ISCM
Global Interplay
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a New Music transmission project for young musicians from five cultures
CHINA - EGYPT - GERMANY - GHANA - USA
Besides the presentation of the newest artistic projects and technologies, the World New Music Festival focuses on the intercultural cooperation of artists from the most varied of nations. The festival theme "Grenzenlos" ("Without Borders") evokes the questions, but also the chances, with which young artists on all continents and in all cultures find themselves confronted in today's globalised world. Various aesthetic viewpoints will interact with one another at the festival, provoking new artistic designs. As an international event of the highest quality, the festival will underscore the meaning that artistic reflection has for the future of our society. Thus, it emphasises the important task imposed on art and those who create it in this age of globalisation and societal change. In advance of the festival, Musik der Jahrhunderte wishes to inspire composers and musicians from all over the world to a dynamic exchange of their differing artistic realities.
GLOBAL INTERPLAY as part of the World New Music Festival
An important component of this exchange is the project GLOBAL INTERPLAY. It focuses on young composers from five cultures – European, American, Westafrican, Arabian and Chinese – having different musical traditions. The goal of GLOBAL INTERPLAY is to challenge artists to take a conscious position within their culture and society, and to inspire a lively discourse on contemporary artistic production and composition between various cultures of the world. Through GLOBAL INTERPLAY, the ISCM World New Music Festival will be extensively confronted with numerous musical cultures that have no direct relation to European aesthetics. In this way, a balanced interplay of cultures can be considered in the sense of a "healthily" globalised world.
Venues
GLOBAL INTERPLAY takes places in Accra (Ghana), Beijing and Shanghai (China), Berlin (Germany), Cairo (Egypt) and New York (USA). Musik der Jahrhunderte is grateful for the support of the School of Performing Arts in Accra, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, the Institute for New Music in Berlin, the Cairo Opera and the Columbia University in New York as well as for the cooperation with the local Goethe-Institutes.
Teams and teamleaders
There will be a team in each city for up to eight young artists to participate. The teams will be formed by prospective students of composition or creative musicians.
Each teams has a mentor:
Prof. Kwabena Nketia, Dr. Zabana Kongo (Ghana) in Accra
Prof Wenchen Qin (China/Germany) in Beijing and Prof Shirui Zhu (China/Germany) in Shanghai
Prof Walter Zimmermann (Germany) in Berlin
Amr Okba (Austria/Egypt) in Cairo
Marcelo Toledo (Argentina/USA) in New York
Timeframe
Between April 2005 and July 2006 various local workshops and international conferences will be held. Furthermore, the members continue their discourses in an intranet.
Workshops and Discussions
Play: The workshops' programme is to analyse different methods of composition and to discuss varying aesthetic criteria. The workshop members will explore their own musical tradition as well as the music-cultures belonging to the other four teams. Part of this is to jointly analyse scores, listen to selected works, interpret own compositions and experiment with various media.
Interplay: A central aspect of the workshop is reflection. Questioning concepts like cultural identity, the workshop members discuss their own artistic claims towards their respective societies. The exchange with the other teams is about to explore differences and continuities, to formulate borders, to create common artistic strategies or to rework visions for the future.
The participants also continue their discourses in a special internet plattform.
Experts and team conferences
Each team has at least one "expert" for each of the four other cultures. The experts will be in close contact with the experts of the other teams. In the process of GLOBAL INTERPLAY each city will host a conference with the other teams' experts as the special guests.
Competition in Composition
Each participant through his/her individual work will take part in a competition, in which not only musical scores but also sound and video collages and installation or performance art is allowed. The participants are encouraged to reflect the cross-cultural dialogue in their works. They may also wish to create co-productions with the members of both their own team and the other teams. The style of the work is completely optional and up to the individual composers.
Jurors of the competition are the five team mentors, with the exception that no juror may vote in the competition of his/her own team. From each team, one winner (or a winner group) will be chosen, whose work will be presented at the World New Music Festival 2006. A total of eight works will be featured at the festival.
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