WELCOME AND SUMMARY
Welcome to the new edition of this communication and outreach initiative of the EFN. Feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues. Receiving this newsletter is open to anyone for free, here. Read to the end to find out how to submit content for future editions.
This is what you'll find below: 🔸A greeting for Christmas and the promise of a brand new project for 2023 🔸EFN welcomes two new members from Northern Ireland: Davy Sims and Armstrong Storytelling Trust 🔸News from our members: Fira Mediterrània Manresa: Call for artists 2023; new newsletter for young folk musicians, from Comhaltas in Britain. 🔸Our next featured member is Fèisean nan Gàidheal 🔸Our next featured artist is the Italian singer Lucilla Galeazzi ✍️ Do you want to participate? At the end of the newsletter you will find how you can contribute to future editions, whether you are an EFN member or not. And of course EFN is always looking for new members and at the end of this newsletter there is a note about how and why to join, with links to the membership pages of the website and the application form. Thanks for your attention, have a fruitful reading.
News from EFN
The Board and Administrator send everyone Christmas Greetings - and a message that it's going to be a very Happy New Year! By Nod Knowles
As we end 2022 we remember the pleasures of recruiting new members and meeting so many existing and new members around Europe, especially at the 2022 EFN Conference in Manresa last October.
We're looking forward to 2023 for lots of reasons - and most of all we're looking forward to making a reality of the European Folk Day - scheduled for 23 March next year, the date of the Spring Solstice. Ideas and plans have been gathered by EFN members over all three EFN annual conferences for establishing a special Folk Day - and it looks like 2023 will be the year to launch this special all-embracing project. Much more info will come in January - but save the date in your 2023 diary for the first major celebration of the traditional arts of Europe's citizens.
As they say in adverts.....WATCH THIS SPACE!
EFN WELCOMES TWO NEW MEMBERS, BOTH FROM NORTHERN IRELAND By EFN editors
Two more members have joined us before the end of the year. Both from Northern Ireland and they are:
🔸Davy Sims
Davy is a multi-award winning media producer. He started his career in 1979 at Downtown Radio in Belfast, then to BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio 1, and Radio 4.
In 1999 Davy was the first producer in BBC NI’s Online service going on to be Editor New Media until 2008. He led the team making content for web, mobile, interactive TV, and digital communities.
Davy has been a lecturer in radio production, and online analytics in Dublin Business School and has worked with the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland on their Sound and Vision scheme. He also spent time in Slovenia enjoying the country and occasionally lecturing and consulting on media and digital tourism.
Since his “retirement” in January 2021, Davy spends most of his time making a weekly world music radio show carried by seven radio stations in Northern Ireland.
He is director of two recent start-ups, Belfast DAB Plus and Enterprise Media Ireland, as well as the long-standing Argyle Business Centre on Belfast’s Shankill Road.
For more information, check his website.
🔸Armstrong Storytelling Trust
The Armstrong Storytelling Trust is a registered charity set up to promote the art of storytelling, develop new storytellers and preserve and enhance access to stories by taking stories into schools, care homes for old people and communities throughout Northern Ireland.
Why did they join EFN? Here's their answer:
"Storytelling is a traditional means of cultural expression and a way to preserve and give new life to our folklore and cultural traditions. We believe that the Armstrong Storytelling Trust has much to offer the European Folk Network as we are the only storytelling charity in Northern Ireland. We also have links with similar organisations across the UK, Ireland and in Europe and would be keen to work in partnership to promote access to folk traditions."
For more information, check their website.
News from EFN members
FIRA MEDITERRÀNIA MANRESA: CALL FOR ARTISTS 2023
By Anna Vilanova, from the Fira
Presentation deadline: Thursday 19 January 2023 at 12.00 a.m.
Artistic proposals can only be submitted online by completing the form at the end of this artistic participation regulation, once the rules for participation have been accepted.
Send your applications, here.
NEW NEWSLETTER FOR YOUNG FOLK MUSICIANS, FROM COMHALTAS IN BRITAIN
By Siubhán Macauley, from Comhaltas in Britain
"Our two Youth Officers are also launching a newsletter for our younger members, to send news, suggestions for a few tunes and gigs; playlists, celebrate the achievements of our young people; the occasional chance to win something; and find out about opportunities to get involved in some of our projects.
The sign up form is at this link, I'd be delighted if you would share to any young folk musicians you think might be interested."
Featured Member: Fèisean nan Gàidheal
Fèisean nan Gàidheal is a representative organisation for 47 Fèisean across Scotland, mostly run by volunteers, which offer traditional music tuition to around 13,000 young people annually. Their full programme of work promotes and delivers work in traditional music and Gaelic language and sustains the equivalent of 95 full-time jobs and engages around 70,000 people annually.
When they joined, they explained that:
"As a national organisation involved in traditional music provision and development, Fèisean nan Gàidheal could offer the EFN access to a network of thousands of participants, around 400 volunteers and 1,200 tutors all of whom have an interest in folk/traditional music. The organisation has also always been a powerful advocate for support for the sector."
For more information, visit their website. Remember: the Featured Artist section is open to the contributions of the members of the EFN. If you want to talk about someone contact efneditors@gmail.com.
Featured Artist: Lucilla Galeazzi By Araceli Tzigane
I first heard about Lucilla Galeazzi when her album Lunario was released in 2001. 21 years later, she still seems to me to be one of the best singers of today.
This portrait is from the website of her agency, Cultureworks, from where I have extracted these basic biographical details.
She was born in Terni, just over an hour north of Rome, in 1950. She was introduced to traditional music following a meeting with anthropologist Valentino Paparelli and with oral historian Alessandro Portelli, both already engaged in ethnomusicological research in Umbria and central Italy.
After her participations in Giovanna Marini's Vocal Quartet, Roberto de Simone's "Stabat Mater", the trio Il Trillo with Ambrogio Sparagna and Carlo Rizzo, in 1997 she released the first album under her own name: Cuore di terra.
This version of the song by Lucilla Galeazzi Quante Stelle nel Cielo con la Luna is included in the album Cuore di terra, released January 1, 1997. She included this wonderful love song in other albums too. For instance, in the extraordinary Festa Italiana, that you have available here. You can also listen to a live version with Lucilla accompained by the band Radicanto, here. And you can read the lyrics in English, here.
After the aforementioned Cuore di terra and Lunario, Lucilla produced other albumswith different formations and several under her own name:
2002 La Tarantella (Alpha Production)
2005 Stagioni (Buda Musique)
2006 Amore e Acciaio (Zonedimusica)
2010 Ancora Bella Ciao (Helikonia)
2013 Festa Italiana (Helikonia)
She continues to perform and has several line-ups. The most recent thing I've found of her live is this video on her Facebook profile.
Here is Lucilla singing live in 2015 with an ensemble of accompanying musicians, including her long-time collaborator Carlo Rizzo.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS NEWSLETTER
Are you already a member? Then, remember that you can submit contents for this monthly newsletter. Email your content to efneditors@gmail.com, for these sections:
· News from EFN Members. Brief announcements – of around 100 words and a link.
· Featured artist. A profile with around 200 words, an embedded video and one link. Members are invited to submit profiles, considering solo and ensemble living or not living artists who have achieved lifelong artistic and technical quality or historical significance in the field of folk art from or developed in or settled in Europe. If you have any artists in mind that you'd like to feature, please ask in advance, just to be sure there is no other member already doing it.
And whether you are a member or not, you can participate in this section:
· Special sections. For instance, an interview with someone from an institution that is not a member or a thematic article by a guest writer or anything that can appear and be considered as interesting. This section can also host guest writers that are not members. If you'd like to share any content, contact us in advance to schedule it by emailing efneditors@gmail.com
Of course, self promotional articles lacking interest won't be accepted. In case of doubt, the EFN board will be consulted and will decide.
BECOMING A MEMBER?
EFN membership is growing rapidly – why not join the network of traditional arts organisers and artists that stretches across Europe from the Irish Sea to the Baltic, the Mediterranean to the Black Sea? Find out more about membership and download an application form from www.europeanfolknetwork.com/membership.
DO YOU WANT TO SUPPORT THE EFN MORE?
The EFN welcomes donations. We do a lot with little money. Imagine what we can do with a little more :) Let us know how much do you want to donate and we'll issue an invoice for your organization.
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