NMSA Newsletter - October 2020

Dear NMSA Members,

NMSA hopes you are healthy and in good spirits. As you know, the year 2020 has brought about unforeseen challenges. We had a very successful New Music Indaba at UNISA in December 2019, and for NMSA, our main concern going into the new decade was and is, how can we best serve SA composers and musicians while providing and facilitating original programming that is relevant artistically and socially? 

And then, COVID struck… and with it, as we all know, an impossibility to program concerts and a huge amount uncertainty as to the future of the performing arts in general… And all that forced us to leave 2020 as a "blank year” as far as public activities are concerned.

But we are now gearing up for our next activities, which we anticipate will be the first in a gradual intensification of NMSA’s programming, and we are very happy and grateful to announce that we have received significant funding from the Rupert Foundation and the Arts and Culture Trust to do just that.

We can now announce two upcoming projects.

One will be a series of three concerts (yes, live, we do hope!) in Gauteng and Cape Town, roughly between February and April 2021, celebrating three international composers (W.A. Mozart, L. v. Beethoven, and I. Stravinsky) as well as three South African ones (Todd Matshikiza, Joseph Shabalala, and Hannes Taljaard), all of whom have some sort of an anniversary in 2020 or 2021. And of course there will be more new music from SA. More or less, this programming will replace the festival we have not been able to stage in 2020, and given the persistently unpredictable situation, we thought that having separate concerts, on separate dates and at separate locations, will be safer than planning for a more concentrated event.

The other will be an online concert in the first half of 2021. There will be an open call for contributions, and the focus will be on composers/improvisers performing their own work - solo or in collaboration with an artist from another medium.  We are interested in music that contains improvisation (though it is not a requirement) as well as aspects that benefit from the online nature of the event - for example, we encourage contributions from artists living in areas where access to concerts is not normally easy, so that the online aspect serves more than just coronavirus avoidance. Stay tuned for information about the open call and exact requirements/procedures.

We invite you to a General Meeting on Sunday 8 November 2020 at 11am. On the agenda will be a discussion of our upcoming plans detailed above. Also, it has come to our attention that our original constitution, dating back to the founding of NMSA, is no longer in compliance with current not-for-profit laws, so we will vote on an updated memorandum that brings us into compliance and allows for easier and more flexible management of the organisation. The meeting will take place online; please RSVP via email to  [email protected] to obtain the link if you plan to attend.

Thank you and best wishes,
The NMSA Board (Diale Mabitsela, Douglas Scott, Lukas Ligeti)

Opportunities

The Accademia di Studi Pianistici «Antonio Ricci» of Udine, in collaboration with the Casa Musicale Sonzogno of Milan, the Archivio Smaregliano of Udine, the Teatro Nuovo “Giovanni da Udine” and the University of Udine, with the sponsorship of the Regional Council of Friuli Venice Giulia, Udine Town Council, the Fondazione Friuli, the Fondazione Carigo, Filologica Friulana Society and Ente Friuli nel Mondo are pleased to announce the 6th ANTONIO SMAREGLIA INTERNATIONAL COMPOSITION COMPETITION 

The Competition is divided into three sections as follows: 

Section A: compositions for solo piano of between 5 and 10 minutes. 
Section B: compositions for solo voice and piano of between 3 and 6 minutes. For section B, the choice of text is at the discretion of the composer, provided that: - the text has been published (or translated) in one of the following languages: Italian, French, English, Spanish or German; - the text is in the public domain, or the composer has requested and obtained the author’s and/or translator’s explicit permission to use the text (or the permission of his/her legal heirs and/or legal representatives, see § 7) 
Section C: compositions for solo voice and piano of between 3 and 6 minutes, with a text in Friulan language. The composer will be able chose freely the text, as long as it is in the public domain, or the composer has requested and obtained the author’s explicit permission to use the text (or the permission of his/her legal heirs and/or legal representatives, see § 7). It will be possible to find a selection of texts on the website www.filologicafriulana.it, through the page dedicated to the competition. The Società Filologica Friulana, patronage of the competition, can provide an additional selection of texts in Friulan language with a possible translation in Italian, German or English, and also audio files with reading of the texts themselves (contact to [email protected]). For neither section will the use of electro-acoustic equipment be permitted. Only ‘Prepared piano’ techniques may be used. 

The competition is open to participants of every nationality and there are no age restrictions applied. The works presented must be unpublished, never performed, never awarded nor rewarded or reported in other competitions, nor be found in any way or in any form (neither on the web, nor on physical media, nor on LP, nor on CD etc.). 

The Jury Commission (five members) will consist of eminent musicians of international acclaim and a representative of the Artistic Director of the Casa Musicale Sonzogno of Milan.

Competition entries and scores, with all files specified in point 7, must be delivered no later than 31st October 2020, only by electronic means and in PDF format, to: [email protected]

Participation in the competition is subject to the payment - by bank transfer - of a registration fee (nonrefundable)

For more information, see:
https://accademiaricci.uniud.it/fileadmin/user_upload/6th_Antonio_Smareglia_Competition_.pdf