Newsletter
Letter from the Director:
Camerata Mediterranea's first international colloquium was, according to all accounts, a magnificent musical and intellectual success, culminating in a standing ovation from the capacity audience in the abbey church of Saint-Guilhem.. It was also a beautiful moment of human encounter and exchange. I would like to thank all the participants -- musicians, scholars, and scholar/musicians -- for giving their absolute best. It was something rare and unforgettable.
Our thanks also go to Sabrina Bossa, our tireless and infinitely resourceful onsite assistant, to Alain Durel and Inge Thaes of the Camerata Mediterranea, to Daniel Kuentz and Le Désert Imaginaire, and to mayor Philippe Machetel and the town of Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert. Our institute is richer for the friendship and support of such wonderful people.
A special word about the locality and the welcome it offered us. Saint-Guilhem is one of the most famous and most visited villages in France. But its permanent population is only a couple of hundred, and an operation of this nature required countless hours of preparation and enormous concentrated effort in order to succeed. Philippe Machetel especially showed his utter dedication and comittment to this project, putting in what appeared to be 25 hour days on behalf of its success. We were awed, and grateful.
This was our first such event, and there will be more! Be sure to check back here for additional documentation of the colloquium, and for further news and developments.
Best wishes to all,
Joel Cohen
Artistic Director
To see some images of the colloquium, please click here.
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A Personal Invitation from the Director
It is with great pleasure that I announce Camerata Mediterranea's first international colloquium:
MUSIC OF THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD:
Encounters and Exchanges in the Middle Ages, and Beyond
to be held June 26 and 27 in the magnificent medieval pilgrimage village of Saint-Guilhem-le-Désert (Hérault, France). The venue, located just a few miles/kilometers from the urban hub of Montpellier, yet rich in beauty and in historical associations, is perfect for the kind of intercultural work Camerata Mediterranea aims to do. We are most grateful to the municipality of Saint Guilhem and to the association Le Désert Imaginaire for the opportunity to co-produce this event, and we hope to see you there!
--Joel Cohen
Artistic Director
An American In Paris
By Yasmina Kamal, North American Project Coordinator
June 2008
On the 10th of May, I flew in to France for a full agenda of Camerata Mediterranea meetings in Paris, Chaville and Dordogne. Within the first few days of my visit to the city of light, I was introduced to many members of our French Advisory Board and met with our French Project Coordinator, Faïza Mohamed-Zeïna.
The artistic Director Joel Cohen and I also met with French videographer Stephane Ginet and developed a plan for a Camerata Mediterranea public relations DVD, set to be released later this summer. The video will feature clips of relevant presentations by Mr. Cohen and the Boston Camerata, and will include an insightful interview with Mr. Cohen himself on the essence and the importance of the institute's mission.
On the 14th I traveled with Mr. Cohen to the picturesque village of Saint Amand de Vergt in the Dordogne region, where we met with the President of our Board of Directors, Alain Durel. In the photo to the left, taken at the Durels' country home, Joel Cohen is on the left, Alain Durel (the former director of the Opéra de Lyon) is in the middle, and I am on the right.
Together, we developed a set of comprehensive and concrete project proposals including specific subjects, projected budgets, and schedules for educational lecture-concerts on the main themes of our institute. To view these project proposals, please click here.
These initial subjects of choice are not only adaptable to many religious and secular audiences, but also serve as perfect examples of how much each of the Abrahamic religions (and therefore the vast majority of the Mediterranean cultures) truly have in common. For more information on these topics, or to speak with someone about hosting an educational project through your group or organization, please browse through the information in our Related Links Page, or contact the Project Coordinator in your country. Faiza and I will be happy to respond.
Upon our return to Paris, Mr. Cohen and I met with Hervé Méudic, the Director of the Atrium of Chaville where Camerata Mediterranea is in residence. Mr. Méudic granted me a full guided tour of the facility, and I was impressed by the full libraries, art galleries, modern auditorium, expandable conference spaces, and floor after floor of opportunities for the community to enjoy cultural programs, events and classes. Guy Perrocheau, the Atrium's Director of Cultural Programs, showed us their full menu of educational and cultural presentations by internationally-acclaimed scholars, which are free and open to the public.
We presented our educational project proposals to Mr. Perrocheau, and after some fancy scheduling footwork, Camerata Mediterranea is slated to present a series of four lecture recitals in the month of March 2009 at the Atrium. For updates on precise content and available seating for this lecture series, please keep an eye on our Project page! Discussions are still underway for a full-scale colloquium in the year 2009, and developments on this project will be available for review on our Projects page as well. If you are interested in speaking to someone in more detail about such a collaboration, again please feel free to email the Project Coordinator in your country!
I am now back in the states, and have received word that both the retired ambassador from Spain and the deputy mayor in charge of culture in Neuilly sur Seine in Paris are meeting with our Artistic Director this week with interest in Camerata Mediterranea's mission, and our promotional video shoot took place on Tuesday the 3rd of June, with editing scheduled for the end of the month. Big developments are underway for Camerata Mediterranea, and we are all excited to be a part of it.
If you would like to learn more about the institute's upcoming projects and stay up to date with our latest developments, please be sure to sign up for our free monthly newsletter! To sign up, please email your local Project Coordinator or click on the link at the top of this page. Our debut edition will be sent out in the next few weeks, so sign up soon!
An Intercultural Classical Music Institute
Outline of a Proposal
By Joel Cohen, Artistic Director
January 2007
I. The need
As the world changes, the notion of what constitutes shared culture also evolves rapidly. On the one hand, American-inspired mass culture penetrates everywhere, superficially uniting all peoples of all countries in a common set of signs, products, slogans, and values. On the other hand, this mass culture weakens and undermines the old, traditional, and "high" art of every country it touches, (sometimes even physically destroying the artifacts). At the same time, political, religious, and ideological movements seek to emphasize the rifts and gaps among the various world civilizations. These various movements are pernicious, and frequently very effective. The need is strong, therefore, for positive cultural forces to counter the negative ones.
The world of "high" or "classical" culture needs to respond to these changes by identifying the elements that can contribute to growth and revitalisation in contemporary life. Rather than allowing itself to be marginalised and fossilised, the world of "classical" music needs to draw on its own heritage, without pandering and without demagogy, emphasising those dimensions of its past and present being that most forcefully address the urgent needs of people today.
II. Finding a subject of common conversation
A. Too many current barriers to understanding
We are all of us on this planet living in close quarters, much closer than a few generations ago. It is no longer possible to isolate cultures from each other. The interactions will be either nocive or fertile, but they are inevitable. The challenge therefore is to make the interactions good ones rather than bad.
Our concern is musical art, where walls are built high and thick. The "high" musical art of America/Europe, and the "high" musical art of non-Western cultures rarely interact in a serious, developing way. Individual artists, of course, take inspiration from the diversity of civilisations around them, and the mass culture industry has manufactured many a "world music" product to respond to the movements of the marketplace. On both the "high" and the "pop" levels, there have been good examples of intercultural ebullition, and well as failures. These experiences and efforts, however, are not sufficient to meet a pressing need for greater renewal and understanding among coexisting cultures.
There are a number of possible ways to encourage and nurture the meeting of serious musicians and genuine musical scholars from different cultural horizons. What I am proposing here is one such, its particulars drawn from my own professional and personal interests, and from successful beginnings along these lines with the Boston Camerata, the Camerata Mediterannea and the Abdelkrim Rais Orchestra of Fes, Morocco. I would hope that the particulars of this proposal could serve as a paradigm for other intercultural endeavors.
B. The paradigm of medieval Spain
Much has been written about the many-faceted and multiconfessional civilisation of medieval Spain. Few of us, however, can claim to understand more than a small part of that civilisation.
While Western musicians and musicologists study the notated musical sources of the Christian courts and churches, they only rarely have detailed and intense contact with the Arabic musical repertoire of Morocco and Algeria. According to the tradition of those countries, the "Arabo-andalusian" music still heard there is the repertoire of the Islamic courts of medieval Spain.
Similarly, Arabic musicians of the "high art" tradition learn their local repertoires -- largely different from each other in Morocco and Algeria, though with many points of contact -- without much detailed awareness of the neighboring countries' music. And hardly any of these musicians has a detailed knowledge of Christian Spanish practices of the period.
The North African countries of the Maghreb also nurtured a Judaeo-Arabic and Judaeo-Spanish repertoire that claims descent to some degree from medieval Iberia.
Here, therefore, is a logical and organic "place", a moment in history that was "multicultural" before the buzzword was invented. Let us build on this moment of common historical experience. More of us need to have an informed and balanced view of the whole. We need to educate ourselves beyond the current boundaries.
III. Creating an institutional space to meet, reflect, and create
What is required is a "light" institutional structure -- either standing alone or as part of a university, conservatory, arts center, festival, or similar organization. An executive project director and an administrator would be sufficient paid staff on an ongoing basis, to be supplemented by other personnel on a per-project basis.
Activities to be organised would include (but not necessarily be limited to):
-Colloquia (duration from a week to several weeks) reuniting recognised scholar-specialists and
professional musicians. For instance: A long meeting on Arabo-Andalusian musical and poetic forms,
in relation to medieval European musical practices.
-Teaching semesters or mini-semesters. For instance: a semester-long course on Arabo Andalusian
music for European musicians.
-A semester-long course on medieval European music for professional
musicians of the Maghreb.
-Language and poetry study sessions Classical Arabic for Western musicians and scholars.
-"Scholarships" for proven professionals to study firsthand outside their field For
instance: the opportunity for European-trained musicians to study with and work with Arabic music
specialists onsite in North Africa.
Evetually, the new institution could help conceive and organize performance and recording projects, even on a large international scale. But the first step is to increase and diffuse knowledge. This done, we can put the knowledge to work intelligently.
The need is real, and the hour is late. Those of us who care about the role of high culture in the interdependent world civilization of tomorrow have an opportunity to build something new using the solid materials of our common and precious past.
