceived as “too demanding”, and to re-
learn how to approach children through storytelling. The
latter is also beneficial for music authors as it helps them to
develop their work by approaching new audiences.
As music has an enormous ability to influence and shape our
customs, Miso Music Portugal believes that it is high time to concentrate
more effectively on how it can help in terms of development. “If from
the one point of view contemporary art seems useless, from the
other it constitutes one of the most profound human features, not
only establishing the identity of immediate circumstances, but also
forming collective history. Consequently, the possibilities, which an
artist possesses to assert his or her individuality are by definition a
political act”, says Miguel Azguime, composer, poet and one of the
co-founders of Miso Music Portugal.1
The cultural sector represents a strong potential for social
and economic innovation, therefore in times of economic
instability, artistic creation has a special role to play. In the
musical sense, development is a process by which musical
materials are altered and elaborated.
Therefore music, on both a micro and macro level, is always about
moving forward, changing and developing past structures. What is so
specific about music that qualifies it as an important vehicle
of development? How can contemporary art be more
effectively integrated into local, national and regional
development programmes?
The Cultural Association Miso Music
Portugal initiates projects which play a key
role in fostering cultural environments and in
creating equal opportunities. Sound Told Fairy
Tales – Electroacoustic Theatre for Children is one
such project.
Designed for children between four and 12 years old
and their families, the Sound Told Fairy Tales project is based
around the tradition of storytelling, and includes both Portuguese
and foreign tales, original pieces written especially for the project, as
well as modern stories by contemporary authors. The novel character
of Sound Told Fairy Tales is the interaction between the written texts
and the music specially composed for each fairy tale. The original
pieces of music not only complement the meaning of the words but
also stimulate the children’s imagination.
Through the project, the youngest are introduced to new music
opening their minds to a world of sound phenomena created by means
of modern technology whilst referring to various exemplary works for
children by composers such as Camille Saint-Saëns, Sergei Prokofiev
or Maurice Ravel. The project’s objectives focus on education through
sound, which is especially significant as children are particularly
receptive to novelty. By presenting new music to children all around
Portugal whose exposure to contemporary works is limited, Miso Music
Portugal intends to expand their taste and knowledge of the modern
world. Young people shape their individual receptivity, creativity
and social awareness through direct contact with contemporary art,
subsequently leading them to become conscious and independent
citizens, which benefits the country’s overall development.
Sound Told Fairy Tales has involved young audiences from less
privileged areas such as Amadora, Aveiro, Monte Abraão, Montijo,
Capitals of Culture or the Council of the European Union’s adoption
of its conclusions supporting the contribution of culture to local and
regional development, there is still a lot to be done. A change of mind-
set is needed at all levels – starting from the individual person. As
stage director Galin Stoev said in an EFA session: “I cannot change
the society, but I can reach out to a person!”
The arts – including music – can provoke this change of mind-
set which will lead to the building of our societies!
Festivals are in a privileged position to provide the means for
everyone to experience culture. They ensure a real encounter between
arts/life, artists and audience. They open doors to new artistic forms,
new performers, new audiences, unusual venues, unknown cultures,
new points of view. They inspire citizens through the arts, challenge
and offer them occasions to broaden their horizons, bringing people
together through inventive and participatory initiatives.
In 2010, EFA initiated the Open the Door project. It aims to
increase awareness of the power of arts and culture in the process of
social transformation and to foster involvement of cultural actors in
societal issues through festivals.
20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall that led to the
integration process we are witnessing today, it seems that
Europe is still far away from its citizens.
Many do not yet share the belief of a citizens’ Europe – because
they are not involved in the process of shaping it. An institutional
Europe has therefore to become a citizens’ Europe, which is by
definition a cultural Europe.
Music, theatre, dance, literature, visual arts, architecture, film
etc. may belong to a specific country or region. However, they are
all rooted in a mosaic of shared interconnected experiences. Without
culture, citizens will not develop an ‘emotional’ link to this Europe.
Culture has been introduced as a factor in EU regional
development policies recently. Despite very valuable efforts such as the
creation of the informal EP Intergroup A Soul for Europe (established
at the initiative of a group of Members of the European Parliament
in 2008) that urges to include culture as a means for sustainable
regional development in Europe, the initiation of the European
and European cultural organisations and further development of an
independent, artistically driven exchange.
Other examples of music festival projects are MusMA,
Music Masters on Air: European Broadcasting Festival,
which is a long-term international collaboration of
some 10 major European festivals; or Singing Poland!,
initiated by International Festival Wratislavia Cantans,
which hopes to develop into a European initiative
Singing Europe. There are many more examples that
EFA – in its mission – brings to the attention of
political decision-makers at European level.
The European Festivals Association urges actors at all
levels and from all sectors to recognise the power of arts and
culture! Let’s make use of this force of festivals to bring together
individuals and to shape a sense of responsibility in a cultural Europe,
a Europe of citizens!
In a newly launched format entitled EFA Meets Its Regions, EFA
brings together festivals sharing common interests according to their
regional context: the international work starts with your next-door
neighbour. A meeting in June 2010 in Zagreb that took place in the
frame of Open the Door resulted in the launch of a project, that without
doubt is a best practice example for feeding into regional development
through music:
The Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS) dedicated its 2010 season
to Festivals: Open this door NOW! The major project in this respect is
the launch of the NO BORDERS ORCHESTRA, an orchestra
that brings together excellent musicians from all former
Yugoslav republics; it will start operating in 2011.
Besides having an artistic importance, the project
has a strong educational and social significance. The
overall goal is to emphasise the necessity of cultural
involvement in all aspects of social and political
life. It aims to suppress a brain drain of young
professionals from the region; to balance cultural
consequences of transitional period(s) across the region;
to activate the civil sector through cultural activity; and
to point out the importance of an active citizenship. Also,
the project involves a message to politicians: culture and arts are
fundamental factors of cooperation, better quality of life for everyone
and regional development as a whole.
To reach out to political decision-makers is a second aim of Open
the Door.
Two ‘commitments’ were signed in order to raise awareness at
political level, to define responsibilities and to involve politicians in
the process: one in Zagreb that aims at opening doors to politics, to
civic debate and to Europe in particular in the South-Eastern European
region; and one in Shanghai that calls for collaboration between Asian
The Institute for Modern Music focuses on disciplines which are
not offered by the basic Czech music curriculum but which it sees
as being necessary for the future development of the sector. Foreign
specialists, whose knowledge is highly valued, are invited to become
mentors and tutors.
Disciplines such as music management, mobility and publication/
distribution training are seen as essential to this process, and receive
particular attention in specially organised seminars and workshops
providing new and already active musicians with knowledge needed
to help them grow and develop in their professional lives. Hosting
meetings of professionals and specialists from different countries in the
Czech Republic, will encourage new possibilities for networking and
artistic collaboration to emerge, and therefore improve opportunities
for Czech artists both at home and abroad. The institute’s aim is not
to occupy itself with administration, but to instead focus on the real
experience of making music and on active artistic exchange in order
to restore the strong Czech music tradition, enriched and updated
with the current trends, and strengthen Czechs’ identity with their
music and boost Czech artists’ confidence at international level. Music
represents a significant connecting link between all artistic disciplines
and affects present social needs. It impacts general awareness, reflects
daily culture, social standards, economical and emotional growth not
only in local terms but world-wide. It is today that the Institute for
Modern Music tries to shape the music sector of tomorrow.
The idea of an Institute for Modern Music was born as
a reaction to the present state of Czech modern and
alternative independent music scene which is isolated from
international audiences 20 years after the political changes
which swept the country, the Czech Republic has not been
able to generate artists who would then follow in the formally
strong tradition of Czech music and succeed abroad.
Why? The Czech music scene suffers as a result of a long lasting
and profound negative synergy between the effects of the extreme
censorship of the Communist regime and general cultural decline
which occurred during the period of normalisation in the 70s (after
1968), where the strive to democracy repressed artistic potential and
social progress. A further significant influence on the state of Czech
music is the focus placed by the mass media on the commercial
viability of artists in the music sector.
Where does this incompetence originate from? Over the years,
key areas of the creative process, such as composition, arrangement
and sound formation, were downgraded in the curriculum with music
schools instead prioritising only two areas: music theory and musical
skills. As a result of this specifically Czech approach to teaching
music, which prevails throughout the country, graduate students
struggle to find their ground in the modern music world, particularly
when competing with their foreign counterparts who have been
exposed to a multi-faceted approach to music teaching as well as to
new technology. The Czech musician cannot survive, as confirmed
by the performances of notable Czech music groups abroad which
unfortunately experienced poor interest from the foreign audience.
The lack of supportive institutional structures, sufficient
education, philanthropists, patrons, legal procurement, tax reductions
and global industry interest leads to a deterioration of stimulation
for the Czech artist on his journey towards originality, quality and
professionalism.
How can we help? The Institute for Modern Music aims to
improve the above mentioned conditions in mutual collaboration with
other legal entities. Searching for positive and constructive solutions
away from the current troubled situation of music in the Czech
Republic, the Institute for Modern Music has proposed a concept
focusing on four basic, inter-linked categories that it assumes will
vitalise the modern Czech music scene: specialised training , music
management and production, mobility and music export, and audio-
visual publishing.
Central to this concept and forming its initial phase is specialised
training. A professional position in the artistic field requires good
qualifications in management as well as technical skills, and not just
musical talent.
million YouTube views for the 50+ video entries by artists from 15
different countries; 1 000 fans on the Fair Play Anti-Corruption Youth
Voices Facebook page; and performances by the three winning bands
Mafilika (Malawi), I-VOICE (Lebanon) and Katya Emmanuel (DR
Congo) in Brussels at the Global Youth Anti-Corruption Forum and
as part of the Brussels Jazz Festival (Brussels Jazz Marathon).
Now in its second year, the aims to go further in raising awareness
and connecting youth globally that are concerned about this issue, and
ultimately – to empower them to make a change.
Fair Play Anti-Corruption Youth Voices music video competition is
open 10 Jan – 20 March 2011. More: www.anticorruptionmusic.org
The abuse of power for private gain is an issue in virtually
every country worldwide.
Corruption, whether petty, bureaucratic or political, impacts
the lives of millions globally and hinders the economic, political, and
social development of our communities.
To eradicate corruption and move beyond the cycles of poverty
and inequality it perpetuates will demand a multi-sectoral approach
engaging public institutions, government, private sector, media and
civil society in joint dialogue and action.
With the aim of probing the role the music sector can play in
fighting corruption, the JMI Foundation in partnership with the
Global Youth Anti-Corruption Network and the World Bank Institute
initiated Fair Play Anti-Corruption Youth Voices in 2010, a global
competition for music videos by young artists/bands (18–35) on the
theme of anti-corruption.
In its first year, the programme resulted in 10 000 YouTube views
for videos by Fair Play ambassadors African Destiny (Zimbabwe),
Ajob (Bangladesh), Blessed Sons (Sierra Leone), Fareeq el Atrash
(Lebanon), Lesen Udar (Macedonia), Profetas (Colombia), The Ryan
Cayabyab Singers (Philippines) and Steven Sogo (Burundi); three
scholarly work on music and history of the area. An exhibit and a
monograph dedicated to the famous independent French label Vogue,
which was based in Seine-Saint-Denis, are also being prepared.
Furthermore, the recently produced film 93, la belle rebelle,
directed by Jean-Pierre Thorn and broadcast on Arte, is the outcome
of a proposal made by Zebrock two years ago. Taking the form of a
documentary, the film not only presents some of the suburb’s most
creative and relevant artists today, but more significantly,
through eight musical portraits, underlines the constant
restless character of the residents, who have found
it hard to fit into the area in which they were
forced to reside. This rebellion causes tension,
which can lead to rioting, result in a significant
political phenomenon such as creation of the
‘red suburb’ or lead to increased levels of union
membership. However, most of the time it also
gives birth to remarkable creativity, particularly in
the musical field. The artists filmed and interviewed
in this outstanding film give accounts of this reality.
They express their deep attachment to the area and
deliver a truly comforting message of hope. Mixages is thus
contributing to the development of Seine-Saint-Denis by enlightening
its creativity, the strength of its diversity, and the opportunities it
conceals.
What does popular music tell us about the times in which
we live? How does it travel throughout a territory, and what
does it tell us about the people who live there? How does
studying it play a part in discovering a common history?
These are questions raised by Mixages, a project initiated in the most
notorious suburb (banlieue) of Paris – Seine-Saint-Denis – by Zebrock,
an association devoted to broadcasting and transmitting popular
music, mostly in schools. The suburb, which incorporates 40
cities with a total population of 1 560 000 inhabitants, is
predominantly made up of working-class households
and migrant communities. As in many French
suburbs, unemployment in Seine-Saint-Denis is
high, affecting approx. 40–50 % of the youth
living there. The lack of perspectives, increasing
ghettoisation, marginalisation by French society,
and a negative image in the media, leaves young
people frustrated and angry, and leads to social
unrest. For many, music is their only escape from
this depressing reality.
The Mixages project invites the inhabitants of Seine-
Saint-Denis to share with each other their musical passions.
Based around municipal archives and work with musicians and music
professionals, the project calls on history and sociology scholars to help
rebuild the territory’s musical history of the past fifty years. It aims at
understanding how different musics found in the suburb have affected
behaviour and how they influence the present. Listening to music is
the most common and easily accessible form of musical practice there
is. In Seine-Saint-Denis it shapes different behaviour, opening new
doors and opportunities for young people who choose a completely
different life to what society expects of them. A diversity of genres can
be found, from rap to rock’n’roll, from pop to all its variations. All are
witnesses of technological mutations; they represent what upsets the
society; they are responsible for the evolution of customs; expressions
of hope and expectations.
Music in the suburb therefore becomes a political tool, a part of
the social hubbub, of the cultural effervescence: It provides us with a
soundtrack of society.
The Mixages project is made up of different elements. Musical
workshops bring young people into contact with the older generations,
from which they acquire knowledge, enhancing their creativity. The
cafés musique initiative led to a series of public meetings in many cities,
where presentations of archive footage, testimonies and debates (which
were all recorded) cast a light on a common culture and experiences
shared by the residents of Seine-Saint-Denis. Such a revelation will
inevitably strengthen social bonds and mutual understanding amongst
residents. An interactive website is currently being developed linking
a collection of the locals’ testimonies, memories and comments to
who came from nearly 30 countries across Europe and beyond, were
encouraged to reflect on how musical diversity had developed (or not)
over the past decade in their own countries, and how they and their
organisations could help shape the future.
In his welcome, Timo Klemettinen, the chairman of the EMC,
urged delegates to question their role as NGOs when it comes to
‘developing culturally democratic and open societies with real respect
towards different cultures.’ The opening keynote speech, from Simron
Jit Singh of the Institute of Social Ecology in Austria, gave a very
enlightening presentation on how work and economy has an impact
on culture, with particular reference to the communities of South
East Asia who were affected by the tsunami in 2004. He commented
on how the inhabitants of the region had much less time to enjoy
and develop their culture since the disaster because of new ways
in which the markets and economy were being run to suit a more
‘Western’ model. Eva Nowotny (President of the Austrian UNESCO
Commission) and Yvonne Gimpel (Austrian National UNESCO
Commission) then discussed how perspectives of cultural diversity
The European Forum on Music, held in cooperation by
the European Music Council (EMC), the Austrian Music
Council and the University of Music and Performing Arts
in Vienna, from 15 – 18 April 2010 in Vienna, was an event
that will surely linger in the participants’ minds for a long
time to come.
There was, of course, the plume of volcanic ash that was making
its way across Europe, closing most of the continent’s airspace and
hampering travel plans, but for the people who made it to Vienna
(and most people did as the conference started just before the travel
chaos began), the discussions, connections, ideas and conclusions that
came about in Vienna’s University of Music and Performing Arts will
be remembered and have repercussions for much longer.
As people queued to register for the three day conference, they
could peruse the photo exhibition that had been set up especially by
mica – music Austria, entitled ‘15 Years of Austrian Music: 1994 -
2009’, and that would form part of the theme of the forum, itself
entitled Musical Diversity: Looking back, Looking forward. The delegates,
in line with the five musical rights of the International Music Council
(IMC), the combination of the right to access culture and the right of
artists to receive a fair remuneration might cause conflicting interests
in the digital context.
The following morning, Harald Huber (Austrian Music Council)
and Lisa Leitich (University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna),
gave a very detailed insight into Austria’s present musical diversity,
also detailing some plans for the future, and how Austria intends to
redress the balance between different musical forms.
The panel discussion on the EU 2020 Strategy saw some changes.
Representatives from both the EU Commission and the EU Parliament
were unable to beat the volcanic ash, as by now almost all of Europe’s
airspace was closed. Ivor Davies (Culture Action Europe) chaired
the session with Yvonne Gimpel (Austrian Ministry of Education,
Arts and Culture), who took the cancellations in their stride, with
Mr Davies ensuring a lively debate, collecting examples of national
advocacy activities that could serve as models for other NGOs that
were represented at the forum.
Before the closing sessions of the conference, some member
organisations of the EMC were given the chance to give an introduction
to particular projects that they had been undertaking over the past year
to the audience, and the presentations from Franz Patay (International
Music and Media Centre); Ariane Hannus (German Music Council);
Franz Niermann and Isolde Malmberg (European Association for
Music in Schools); Frank Stahmer (European Composers’ Forum);
Gábor Móczár (Europa Cantat); Edgar Garcia and Hélène Pons
(Chroma/Zebrock) and Lenka Dohnalová (Czech Music Council),
really demonstrated music diversity in action.
Alongside the forum, the EMC Annual Meeting took place
and elections for the EMC Board 2010 – 2012 were held. The new
board consists of Timo Klemettinen (Finland), Christian Höppner
(Germany), Stef Coninx (Belgium) – all of whom will reprise their
roles as chairman, vice-chairman and treasurer respectively – Erling
Aksdal (Norway), Helena Maffli-Nissinen (Switzerland/Finland),
Frank Stahmer (Austria) and Kaie Tanner (Estonia), as well as a co-
opted member of Claire Goddard (United Kingdom/Germany), who
is the chairperson of the EMC’s Working Group Youth.
Apart from the discussions and presentations, the Austrian Music
Council and the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna,
gave delegates the opportunity to experience Vienna’s musical diversity
first hand with performances from the university’s students, a concert
of new Viennese music at the legendary Porgy and Bess Jazz Club
and a stunning performance by the Wiener Symphoniker at the world
famous Musikverein.
In their extremely observant and concise summaries of the
conference, Sonja Greiner (Europa Cantat) and Peter Rantasa
(International Music Council)
urged delegates to really take
time to think about what they
had heard and discussed over the
past couple of days, and ensure
that the conclusions and concrete
recommendations that they had
come to be acted upon in their
respective organisations and
countries. With many people now
stranded in Vienna, it was the
perfect time to reflect and really
‘take some time to think’.
had changed through the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and
Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, and how they would
continue to do so over the coming years.
These presentations allowed debate and discussion to develop over
the rest of the conference. In terms of musical diversity in Europe’s
urban areas and cities, there was a presentation from Ursula Hemetek
(International Council for Traditional Music, Vienna), who showed
what influence Turkish migrants, in particular, have had on Viennese
musical life, and the different situations in which music making has
flourished and where it still has some way to go. Katrien Laporte
and Wim Wabbes (UNESCO City of Music Ghent), gave a vibrant
introduction to the city of Ghent and why it has been singled out
by UNESCO as worthy enough to be included in its Creative Cities
Network. Peko Baxant (City of Vienna) showed how Vienna has
progressed in terms of musical diversity and that whilst it is very proud
of its rich musical heritage, it is also trying to look to the future and
foster its burgeoning contemporary scene. Unfortunately, Madis Kolk
(European Capital of Culture: Tallinn 2011), was unable to join the
panel because of the, by now widespread, travel problems, but a short
speech was read out on his behalf by Silja Fischer (Secretary General,
International Music Council), which stated how Tallinn intends to
share the benefits that will come with being Capital of Culture 2011
with all its inhabitants, and promote long standing and sustainable
projects that will reach people far beyond 2011. Whereas musical
diversity seems to be an important factor for the promotion of cities,
the participants also requested that musical diversity should have more
relevance when it comes to formulating cultural policies and designing
funding opportunities.
Parallel interactive sessions discussed the past, present and future
of ‘Musical Diversity and Education’ and ‘Musical Diversity in the
Digital Environment’. The invited experts on education, Michael
Wimmer (educult), Rineke Smilde (Professor of Lifelong Learning
in Music & the Arts – Prince Claus and Royal conservatoires, the
Netherlands) and Franz Niermann (European Association for Music in
Schools) all agreed with the delegates attending that music education
varied quite widely across Europe, and that whilst some countries
seem to have ‘got it right’ or are heading in the right direction, others
need much more pushing and persuasion to give music education the
recognition it deserves as a key part of a person’s holistic education.
The discussions that followed between the delegates expanded on this,
giving examples from their own countries about the present situation
and what is planned for the future. The other session, with Patrick
Rackow of the European Composers and Songwriter Alliance and
Graham Dixon of BBC Radio 3, chaired by Stef Coninx (International
Association of Music Information Centres) showed the dichotomy that
we face when talking about cultural diversity in a digital environment:
from the European Youth Forum and Kate Declerck from Jeunesses
Musicales International. The first day was rounded off by a concert
presented by hosts Feniarco, the Italian Choral Association, at the
Conservatoire Giuseppe Verdi. This featured local young musicians as
well as guest Jennifer Port, harpist and singer from Live Music Now
Scotland. Another musical highlight was provided by the local youth
choir Coro G in a performance during the guided city tour they gave
participants on Saturday.
A wide range of workshops were offered to participants on the
second day covering themes such as cultural policy, music education,
arts management, branding and digital strategies, and music and
social change. Practical examples were given and developed with the
musical results of some of the workshops presented that evening at
the European Music Café. This was a chance for all participants and
speakers to get to know each other and further discuss issues raised
in the forum, whilst enjoying a varied musical programme and the
beautiful setting of a palazzo!
The last morning of the forum was dedicated to the European
Agenda for Youth and Music with participants presenting the results of
the workshops and addressing the issues which are important for young
people involved in music today in further small group discussions.
These included employment, training, funding, access to and sharing
of information, and music as a social tool. This formed the basis of a
first draft of the Agenda which was produced by a working group over
several meetings in Bonn, Germany.
A wider consultation was then launched, featuring an online
forum, and the WGY worked hard to get feedback from as many
young people, organisations and institutions from across the continent
as possible. The result is a comprehensive document which will be
broadly disseminated, together with practical advice and assistance
to facilitate its implementation. It is, after all, young people who are
the future of the European musical sector. Through its Access! project,
the WGY is ensuring that it will no longer be a dream that policy
makers, institutions and organisations listen to what young people
have to say!
More information about the Access! project, the European Agenda
for Youth and Music, and the WGY can be found at www.wgy-emc.
org.
The WGY’s dream of bringing together like-minded young
people from all over Europe to promote and facilitate a
higher level of youth participation in European music life
became reality in October 2010 in Turin, Italy.
This European Youth Forum on Music was part of a wider project
called Access! which is focused around the creation of a European
Agenda for Youth and Music.
The motto for the weekend forum was ‘create, learn, network’
and over 60 participants, mostly under the age of 30, did just that.
It was opened by two inspiring young keynote speakers: cellist and
pioneer of contemporary music Peter Gregson (23, from the United
Kingdom) and Zuhal Sultan music activist and founder of the National
Youth Orchestra of Iraq (19, from Iraq). Next up was an introduction
to European youth policy and music given by Antoine Mertzeisen
Eurochoir 2011
5 – 14 August, Trentino, Italy
60 singers (18 – 30 years old) selected and inscribed by member
organisations of the European Choral Association
Contact: European Choral Association, Weberstraße 59a
53113 Bonn, Germany, T: +49 228 912 56 63
F: +49 228 912 56 58, [email protected]
www.europeanchoralassociation.org
6th International Competition for Young Choral Conductors
14 – 18 September 2011, Budapest, Hungary
Young conductors under 35 years of age – 18 conductors will be
selected
Contact: European Choral Association, Weberstraße 59a
53113 Bonn, Germany, T: +49 228 912 56 63
F: +49 228 912 56 58, [email protected]
www.europeanchoralassociation.org
Choral Crossroads 2011
22 – 29 September, Limassol, Cyprus
Euro-Mediterranean Choral Fair Choral Crossroads 2011 is a
4-day project aiming to bring together 10 top-level youth choirs
from European and Arab countries.
Contact: Jeunesses Musicales Cyprus, 35 Dervenion Street
3052 Limassol, Cyprus, T: +357 995 897 74, F: +357 255 842 50
[email protected], www.jmcyprus.org
2011 World Accordion Championships
2 – 6 October, Shanghai, China
Contact: Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes
(CIA), Kyrösselänkatu 3, FIN-39500 Ikaalinen, Finland
T: +358 3 440 02 21, F: +358 3 458 90 71
[email protected], www.coupemondiale.org
Artmusfair 2011
28 April – 1 May, Weimar, Germany
New Audiences for New Music – Artmusfair in 2011 focuses on
contemporary music education.
Contact: European Composers’ Forum, c/o European House
for Culture, Place Flagey 18, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
T: +43 196 615 45, F: +43 196 615 45 12
[email protected], www.composersforum.eu
www.artmusfair.eu
The 13th Athur Rubenstein International Piano Master
Competition
10 – 26 May, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Contact: The Athur Rubenstein International Music Society,
12 Huberman Street, 64075 Tel Aviv, Israel, T: +972 3 685 66
84 [email protected], www.arims.org.il
46th International Choral Days
4 – 10 July, Barcelona, Spain
Singing week with three workshops: Mediterranean music, old
melodies and new rhythms.
Contact: Federació Catalana d‘Entitats Corals (FCEC)
Via Laietana 54, 2n despatx 213, 08003 Barcelona, Spain
T: +34 932 680 668, F: +34 933 197 436, [email protected]
www.fcec.cat
8th International Summer Choir Academy on Orchestra
Conducting for Choral conductors and Choir Ateliers for Singer
14 – 24 July, Pomáz, Hungary
Contact: European Choral Association, Weberstraße 59a
53113 Bonn, Germany, T: +49 228 912 56 63
F: +49 228 912 56 58, [email protected]
www.europeanchoralassociation.org
European String Teachers Association International Conference
1 – 5 June, Falun, Sweden
Contact: European String Teachers Association (ESTA)
Per Helders, Musikkonservatoriet Falun, Daljunkaregatan 11
791 37 Falun, T: +46 70 535 41 26, [email protected]
World Copyright Summit
Creating value in the digital economy
7 – 8 June, The Square, Brussels, Belgium
The World Copyright Summit is an international and cross-
industry event addressing the future of the creative community
and the entertainment business in the digital economy. The
summit will be a forum to exchange views on the value of
creative works, the future of authors’ rights, the role of creators
and their collective management organisations.
www.copyrightsummit.com
21st Annual IASJ Jazz Meeting
2 – 8 July, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Contact: IASJ International Association of Schools of Jazz from
Brazil, Rua José Maria Lisboa, 745, Jardins, São Paulo
SP - 01423-001, Brazil, T: +55 11 388 491 49
F: +55 11 388 476 11
[email protected], www.souzalima.com.br/iasj
IFCM General Assembly
August 2011, Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Contact: International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM)
[email protected], www.ifcm.net
World Symposium on Choral Music
3 – 10 August, Puerto Madryn, Patagonia Argentina
Contact: International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM)
[email protected], www.wscm9.com
European Culture Congress
8 – 11 September, Wrocław, Poland
Contact: National Audiovisual Institute,
Wałbrzyska 3/5, 02-739 Warsaw, Poland
T: +48 22 380 49 00, F: +48 22 380 49 01
[email protected], www.culturecongress.eu
Europe Jazz Network General Assembly
23 – 25 September, Tallinn, Estonia
Contact: Europe Jazz Network (EJN), 9, rue Gabrielle Josserand
93500 Pantin, France, [email protected], www.europejazz.net
4th IMC World Forum on Music
26 September – 2 October, Tallinn, Estonia
Contact: International Music Council, 1 rue Miollis
75732 Paris cedex 15, France
T: +33 1 45 68 48 50, F: +33 1 45 68 48 66
[email protected], www.imc-cim.org
Music Fair Frankfurt
6 – 9 April, Frankfurt, Germany
Contact: Messe Frankfurt Exhibition GmbH
Ludwig-Erhard-Anlage 1, 60327 Frankfurt a. M., Germany
T: +49 69 75 75 0, F: +49 69 75 75 65 41
[email protected], http://musik.messefrankfurt.com
European Platform for Artistic Research in Music (EPARM)
9 – 10 April, Belgrade, Serbia
Sounds, Searchings, Sharings:Towards a Common Platform
for the Development and Dissimination of Artistic Research in
Music
Contact: European Association of Conservatoires (AEC)
Ganzenmarkt 6, NL-3512 GD Utrecht, The Netherlands
T: + 31 30 236 12 42, F: + 31 30 236 12 90,
[email protected], www.aecinfo.org
Arts and Education: Creative ways into languages
6 – 8 May, Athens, Greece
Contact: European Association for Music in Schools
Tervuursesteenweg 84, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium
T: +32 15 34 66 58, www.eas-music.net, ww.primarymusic.gr
From Seoul to Bonn: Translating the Goals for the Development
of Arts Education for Music in Europe
16 May, Bonn, Germany
The EMC’s seminar on Music Education will focus on how
to adapt the UNESCO Seoul Agenda to the field of music
education in Europe
Contact: European Music Council (EMC), Weberstr. 59a
53113 Bonn, Germany, T: +49 228 96 69 96 64
F: +49 228 96 69 96 65, [email protected], www.emc-imc.org
EAS conference
18 – 21 May, Gdansk, Poland
The next EAS conference will be held in partnership with ISME
as their European regional conference. The conference will also
host the EAS Student Forum for music teacher training students
Contact: European Association for Music in Schools
Tervuursesteenweg 84, 2800 Mechelen, Belgium
T: +32 15 34 66 58, [email protected], www.eas-music.net
World Youth Choir Summer Session
13 July – 10 August, Argentina and Uruguay
Contact: International Federation of Choral Music (IFCM)
[email protected], www.ifcm.net
38th Festivals Cultures du Monde
21 – 31 July, Gannat, France
Contact: Association Nationale Cultures et Traditions (ANCT)
BP58 03800 Gannat, France, T: +33 4 709 012 67
F: +33 4 709 066 36, www.cultures-traditions.org
Music Crossroads 2011
1 September, Maputo, Mozambique
Contact: Music Crossroads International, Roger de Llúria 85
ppal 1ª, 08009 Barcelona, Spain
T: :+34 93 3118204, F: +34 93 4875155
[email protected], www.music-crossroads.net
International Gaudeamus Music Week
5 – 12 September 2011, Utrecht, the Netherlands
Contact: Music Center the Netherlands, Rokin 111
1012 KN Amsterdam, The Netherlands
T: +31 20 344 60 00, F: +31 20 673 35 88
[email protected], www.muziekcentrumnederland.nl
5th Young Cultural Policy Researchers Forum
11 – 12 October, Helsinki, Finland
Contact: ENCATC , Place Flagey 18, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
T: +32 2 201 29 12, [email protected], www.encatc.org
19th ENCATC Annual Conference
and General Assembly
12 – 14 October, Helsinki, Finland
Contact: ENCATC, Place Flagey 18, 1050 Brussels, Belgium
T: +32 2 201 29 12, [email protected], www.encatc.org
European Culture Forum
20 – 21 October, Brussles, Belgium
WOMEX
26 – 30 October, Copenhagen, Denmark
The World Music Expo
Contact: Piranha WOMEX, Bergmannstr. 102, 10961 Berlin
Germany, T: +49 30 318 614 30, F: +49 30 318 614 10
[email protected], www.womex.com
European Association of Conservatoires (AEC) Annual Congress
11 – 12 November, Valencia, Spain
Contact: AEC, PO Box 805, 3500 AV Utrecht, The Netherlands
T: +31 30 2361242, F: +31 30 2361290, [email protected]
www.aecinfo.org
ISCM World New Music Days 2011
7 – 17 April, Zagreb, Croatia
Contact: International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)
c/o Muziek Centrum Nederland, ROKIN 111
1012 KN Amsterdam, The Netherlands
T: +31 20 344 60 60, [email protected], www.iscm.org
Xth International Festival of University Choirs
UNIVERSITAS CANTAT 2011
22 – 25 June, Poznań, Poland
Contact: International Festival of University Choirs,
Niepodległości 26, 61-714 Poznań, Poland
T: + 48 608 30 70 30
[email protected], www.cantat.amu.edu.pl
ICV-Choir-Festival at the Unesco World Heritage Site
23 – 26 June 2011, Koblenz/Bad Ems, Germany
Contact: International Conductors Association
http://icv-ica.com
On 16 May 2011, the EMC will host a seminar entitled From
Seoul to Bonn - Translating the Goals for the Development
of Arts Education for Music in Europe.
The UNESCO Seoul Agenda: Goals for the Development of Arts
Education, developed in the framework of the UNESCO World
Conference on Arts Education in Seoul in 2010 will serve as a basis
for the seminar. The Seoul Agenda formulates three goals, on ‘quality’,
‘access’ and ‘social and cultural challenges’. Hosted in cooperation
with the German UNESCO Commission, the seminar will examine
formal, non-formal and informal music education strategies and
how they can reflect the Seoul Agenda in a European environment.
“via nova - Thuringia”, the Weimar Spring Festival of
Contemporary Music & the European Composers’ Forum
present:
artmusfair.EDUCATION, from 28 April until 1 May 2011.
The 4th edition of ARTMUSFAIR will focus on the important
field of music education and audience development in the area of
contemporary music of the 21st century. It will concentrate on how to
teach the latest in contemporary music to children & youth, students
& young professionals, adults & amateurs by bringing together the
creative and the educative minds - the composers and the teachers.
The programme includes:
The outcome of the seminar will be recommendations on how to
implement the Seoul Agenda for music education in Europe. All EMC
members and interested organisations in the field of music education
are warmly invited to become involved as active participants.
Register now! www.emc-imc-org
1. Conference & Round Tables – Knowledge Transfer
2. Concerts & Best Practice – from Contemporary Music
Education Europe-wide
3. Workshops & Project Stages – Building Ideas and Networks
artmusfair.EDUCATION invites composers, teachers, students,
school classes, representatives from music schools, institutions
of education and training, musicians and experts in audience
development from Germany and all over Europe.
Join us in mid-Spring in the middle of Germany. See you in
Weimar! Register Now! www.artmusfair.eu/education