Dutch Jazz & World Meeting 2010

31 acts, two-day seminar

During the first Dutch Jazz & World Meeting, which will take place in Amsterdam from December 1-3, 2010, 31 prominent jazz and world music acts from the Netherlands will present themselves to both international as well as national music professionals.

The showcase program of the Dutch Jazz & World Meeting has been put together by a team of independent music programmers: Huub van Riel (Bimhuis), Sander Grande (North Sea Jazz Festival / Mojo Concerts), Frans Goossens (Melkweg / Amsterdam Roots Festival) and Danka van Dodewaard (Rasa).They made a selection from the roughly 300 submissions.

Conference

During the daytime on December 2 and 3, a series of panels and interviews will examine the key factors that are influencing world music and jazz, in the Netherlands as well as in the rest of the world. These meetings will take place in the halls of Felix Meritis in Amsterdam. For two days, this building on the Keizersgracht will be the central location for all the professional music programmers, journalists, bookers, and agents in the field of jazz and world music. In addition, Dutch impresarios, bookers and acts will be presenting themselves at the ‘information market’ in Felix Meritis. This two-day conference is only open to professionals; this also applies to the late-night sessions in the Eden Amsterdam American hotel.

Dutch Jazz & World Meeting

The Dutch Jazz & World Meeting is an event held every two years to promote Dutch jazz and world music internationally. This communal platform for jazz and world music is intended for both foreign professionals as well as everyone in the Netherlands who is professionally involved with jazz and world music. The Dutch Jazz & World Meeting 2010 is organized by the Music Center The Netherlands.

More info: www.djwm2010.nl / www.melkweg.nl

Meet us at Womex 2010 in Copenhagen!

The EFWMF has stand n° 215 -217 in the Forum hall where the tradefair and day showcases of Womex 2010 are being held. You can meet with our members and get information on our festivals and events. And daily at 5PM, we are drinking with our friends and colleagues. So please, join us!

Estonishing Estonia

In the Viljandi Castle Hills lies the newly renovated old storehouse where the Estonian Traditional Music Centre (ETMC)is based. The aim of ETMC is to promote traditional music in and outside Estonia. ETMC also organises the annual Viljandi Folk Music Festival. Set at 150 km from Tallinn, Estonia’s cultural capital has a long history of old traditions and music. It is also home to the Viljandi Culture Academy Traditional Music Department which was founded in 1991. The Viljandi Folk Music Festival and Estonian Traditional Music Center were initiated by the first class students of this academy.

Fifteen artistic directors of the EFWMF network gathered for the annual member meeting during the Harvest Fest organised at the halls of ETCM. The program varied from folk song arrangements by Latvia’s postfolk leader ILGI to Ro:Toro, Estonian public’s bagpipe-favourites. Svjata Vatra, with Ukrainian frontman Ruslan Trochynskyi (Haydamaky), is by far the most energetic band on the stage. Alexey Archipovskiy the most eccentric. This balalaika-specialist merges several genres into an eclectic set showering everyone with emotions, for better or worse.

For the shoe-shuffling aficionados Estonia’s brilliant fusion group Paabel does the trick. Dancing in group is alive and kicking!!

And there is more to enjoy in Estonia. The country is filled with beautiful forests and natural parks of which Soomaa Natural Park is one of the youngest and largest in the country. The territory is covered with large mires, dunes, paludified forests and flood plain grasslands. 
On our excursion a fairy godmother welcomed us after a two hour walk with local delicacies and cranberry juices.

And in the evenings we cut loose in the local sauna with vodka and felt truly ‘estonishing’ when we jumped in the fresh forest lake.

EFWMF’s travelling member meetings are intended to offer insights in local cultures and establish contacts between festivals organisers and the host country’s’ music communities. Thanks to the efforts of ETMC the member meeting in Estonia provided plenty of both.

Winner of the new EFWMF-logo competition: NEDA FIRFOVA

Neda Firfova is a graphic designer based in The Netherlands and Japan. She is establishing her practice as a designer through her current design research conducted at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, Netherlands. She pursued her MA at the Graphic Design Department of Tama Art University in Tokyo, Japan in 2009. She graduated in Visual Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Skopje in 2005.  

She has been involved in designing installations that invite typographic interventions from audiences or collaborators, and other projects that involve interactive approaches to typography, book design or graphic design in general. Her work has been exhibited internationally: The Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Bosnia etc.
She works mainly for cultural and art institutions. Her clients include: press to exit project space, Upgrade!International and Skopje Jazz Festival. In 2010 she co-founded No Wonder Studio.

www.nedafirfova.com  

(the 2011 celebration year will start at Womex 2010)  

10, it's a magic number

Ireland's Festival of World Cultures had much to commemorate this July, kicking off with an aerial photo shoot of a giant human-pixel number 10, it celebrated its 10^th anniversary festival by adopting the International Charter for Compassion. Its latest initiative, Radio Hemisphere; the festival’s own live internet radio station, was launched to capture the last of an era, as Sunday’s press call bid farewell to its creator and Director Jody Ackland.
Over its 10 year life, the festival has received a Taoiseach Award (Irish Prime Minister Award) for its social integration and environmental policies and has been rated by Songlines Magazine as a ‘Top 25 International Festival. With the moving on of its founding Director, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, the festival’s governing body, are to commence a period of strategic development, a process whose outcomes will determine the future of the festival.  “So much has been achieved, from collaborations to training models, audience figures have peaked at 250,000 and we attract some of the world’s greatest artists, so of course I hope that this model is sustained, but it is time to hand on the baton. It has been a kaleidoscopic journey and an honour to have been part of this unique and visionary event” says Ackland. 
The Festival is currently being administered by the Arts Office of Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council who will announce details of the next Festival of World Cultures in December. See www.festivalofworldcultures.com

This years line up featured over 300 acts including: Rokia Traore, Khaled, Mahala Rai Banda, Calypso Rose, Amiina, Astrid Hadad, Tanya Tagaq, Adjagas, Iarla O Lionaird, Jah Wobble & The Nippon Dub Ensemble, Donal Lunny, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Lunasa, Orchestra Poly Rythmo de Cotonou, Ayub Ogada