by Patricia Adkins Chiti, President as published in the IAWM Journal, Winter 1998, pp. 28-29.
The facts and figures given below may not seem the best way of describing this year's Festival and Symposium, but they are essential when we go on the hunt for sponsorship and backers of the 1998 edition, the programming of which is being completed as I write. The 1997 edition comprised three sections: September 1-14-Visual Arts; 8-14-Festival; 11-13- Symposium. From September 9 to 14, a Street Workshop for Children was held.
The following countries were represented. Europe: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland. North America: Canada, United States. Middle East: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco. Asia: Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Turkey.
From our accounts, we discovered that we paid for 850 beds, 720 meals and 80 overseas flights. We printed 35,000 brochures, playbills, posters, general catalogues, programs, maps of the village, postcards with our logo, postcards for the Visual Arts Section, and T-shirts with our logo. We even put up posters in the airports and two street-long banners in Fiuggi and Rome. Our mailing was world wide and we also had information on our own Web Site and on those of a number of other national organizations. This year's press book contains more than 300 articles (national and international), in addition to which we had 90 radio programs and 34 television programs, including services by RAI TV, CNN and Royal Moroccan TV.
The 1997 edition ended with Silvia Costa, President of the National Commission for Equal Opportunities, suggesting that we should set up an association for "Friends of the Festival" so as to enlarge our area of action. This suggestion, plus the confirmation of Agnes Bashir (Jordan) and Joanna Bruzdowicz (Poland and Belgium) as new members of the Honour Committee of the Foundation, was presented to the November Board Meeting of the Foundation and accepted.
Since the closing of this year's Festival, I have been traveling extensively on behalf of the National Commission and the President's Privy Council; I have had meetings with women composers in Slovenia and Albania and have convinced them to set up local "Women in Music" organizations. We hope they will be with us in Fiuggi in 1998.
The Foundation is a member of the International Music Council (IMC) of UNESCO. After the General Assembly in Rome at the end of September, it was decided to organize a special section for Mediterranean countries, and the Foundation has become a member of this new organization: OMM (Organization for Mediterranean Music/UNESCO). At a recent meeting in Barcelona where we determined just which countries would become part of the organization, I was able to set up further contacts with a number of countries which had not been present at the Assembly in Rome. As a result of this, I believe that the 1998 edition will see women composers from many of the other Mediterranean countries.
The IMC Assembly also enabled me to make personal contact with the General Directors of the National Music Committees for most of the Asian and African countries, and for this reason I have decided to include a greater amount of music from these areas in the Festival being planned for 1998. Below, you will find the 1998 Guidelines, from which it can be seen that we are looking for very specific works for the program planning, as well as proposals for the musicological part of the Symposium.
Latin America is still somewhat absent from the women in music scenario. Distance and travel costs are part of the problem, and we hope to tackle these for the 1999 edition of the Festival. Although we manage to find funding for all of our activities, there is a limit within which we must try to maintain our costs. As those of you who have been to Fiuggi know, we employ professional musicians from many different parts of the world and must, therefore, also pay insurance contributions and national taxes which amount to nearly 26% of every single fee.
I should like to underline that not only do we commission ten new works each year, but we have also undersigned a publishing agreement with Italy's Casa Musicale Sonzogno (one of the oldest houses), which has undertaken to publish and promote the new works presented in Fiuggi. This is an important step forward. Casa Musicale Sonzogno has retailers and representatives in more than 70 countries worldwide and is extremely active in the fields of radio and theater. "Mainstreaming" for women composers will come about because of initiatives like this, I am sure.
As those of you who have visited our Web Site already know, the Foundation has been awarded the Vatican Logo and inclusion of its project for the Holy Year within the official program for the Grand Jubilee Celebrations for the year 2000. I have planned an ongoing series of 188 concerts plus two major events (one before and one after), which will take place from the end of the year 1999 until the early Spring of the year 2001 in three churches in Central Rome and one church in Fiuggi. The total cost of the project is somewhere in the region of 4.7 million in US dollars (all taxes included).
The Vatican Logo has been awarded to a limited number of projects (33 worldwide) in various fields: performing and visual arts, literature and services. Each logo, which underlines the prestige and importance of the project, is numbered and we are in the process of signing a contract with the Vatican to protect both sides of the agreement. The project (which can be seen on our Web Site) consists of six programs which are performed by different ensembles on a rotation basis for the entire duration of the Grand Jubilee.
I shall be commissioning 30 new works to texts by Christian women mystics and hope to be able to set out guidelines for these in 1998. I mention this project here because I believe it will give readers some idea of the goals and ongoing musical projects with which we are involved. I believe that the presence of a series of concerts with music by women composers within the Grand Jubilee Program will bring even greater visibility to the composers and their music. The Foundation is delighted, even though we are now busy looking for funding for the year 2000 as well as for 1998 and 1999!
My work for both the IMC/UNESCO and for the Italian National Commission (not to mention my own career as a performer) will be keeping me traveling throughout Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries for most of the coming year. I shall be meeting with national music council directors and with women composers wherever possible, and it is my intention to encourage these to set up "Women in Music" associations which can then become part of the international network already in existence.
1997 saw 33 countries present in Fiuggi; 1998 will celebrate a meeting of probably more than 40 countries. The Foundation looks forward to seeing all of you with us in 1998 and in 1999 and in the year 2000! May the "incontri al Borgo" (Village Meetings) help us all to encourage the mainstreaming and empowerment of women composers and above all to have the music heard by as many people as possible.