EFN Newsletter July 2025 #32
- nod532
- Jul 10
- 13 min read
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:
▫️Congratulations to our member Mila Georgieva (Bulgarian Music Association) for her incorporation as Chair of the European Music Council (EMC)
▫️Reminders of the Annual Conference and the European Folk Day
▫️Farewell to our member Dieter Ott
🔸New members: EFN welcomes three four members to our ever-growing European family: ClasiJazz, David Jones, Marc Vandemoortele and RadioFolk.dk
🔹News from our members:
▫️Musik over Præstø Fjord, by Anne Grete Kamilles
▫️Folkfestival Ham, by Marc Reusen
▫️Funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Enables LMNS to Grow Music Opportunities for Young People, by Malena Persson from Live Music Now Scotland
🔸Our next featured member is Fragan, from Belgium
🔹Our next featured artist is the Portuguese singer Amália Rodrigues
🔸Special content: Babel Music XP's director Olivier Rey invites our community to submit our applications for their showcase and participate in the event
✍️ 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 and, please, forward this to any person who could be interested! |
News from EFN |
🔸Congratulations to our member Mila Georgieva (Bulgarian Music Association) for her incorporation as Chair of the European Music Council (EMC)
The picture is from the website of the EMC.Echoing the words of the EMC, "Mila Georgieva is one of the most active Bulgarian professionals in the field of culture management, dedicated to the promotion and internationalisation of the Bulgarian music scene across Europe and beyond. A graduate of the National Music School in Sofia as a classical pianist, she went on to study Mass Communications, Music Production, and Music Management at New Bulgarian University.Mila began her career in 2010 as Head of the Talent Management department at the Bulgarian branch of Central European Media Enterprises (CME) owned by Time Warner. Over the years, she and her team managed more than 40 musicians and actors. She is the co-founder and Head Producer of SoAlive Music Conference (SAMC), the leading music industry event in Sofia. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Bulgarian Music Association (BMA), where she oversees international activities...."
Read the full PR from the EMC, here
CONGRATULATIONS, MILA!!!!.
🔸REMINDER: 2025 EFN Conference - the program will be announced soon! - for EFN members and also non members -
The 6th annual European Folk Network Conference will take place on 10 & 11 October 2025 hosted by the Fira Mediterránia de Manresa. They have already announced their program. Check it here. And if you are interested in attending our conference and you haven't registed yet, contact us and let's see what we can do for you.
🔸REMINDER: European Folk Day 2025
Save The Date also for the European Folk Day – 23 September! It’s your chance to participate in the Folk Day – on the Day itself or in the days surrounding it.
Register your event in the map and the database: www.europeanfolkday.eu/participate/
🔹:Farewell to Dieter Ott:
By EFN editors
Amid so much good news, one sad piece. We didn’t want to miss the chance to say goodbye and thank our member Dieter Ott, who passed away a few weeks ago.
Dieter Ott (1942–2024)
Our member, the renowned music agent and passionate advocate for global musical traditions, passed away in mid June 2025 at the age of 82. Based in Germany, Ott was a pivotal figure in the international world music scene, representing a wide array of artists and ensembles from across continents. His professionalism, vision and warm personal style left a lasting impact on both the artists he worked with and the broader music community. He will be remembered not only as a skilled agent, but as a bridge-builder between cultures.
News members
In recent weeks, we’ve had the pleasure of welcoming four new members:
🔹Clasijazz, from Almería, Spain
Clasijazz is a non-profit cultural foundation that promotes music and culture from Almería, being the largest source of live music in the city. This is how they introduced themselves in their application form:
"Clasijazz is a community of artists and art lovers established to promote music and the arts from the province of Almería and around the world. It is an open space for everyone, built on its diverse family of members, collaborators, and volunteers, who since 1998 have been building and improving this exciting and ambitious project day by day."
To the question on 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, they answered:
"We believe folk music fits perfectly into our programming, as we've had some wonderful concert experiences. Also, due to Almería's geographic location, we believe it's a geographic center for Mediterranean music and even an incredible location for connecting cultures and hosting World Music Festivals. We also have good rela-onships with the government to utilize beautiful public spaces."
Learn more on their website.
🔹David Jones, from Suffolk, England
David explained about himself that:
"I work on environmental performance projects – I toured BBC Wild Isles Live and I am producing a live version of David Attenborough’s Ocean. I am programming the Tapestry Festival in Southampton tapestryfestival.co.uk and working with the ACC X Music Festival in Gwangju, Korea."
And to the question on 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, David answered:
"I have always worked on international music collaborations as a founding director of Serious and the programmer and producer of many cross-genre festivals, and I’m keen to share that knowledge with EFN members. I am particularly interested in how traditional musics explore new ways forward."
🔹Marc Vandemoortele, from Belgium
In his application form to become a member, he explained that he organizes concerts, festivals, and residencies, and provides other professional support for artists, with the support of the Flemish Government. And he proposes to provide networking and collaboration.
The portrait is from his Facebook profile.
Learn more about his activities, in these links: http://www.tey.be; http://www.clustermusic.be and http://www.merodefestival.be
🔹RadioFolk.dk, from Denmark
RadioFolk.dk is a media platform offering flow radio and lots of podcasts featuring Danish trad, folk & roots music from Denmark 24/7. RadioFolk.dk is run by non-commercial association Mediehaven (The Media Garden) which is run by a board. Chair of the Mediehaven board: Morten Alfred Høirup. Mediehaven is supported by Tempi, Spot Festival and The Danish Arts Foundation.
To the question on 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, they answered: "RadioFolk.dk want to network and to find partners with whom we can collaborate around folk music related projects."
Learn more on their website.
News from our members
🔹Musik over Præstø Fjord
By Anne Grete Kamilles, Chairman of the Board of the association
Welcome to Musik over Præstø Fjord Nordic Folk Festival 7th to 10th of august, one hour south af Copenhagen. Come and feel the magic when so many nice people get together for the music in the beautiful countryside in Denmark.
We have a splended program with 35 proffesiomal acts on 4 stages. There will be workshops in dancing and tunes for all ages.
Meet some vikings, get a waffel, jam sessions all over the place and good things for kids.
You will get free entrance and food while you are here and so will your family if you make a cosy familytrip.
More info at www.MoPF.dk and pleace fill out the form for delegates. Hope to see you.
Learn more on Www.MoPF.dk
🔹Folkfestival Ham
By Marc Reusen for The Celtic Art Gallery vzw
We would like to introduce our folk festival, in Belgium. it will take place on august 8, 9 and 10 of 2025 with groups from Europe and USA. You can find us at www.folkfestivalham.be
🔹Funding from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Enables LMNS to Grow Music Opportunities for Young People
By Malena Persson from Live Music Now Scotland
Live Music Now Scotland has been awarded £189,000 from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Arts-Based Learning Fund to expand inclusive music-making across Fife and Renfrewshire from 2025 to 2028.
The three-year project will focus on children and young people who face barriers to participation, particularly in ASN (Additional Support Needs) settings. It builds on a successful earlier phase supported by the Foundation’s Teacher Development Fund, delivered in partnership with South Ayrshire Council and Fife Council.
Folk Artists Inspire New Inclusive Music Project
At the heart of that work were traditional and folk musicians Nicky Murray and Beth Malcolm (in the picture), whose thoughtful, engaging sessions made a lasting impression on pupils and staff alike.
Get the full PR page, here.
Featured Member: Fragan
Fragan is an artistic agency lead by Frédérique Dawans whose main role is to bring to a wider audience traditional or traditionally-based music and dance or, more generally, to promote folk music, world music and sometimes jazz.
The agency has set itself the task of seeking to focus on promoting exchange between communities, regions and cultures.
The picture is from their Facebook profile.
About the question on what you can give to the European Folk Network as a member, their answer was: "The agency is specialized in European folk music for more than 30 years. I think we have a global experience of the industry: concerts, production, booking, label... etc".
Learn more on their website.
Featured Artist: Amália Rodrigues
By Araceli Tzigane
Some people have a gift for music. Amália Rodrigues was not just a fado singer. I believe everything she sang, she sang beautifully. Amália was such a monumental artist that I feel a deep respect just writing this review — I’m afraid I won’t do her justice.
Amália is an icon worldwide and you can find her bio easily. I am using the one at the website of the Museum of Fado, as well as the sources I will quote below. Her beginnings in life were very humble. Her parents were from Fundão, in the district of Castelo Branco.
She was born, by chance, in Lisbon in 1920, while her parents were visiting her grandparents. The child was raised by them.She completed primary education and left school to contribute financially to the family. She was an apprentice seamstress, embroiderer and a worker at a chocolate and candy factory. Later, together with her sister Celeste, she sold fruit through the streets of the Cais de Alcântara. As early as 1935, there is a record of her performing live.
She made her professional debut in 1939 at Retiro da Severa. Currently, there is a fado house called "A Severa", and they feature photos of Amália on their website, but it is not the same venue because this house of fados was founded in 1955, while the one where Amália debuted closed in 1940.Until the early 1950s, she continued performing in Lisbon with some regularity, gradually becoming more appreciated and better paid. She soon began performing outside Portugal, across five continents, and her presence in her own country remained very limited for decades.
Amália Rodrigues spent many years largely outside Portugal—from the early 1950s until around 1985—mainly because she embarked on frequent tours abroad. Also, after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, the rumors of her collaboration with the dictatorship damaged her image at home. She stepped back from public performance in Portugal and lived abroad for several years. Her full re-emergence didn’t occur until her celebrated return concert at the Coliseu dos Recreios in Lisbon in 1985.
It is worth it to stop for a moment to get deeper into this topic. Several sources explain things like this:
"What is less well-known about the celebrated fadista is that she was an ardent supporter of the anti-fascist movement." Source. This source highlights that Amália not only aided Portuguese exiles financially and protected anti-fascist friends, but also advocated for the release of political prisoners.
“Portuguese fado and its principal interpreter, Amália Rodrigues, were portrayed as the most sophisticated expression of a past that needed to be denied and overcome. The genre and the artist were seen as the epitome of the resignation and conformism consistent with the political culture of the Salazar regime.” From The “Old” and the “New” in Portuguese Music. Amália Rodrigues, Fado, and Canto de Intervenção in the Carnation Revolution, by Francisco Palomanes Martinho.
"Contradicting her reputation as a fascist sympathizer, Amália tapped into fado’s earlier radical tradition, staying ahead of the censors by singing artfully subversive songs with lyrics inspired by socialist and anarchist poets and donating to underground antifascist political organizations." Source.
In Spain, something similar happened with the copla songs and its performers, related to the regime of Franco. In both cases, they were popular genres that existed before the regime and reflected emotions, personal dramas, and social issues. The regimes used them as national identity symbols, which left a lasting mark through that institutional association. And after the dictatorships, many people rejected them due to their connection with the authoritarian past, although over time their artistic and historical value has been gradually reclaimed beyond their political use.
She died on 6 October 1999. The entire nation mourned her as their Fado Diva.
“Barco Negro” is a song about a woman who was left behind by a sailor. He left, but she feels he is still there. The old women on the beach say he will not return. “They’re crazy!” she thinks. You can turn on the English subtitles in the video to see the full lyrics. The story of the song is particular. The melody is from a Brazilian song, Mãe Preta, that is a tribute to the black slave women. The lyrics were totally changed in the version for Portugal, as, during the Salazar dictatorship, the original lyrics were politically problematic. You can listen to a version with the original lyrics, sung by Maria da Conceição, here. And the lyrics in English are available here. Just a heads-up: it's really sad.
By the way, like flamenco, fado is an urban music and, to a large extent—perhaps even more so than flamenco—a music of known composers. But I believe it deserves to be included here through the figure of Amália Rodrigues, due to its association with the popular identity of Portugal. Also, although fado has come to be seen as a sad music (in fact, in Lisbon you can find lots of souvenirs with drawings of tearful fadistas), it doesn't necessarily have to be that way.
Another thing I think has been lost over time in fado is its nature as a genre. A few years ago, in Évora, I was at a fado house and I wanted to sing. In some fado houses that are not so show-oriented, it's fairly normal for someone from the audience to sing. So, I started asking the guitarists if they knew this song, or that one, or another one. But they didn’t know them. What they knew were styles—Fado Alberto, fado corrido... They told me that the songs I was mentioning were fado canção. “Fado song.” At that moment, I understood that fado had genres, just like Spanish traditional music or flamenco. If you know how to sing a jota, you can sing jota with any guitarist who knows jota. And you sing whatever lyrics come to mind. The same goes for bulería, for example.
So, we agreed they would play fado corrido, and that way I could sing “Uma casa portuguesa,” which fits within the fado corrido style. I will never forget that experience.
In conclusion, fado has an important component of popular tradition, alongside a more refined branch, so to speak, with its recognized composers and poets.
Amália was the author of many of the poems she sang and published on record, some of which are her most important hits. For example, the very known songs "Estranha forma de vida" (in the video) or "Lágrima", are her poems.
You will never be forgotten, Ms. Amália!
SPECIAL CONTENT
Babel Music XP's director Olivier Rey invites our community to submit our applications for their showcase and participate in the event
The 4th edition of Babel Music XP will take place from 19 to 21 of March 2026 in Marseille. According to their website, it is “a career accelerator and a showcase on an international scale, Babel Music XP stands out as an incredible amplifier of global musical diversity. With 1,800 professionals, over 50 countries from 4 continents, and 10,000 spectators, the 3rd edition of Babel Music XP in March 2025 generated real excitement, drawing numerous international delegations.”
Olivier Rey, the director of Babel Music XP, sent this message specially for our community of folk and traditional music:
"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, in its own modest and human-scale way, strives to promote and share these musics, these rhythms and melodies that carry within them the past, present, and future of the people.
Welcome to Babel Music XP, taking place from March 19 to 21, 2026, in Marseille, France — a vibrant and unique port city, rich in communities and artistic expression, at the crossroads of continents and a natural platform between worlds, like a beacon in the Mediterranean.
For artists, the call for applications is open until July 19, 2025, on Babelmusicxp.com, offering a unique opportunity for exposure to international professionals.
Babel Music XP — in tune with the world..."
Call for applications open until July 19, 2025. Official website: https://babelmusicxp.com/
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.
Comments