By Daniel Garavano, IFCM Vice President
At the end of September, the cities of Puerto Madryn and Buenos Aires played host to some prominent members of the International Federation of Choir Music, who were there for the final stage in organising the 2011 9th World Symposium on Choral Music, which begins in less than 300 days.
The Organizing Committee, which met on the 22nd and 23rd of September in Puerto Madryn, consisted of members of the CIC Foundation, Puerto Madryn Municipality representatives, and Steen Lindholm from Denmark, who was responsible for organizing the last Symposium held in Copenhagen in July 2008. They discussed venues for the Symposium, and their suitability for hosting the conferences, concerts, singing community and ExpoChoral. They also considered the global dissemination of the Symposium activities, and all the related issues of accommodation, transport, meals, and the excursions to be provided for the individual participants. Mr Lindholm was also present in the role of Guest Director in the Singing Community of “Madryn Sings”, which took place some days previously.
On Friday the 24th and Saturday the 25th, the Artistic Committee met to review every aspect of the Artistic and Academic Programming for the Symposium – the organization of the Master Classes, the Institutional Presentations, and the Round Tables – and to develop and supervise related activities such as the Conference of the World Music Council of the Three Americas (COMTA – IMC), and the Latitude 35 Project in co-operation with the Argentine Music Council (CAMU). In addition, an interesting meeting took place between ArtCom and the leaders of the Working Committees responsible for developing all the Symposium activities, who received valuable feedback from the experienced members of the Artistic Committee. The Artistic Committee members are Theodora Pavlovitch (Bulgaria), Lyn Williams (Australia), Philip Brunelle (USA), Néstor Andrenacci (Argentina), Daniel Garavano (Argentina) and Diego Lenger (Argentina) who is the Secretary.
On Friday the 24th at noon, the members of the Symposium ArtCom and the Madryn Sings Maestros were received by the Mayor of Puerto Madryn who exchanged gifts with Philip Brunelle (USA). Mr Brunelle carried a special message from the Mayor of Minneapolis – home to the Symposium’s IFCM in 2002.
On the same day, the Executive Committee of the International Federation for Choral Music met for the first time on Argentinean soil,. Present were Interim President Michael J. Anderson (USA), First Vice-President Daniel Garavano (Argentina), Treasurer Philip Brunelle (USA), and the Vice-presidents Theodora Pavlovitch (Bulgaria) and Leon Shiuwai Tong (China). For reasons of health, Fred Sjöberg (Sweden) was absent. The IFCM’s ExCom discussed administrative issues and decided on matters relating to the IFCM’s future, and also acted on work begun after the Assembly of Directors which took place in Barcelona in July.
The work of the Executive Committee then continued with Michael J. Anderson (USA), Jeroen Schrijner (Switzerland), Ricardo Denegri (Argentina – OFADAC), Willie Paats, representing the city of Puerto Madryn, Daniel Garavano of the Fundación CIC, and Secretary María de las Mercedes Zavala. Tuesday the 28th and Wednesday the 29th were devoted to questions relating to organization, administration, publicity, the Symposium’s General Budget, and further organizing of ExpoChoral.
On September 30th, activities moved to Buenos Aires where IFCM Interim President Michael J Anderson, accompanied by chief Vice-President Daniel Garavano and Councilor Ricardo Denegri, together with Jeroen Schrijner, met with members of the Organizing Committee of the Organización Federada Argentina de Actividades Corales – OFADAC (Jorge Villamarín, Horacio Alfaro, Bernardo Moroder). Subsequently they also met with the President and Secretary for International Relations of the Argentinean Association of Choir Directors – ADICORA – Hugo de la Vega and Maximiliano Mancuso. Both were productive meetings, informing President Anderson about choral activities in Argentina, and he requested the cooperation of the International Institution in advising on matters such as Interchange of Activities, the work situation of Choir Directors, and Cultural Legislation. In addition, they will work together with Ricardo Portillo, who will be the Argentinean Director of the World Youth Choir in the 2011 Argentina-Uruguay session.
Finally, at 6:30 p.m on September 30th in the Miguel Cané room at the Ministry of Culture of the Presidency of the Republic of Argentina, there was a presentation of the 9th Symposium in the presence of José Luis Castiñeira de Dios, National Director for Arts, Ricardo Lázaro, Vice-Mayor of Puerto Madryn, Daniel Garavano, President of the CIC Foundation, and Michael J. Anderson, IFCM President, who referred to the importance of the fact that the IFCM Symposium was being held on Latin American soil for the first time. The event closed with more than eighty people from the Argentinean choral world, Maestros in charge of Symposium Conferences, numerous journalists, and the Grupo Vocal de Difusión (GVD) led by Mariano Moruja. GVD is one of the three Argentinean choirs selected to participate in the Symposium, and they received great applause and compliments from those present. A reception was held to mark the closing, with of course a fine selection of excellent Argentinean wines.
We are less than three hundred days away from the start of the 9th World Symposium on Choral Music. Already, we are receiving enrolments every day and answering messages from directors all over the world who want to participate. The community of Puerto Madryn is preparing to receive the participants, and the Argentinean institutions involved are ready to welcome the choirs with open arms.
Don’t miss the 9th World Symposium on Choral Music. All the information can be found on the website www.wscm9.com. Up to the 31st March enrolments will carry an interesting bonus, and you will also be guaranteed a good place at the conferences and concerts.
Puerto Madryn awaits you…. you can already hear the tango playing.
Email: aledangara@yahoo.com.ar
Translated from the Spanish by Martin Clarke, Argentina
Edited by Gillian Forlivesi Heywood, Italy