Re: small community events

[Fay Singer <sarafay...>]

Re: Events within a small Jewish community
From: Fay Singer sarafay (at) mweb(dot)co(dot)za

In Cape Town, at the very tip of Africa, we also have a Jewish community
which is unfortunately declining in numbers. It becomes more difficult for
me each time I intend to promote a Jewish music event. Over the past ten
years I have put on various successful concerts, lecture-series,
performances of vocal music (Ashkenazi & Sephardic), klezmer, synagogue
choirs, chazzanim, etc. but when I wish to bring in 'imported' artists it is
always a battle to find finance. I agree with Michel Borzykowski that one
gains more from dealing with certain non-Jewish sponsors, than with one's
own Jewish community. A case in point is that it took me about eight months
of hard work and negotiation to arrange a tour for the Leipzig Synagogalchor
to come to Cape Town in 1998. I had to battle against huge negativity from
Cape Town Jewry about this project; and had to convince everyone that this
tour would be a success. And it certainly was! Sponsorship was provided by
the Deutsche Musikrat & help 'on-the-ground' came largely from the German
consulate and commercial sponsors. I always try to work under the banner of
an existing organisation e.g. a womens'  Zionist group / or a communal
organisation / which then helps with the tasks of selling tickets, printing
of programmes. This gives me freedom to handle all the music requirements of
the performers, their rehearsals, getting hold of the sheet-music (when
necessary), and publicity through radio, local newspapers, both general and
in the Jewish press.
----- Original Message -----
From: borzykowski <borzykowski (at) infomaniak(dot)ch>
To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Cc: JEWISH MUSIC LIST <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 1999 9:59 PM
Subject: Re: small community events


>
> ----- Message d'origine -----
> Dear Helen,
> I feel very concerned with your questions!
> As I already told you in a previous email, I'm staff member of the AMJ
> (Jewish Music Association) in Geneva and we have often to deal with these
> problems. A small community
> (about 3000 jews among 600'000 inhabitants in Geneva) means a small budget
> and every time we organize a concert or a similar event, we are forced to
> spend much time writing letters and knocking at  doors to get the money
> for... but till now, we've never got any sponsoring from the jews!
> Paradoxically, we found more financial help among the official "goyim"
> organizations (the Cultural Dept. of the City, the Public Schools Dept.,
the
> Swiss Lottery, etc.)
>
> Most of our public shows take place in goyim festivals, concert halls or
> night-clubs!
> As musicians, we would play "free" for jewish cultural or commemorative
> events (like yom hashoah) but they often prefer a CD or invite christian
musicians!
>
> Two other examples:
> Last november, we concieved and elaborated a klezmer week-end with
musicians
> from Geneva and Bern  in a very marginal and alternative theater. It was
> rather
> strange but very intersting to see there a mixture of young  goyim (who
were
> familiar with the place but not with the music) and old jews  (who came
> there for the first time to listen to the music)! We couldn't get any
> financial help from any jewish bank nor community we asked for. We printed
> posters,
> sended mailings, prepared jewish food and drinks and sold CD's at the end
> of the concert. It was a real success from the artists' and the visitor's
> point of view, but  we made no benefit nor had money loss.
>
> We recently invited for a concert Marcel Salomon (if klezmer
> fans don't know this fabulous clarinet player, they must get one or many
of
> his CDs : First Klez, Klez Best, A Dreydl, The art of Trio, (on Syncoop) &
> Klezmer ) with
> Wim Hamans. For the musician's fees, we got 1000 swiss francs from the
> local cultural festival "La Fureur de Lire" but the entry had to be free!
We
> could get  a
> reduced price flight ticket for the musicians from the cultural service of
> the dutch embassy!
> We put a hat at the outdoor,  that was the way we could make both ends
meet.
>
> Another problem is that some other jewish associations sometimes organize
> parallel events without us: We experiences it twice recently :
> We planed for next year a concert with catholic,
> orthodox and jewish versions of psalms... and we casually discovered in
the
> next year's program of the"Ateliers d'Ethnomusicologie" (a cultural ethnic
> music association in Geneva)  that they took the wind out of our sails
with
> this idea.
>
> In the same state of mind, a jewish bank sponsored a "semi-private"
concert
> of Françoise Athlan in Geneva next week and nobody thought to associate
the
> AMJ, not even to inform our members.
>
> As you can see I'm rather undeceived about the help we can get from a
small
> community!
> I hope you make more positive experiences.
>
> Shalom
> Michel
>
> Michel Borzykowski
> 12 chemin Franconis
> CH-1290 Versoix
> Switzerland
> tel (+41/22) 755.41.23
> fax (+41/22) 776.14.94
> e-mail: borzykowski (at) infomaniak(dot)ch
> homepages: http://www.infomaniak.ch/~borzykowski
> &: http://homepage.iprolink.ch/~tengler/RojinkesMandeln
>
>
>
>

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