EFN Newsletter December 2025 #37

EFN editor
Dec 24, 2025
11 min read

Tell us something: aren’t you following us on social media yet? You’re missing out on a lot! We’re very active on Facebook and Instagram.

As the year comes to an end, we send warm wishes to our community. May the new year bring continued connection, collaboration, and care for the living traditions that link people, places, and cultures across Europe and beyond.

Wishing you a peaceful holiday season and a meaningful year ahead 🎊

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:

🔹News from EFN:

▫️EFN and members, in Babel Music XP: special opportunity

▫️David Francis, our founder chairman, awarded with the Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music 2025

🔸New members: Roots Revival (Austria), JM (Jeunesses Musicales) International; Danylo Kliutsko (Ukraine / Portugal)

🔹News from the members:

▫️ Transglobal World Music inducts several European folk artists into the Hall of Fame

🔸Our next featured member is the Hungarian Heritage House (Hagyományok Háza)

🔹Our next featured artist is the Catalan singer-songwriter Marina Rossell

✍️ 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.

News from EFN

🔸EFN and members, in Babel Music XP: special opportunity

A few editions ago we shared these words from Olivier Rey, founder of Babel Music XP: “In a world torn between rampant globalization and the resurgence of identity-based retreats with ominous destinies, it is never in vain to affirm that traditions and heritage are anchors that tell the stories of territories, peoples, and their ever-evolving cultures. Today more than ever, traditional music needs platforms for visibility and exchange — to express its uniqueness, its intertwined and joyful identities, in the face of homogenization and a world increasingly governed by algorithms.”

Babel Music XP will take place in Marseille, 19-21 March 2026. The organization has agreed to provide an opportunity for EFN members to attend the expo and showcases at special discount prices – and EFN will give members a chance to share the EFN expo stand for a small contribution to overall costs.

In addition, EFN and our partners Zone Franche will organise a special joint event during the expo.

➡️ Are you interested in learning more but are not yet an EFN member? Get in touch with us.

🔸David Francis, our founder chairman, awarded with the Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music 2025

David Francis – one of the 4 people who founded EFN and led the Board as Chair until this year - has been awarded with the Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music 2025.

According to Hands Up For Trad, "David’s contributions to Scottish traditional music have been multifaceted and substantial, though the details of his specific projects and roles demonstrate the breadth of his engagement: reports for the Scottish Arts Council and the Scottish Government, helping to found the Traditional Music Forum and TRACS. [...] David Francis’s induction into the Scottish Traditional Music Hall of Fame, receiving the Hamish Henderson Services to Traditional Music Award, recognises his decades of dedication to supporting and strengthening Scottish traditional music through organisational work, performance, and advocacy."

Read the full article, here.

EFN WELCOMES THREE NEW MEMBERS

By EFN editors

At the end of this year, EFN joyfully welcomes three new members:

🔹Roots Revival, from Austria

“Making Bridges from Roots” is the motto you see when you open the website of Roots Revival, and this is how they introduced themselves in their membership form:

"Roots Revival is an international and cross-cultural entity dedicated to promoting the musical heritage of underrepresented cultures worldwide. By "revival," we do not imply revitalization but rather a deep engagement with the core essence of traditions: their inherent dynamism. Traditions are not static relics but living, evolving phenomena that transform in response to the social contexts in which they exist. We reject the notion of a duality between tradition and modernity, recognizing that innovation and evolution are integral to the ongoing life of tradition.

Our mission is to foster the mobility of artists, encourage intercultural artistic dialogue, and create high-quality music content that bridges heritage and contemporary expression while addressing the global challenges humanity faces today.

Since its inception in 2013 by Mehdi Aminian, Roots Revival has become a platform for sustainable, long-term international collaborations, uniting national and global artists and audiences in exploring the dynamic interplay between musical traditions and the modern world."

Learn more about them on their website.

🔹Jeunesses Musicales asbl (JM International)

Jeunesses Musicales International is the largest youth music NGO, with the mission to enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries. This is how they described themselves when completing the registration:

"JM International (JMI) is a global network of NGOs that provide opportunities for young people and children to develop through music across all boundaries. Open to all styles of music, JMI works for and with youth, harnessing the power of music to bridge social, geographical and cultural divides, creating an international platform for intercultural dialogue and acceptance. With 73 member organisations in 61 countries, the JMI network reaches over 7 mn. young people aged 13-30 per year through more than 45,000 activities, embracing all styles of music."

Their answer to "what you and/or your organisation think you can give to the European Folk Network as a member and what you think will be the benefits of membership?" is:

"JMI, with its extensive reach, is able to provide EFN with global access to dedicated organisations working in the field of youth and music. On the other hand, EFN, with its dedicated reach within the folk network in Europe and beyond, will allow JMI to access a wider network, particularly in connection with JMI’s Ethno program for folk, world and traditional music."

Learn more about them on their website.

🔹Danylo Kliutsko (Ukraine / Portugal)

With joy we welcome this young professional. This is how he described himself when completing the registration:

"I am a co-founder of the Ukrainian folk band Lita, based in Portugal. We organize concerts, workshops on polyphonic singing, traditional dances, and folk balls. I play the bandura and kobza, which I built myself. These instruments were used by blind traveling musicians in Ukraine. I also play the Ukrainian frame drum, using techniques from different regions."

His answer to "what you and/or your organisation think you can give to the European Folk Network as a member and what you think will be the benefits of membership?" is:

"As an active promoter of Ukrainian traditional music, I can contribute to holding workshops, performances, and community engagement experiences through folk culture. Membership in EFN will connect me with European colleagues, inspire collaboration, and help me share Ukraine’s living traditions in a broader European context."

Learn more about him on his Instagram.

News from the members

🔹Transglobal World Music inducts several European folk artists into the Hall of Fame

By Araceli Tzigane, Mapamundi Música

The Transglobal World Music Hall of Fame has announced its 2025 inductees, including several artists with strong roots in European folk traditions. Among those honoured are the Sardinian Elena Ledda and the Sami Mari Boine — the latter previously featured in this newsletter — as well as the Spanish singer Benjamín Escoriza (Radio Tarifa), recognised in the In Memoriam category.

Among the Professional Excellence inductees is the Association for Cultural Equity, which provides free online access to hundreds of recordings of traditional European music collected by Alan Lomax.Check all the inductees, on the website.

Featured Member: Hungarian Heritage House (Hagyományok Háza)

The Hungarian Heritage House joined the EFN in October 2019. Since then, their support has been outstanding. They hosted the annual conference of the EFN in 2021 and they have been a key member on many other occasions. When they joined, they presented themselves like this:

"The Hungarian Heritage House is a national cultural institution to preserve and promote the traditional culture of the Carpathian Basin. Its scope of activities cover the following areas:

performing arts programmes through performances of the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble and its music band, as well as many other bands and dance ensembles
co-partner of music festivals and operates a 300-seat-concert venue in a fully modernized historical building at the heart of Budapest
folklore documentation for scientific and education purposes wlth the Services of its library and archives,
applied folk arts programmes and adult education with accredited courses
collection and exhibition of items related to folk art in its Museum of Applied Hungarian Folk Art
cultural management and networking throughout the Carpathian Basin to transmit the values of traditional culture.

The mission of the international team is to contribute to making the values of traditional culture internationally more recognized and acknowledged."

About the question on what you can give to the European Folk Network as a member and what you think will be the benefits of membership, her answer was: "The Hungarian Heritage House is ready to offer the professional knowledge, expertise and experience it has gained in the field of transmission of traditional culture in Hungary and throughout the Carpathian Basin. We can give an insight into the best practices and good operating models Hungarians have developed and use successfully in transmitting intangible cultural heritage in a living manner. We can make presentations about the folk music scene and how it is being supported, or about the UNESCO acknowledged dance house method and in what ways that was/could be adapted in foreign countries. Scientific research and intense folklore collection has been going on in the Carpathian Basin since the end of the 19th century and our institution looks after a huge and very precious collection and some really invaluable heritages in its Archives and Folklore Documentaron Library, and we are ready to give an insight and share the know-how of documentation and archiving processes, too. We also have a division in handicrafts, so this is also a point of interest and an opportunity for future collaboration with partners from Europe.

We are ready to take part in cultural exchanges in all areas of traditional culture."

Learn more on their website.

Featured Artist: Marina Rossell

By Araceli Tzigane

This picture is from Marina's Facebook profile. Marina Rossell is very well known in Spain. She belongs to the generation of singer-songwriters who shaped a whole school of artists in the final years of the Franco dictatorship and in the early period of democracy. She sings in Catalan and in Spanish and, while a large part of her work consists of her own compositions, she has always kept one foot firmly in tradition and in popular styles, such as habaneras. In fact, one of her most popular songs, La gavina, is a clear example of this.

Marina has had a very close relationship with Georges Moustaki, expressed through a long-standing artistic alliance and a deep friendship throughout their lives. They met in Paris in the mid-1970s, when he was already an established figure and she was an emerging artist. Like his, Marina’s work is not overtly political, but it clearly reflects a humanist, pacifist approach and a commitment to defending the rights of peoples in general and, more specifically, Catalan culture and language.

I should add that Marina is one of my favourite singers. I remember a very intimate concert in central Madrid, at the Blanquerna Cultural Centre, in 2008. I told her how much I loved the way she sings. She told me something along the lines of singing being about controlling the column of air. Marina does not sing with grand gestures. She sings as if she were telling you something intimate, in the most sincere way.

~~~~

In 2007, Marina released the album Clàssics Catalans, featuring pieces from the repertoire of the 19th-century cultural movement known as the Catalan Renaixença, as well as later traditions such as Catalan Romanticism, Noucentisme, and Modernisme, together with some original compositions. The album opens with the track Llevantina, which tells the story of a young woman who hears in her dreams the voice of the love that has left her, telling her that he would always love her and that she should trust him. It was composed in 1922 by Vicenç Bou i Geli and lyrics by Joan Serracant i Manau.

Marina is active nowadays, singing and producing albums, and her life is very well documented. Just as a brief bio, Marina Rossell was born on 17 January 1954 in Castellet i la Gornal, Catalonia, Spain. She is known for performing in both Catalan and Spanish and is regarded as one of the most important voices in modern Catalan music, blending traditional songs, poetic songwriting, habaneras, and her own compositions.

Since the mid-1970s, Rossell has recorded more than 20 albums, with notable releases including Penyora (1979), which won the Fotogramas de Plata Award and brought her widespread popularity, and Ha llovido, her first Spanish-language album that was a hit in Spain and Latin America. Her international career has taken her on tours across Europe, Latin America, North Africa, and beyond.

Marina’s work has been recognised both artistically and socially: she received the Creu de Sant Jordi from the Catalan government, the Olof Palme Prize for her support of peace, and various awards for her recordings and lifetime achievement.

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La Gavina is a song composed in 1924 by Frederic Sirés i Puig, who wrote both the lyrics and the music. It is also a song of longing. The person in love asks a seagull to fly to a sunny beach filled with sweet memories, where the beloved girl is, and to convey how deeply she is missed. The protagonist wishes to cross the sea to reach that beach and see the dark-haired woman he loves.

There are many videos of Marina Rossell performing this song. I have chosen this live performance, recorded in Donostia (San Sebastián, Basque Country) at a Concert for Peace in 1995, one of the years of most intense activity by the terrorist group ETA. The full concert is available here.

Sources:

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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 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 you want to donate and we'll issue an invoice for your organization.