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| Bi-Monthly editorial | ||
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March and April 2007 [2007-05-16] We arrived in Montreal on the eve of their first big snow storm of the winter. It started to snow during the night and did not stop for two days. Finally winter had come to Montreal just for us. I was with my husband, Ulf and pianist Anders Kilström with whom I was performing a full recital for the first time. Anders studied piano in Stockholm with Gunnar Hallhagen who was alsothe teacher of Staffan Scheja, Roland Pöntinen and Love Derwinger, the Swedish pianists, with whom I have worked in recital and chamber music since 1974.I met Staffan while studying at The Juilliard School in New York and have met the others through chamber music concerts in Sweden. They all have solo careers and perform a lot of chamber music. Two are teaching as well. Each has his own distinct musical personality, a great testament to the genius of their teacher. Since this was the first concert together, Anders and I were particularly tuned into one another it was a wonderful concert, it was in the zone as we say. The program was Spanish, French and German Lieder. I always enjoy myself in Montreal, although this time it was a bit difficult to walk around because of the walls of snow. March 8 I celebrated International Women’s Day in Madrid as a guest of the Spanish government an invitation from the Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de Vega. It was the second encounter between Spanish and African women. The first took place on 8 March 2006 in Mozambique. The opening session of the conference included Her Majesty Queen Sofia of Spain; President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, Her Excellency Luisa Diogo, Prime Minister of Mozambique and former Nobel Prize winner Madam Wangari Mathai of Kenya. There were about 500 participants, all dynamic and inspiring women. I can certainly say that the future of Africa are in the hands of its girls and women. During the two days there was much discussion about the challenges and commitments of women in order to build just and equitable societies. « Africa is rich, but its peoples live in an extreme poverty. »? On the 8 of March the “Declaración de Madrid” was presented in the presence of the Spanish Prime Minister, José Luis Zapatero, which asserted the desire to advance in a common agenda, and to consolidate and strengthen the Network of African and Spanish women, created at the first encounter held in 2006 in Mozambique.?I was impressed with the committment, courage and diverse beauty of the women of Africa, the colorful dress from head to toe. I particularly enjoyed some of the most elaborate headdresses on display? “We, Spanish and African women, re-assert that the advancement of women is the greatest achievement for our societies in the past century and the most important challenge that should culminate in the world of the 21st century” says the above mentioned Declaration. “A lot has been achieved, but there is still a lot to be done to reach equality and to strengthen the reality of individual rights” the declaration says. More information in: http://www.madrid2007.org 5 years ago I accepted to be a member of the sponsoring committe along with my friend the late Sergio Viera De Mello then the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights. I attended this year’s opening ceremony on March 9 with my children. The festival took place in Geneva from 8 to 17 March 2007. As it coincided with the opening of the UN Human Rights Council it made the Festival a free alternative platform on the question of human rights. We saw the film: ETOILE DU SOLDAT - France/Germany/Afghanistan, 2006, 105 min, color, 35 mm, vo st fr In the high Afghan mountains, Vergos, a French journalist, learns of the World Trade Center attacks from Al Queda terrorists. He remembers... 1984. Nikolaï, a young Soviet musician, arrives in Afghanistan like thousands of other young conscripts to fight a war that is not his. Captured by Ahmad Shah Massoud’s mujahideen and carried deep into the mountains where the Afghan resisters and Vergos, who came clandestinely to Afghanistan, are hiding, ties of friendship and complicity grow slowly among the Soviet soldier, the French journalist, and the mujahideen fighters. Christophe de Ponfilly, who directed the sublime documentary «Massoud, l’Afghan» here signs his first and last fiction feature, since he took his own life after completing this film. This year’s festival opened with a tribute to him. The 5th edition of the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) confirmed the Festival’s political and cultural vocation. For ten days, refusing political compromises, 16,000 festival participants have mobilized off the Council on human rights. They watched the films and participated in the debates. Human rights activists, politicians, artists, expressed their views and denounced the abuses to human dignity committed by certain states, corporations or armed groups. Beside the concept of the Festival, A film, a subject, a debate, a competition of quality documentary films gave the opportunity for a real dialogue between the public and specialists. AWARDS The members of the Jury of the 5th Film Festival and Forum International on Human Rights were Sapho, singer and writer, Miguel Angel Estrella, pianist and permanent delegate ambassador of Argentina to UNESCO, Marwan Hamed, film director of Yacoubian Building. They awarded the following prizes:
Filming of Disengagement by Amos Gitai The first film that I saw of Amos Gitai was Kadosh, I was a member of the jury of the Cannes festival in 1999. I was very moved by the film that however did not get the prize that year in Cannes. I met him at the closing ceremony of the above mentioned film festival in 2006 where another of his films was showing along with a documentary on Sergio Viero de Mello presented by his companion, Carolina Larriera When I met Amos at the reception we spoke about his films and another mutual friend that had left this earth too soon for me, Daniel Toscan de Plantier. Little did I expect that Amos would contact me to participate in his film “Disengagement” with Juliette Binoche. He wanted me to sing in the film. I recorded in Paris with Simon Stockhausen who had done a beautiful arrangement of Abschied from Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. The filming took place in Avignon, France, a town that I like very much especially in the off season. I had one day of filming with Juliette and even had time to have lunch with close friends who live in Avignon before taking my train back to Switzerland where I spent some time with my children. Return to Sarajevo I had been back in Sarajevo only once for the UNHCR since my concert at the height of the conflict in 1993. I sang a concert as a guest of the symphony orchestra in the winter festival as an act of resistance of the musicians .(Look at Bio for details.) I was invited for this same festival, this time for a jazz concert with Magnus Lindgren Quartet not with their local orchestra. The scars of the war are still quite evident but certain restored and face lifted buildings belie the suffering that took place there. Magnus and the other musicians had a hard time imagining how it was to have to walk up the same 5 flights of stairs of the Holiday INN during the blackout with a very heavy bulletproof vest that I had been issued by the UN. I had been given strict orders not to leave the building without putting it on along with my blue UN helmet. I began the evening with a song for Sarajevo that I sang with local musicians and a choir. After the concert of “Billie Holiday songs and the Blues” we were invited to dinner by the American Ambassador at the Embassy where we were warmly received, met young musicians from Sarajevo and listened to a young guitarist and singer from a very well known Bosnian musical family sing some very moving music special to Sarajevo. In 1991 Sarajevo was the capital of a diverse Bosnia, however the ethnic cleansing has been a tragic success. There are still many political difficulties but the city of Sarajevo tries to remain vibrant and hopeful for its future. Negro Spirituals I was in France in Rueil, not far from Paris for two concerts with Gustav Sjökvist Chamber Choir in a program of Swedish songs and Negro Spirituals. Magnus and the quartet and I went to Zagreb for more Blues. I have been back to Croatia, in Zagreb for concerts with orchestra on two occasions, the last time with my friend and conductor, Ivo Lipanovic. My first trip was in similar situation as to Sarajevo in 1991 when Dubrovnik was being bombed .It was a coincidence that I should return to Croatia and Bosnia during this same tour. We ended the month of March with a concert in one of my favorite halls, Victoria Hall in Geneva. I always have good concerts in this hall. It is a pity that the promoter refused to provide us with the lights that we asked for this concert because it is a part of the concept of the program. Nevertheless it was a good end to the month. APRIL This was quieter month with concerts in Zurich at the Tonhalle with Magnus and the quartet. It is great hall and we had better luck with the lights and a good concert. It feels silly to add this but it is true. Off to Spain again this time with pianist, Love Derwinger to Zaragosa, and Santa Coloma near Barcelona in a new concert hall and music school. The program was Schumann, Faure, Mahler, Poulenc, Schönberg’s Brettl Lieder, cabaret songs and we ended with Kurt Weill songs from Marie Galant. The new concert will certainly be a culture oasis for this suburb of Barcelona.I am always encouraged that music is also present in the suburbs of the large cities not only in the city centers. In between came Easter and some family time. I also started the final recording sessions the next release for Arte Verum, Purcell and Handel with The Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble. ARTE VERUM Montreal: We launched Arte Verum in Canada with the first release of Spanish songs. I enjoy so much meeting my different distributors. In Canada as in France, Switzerland, Spain, and others, their commitment and enthusiasm truly reinforces my decision to have started my own label and not to have renewed my contract after more than twenty years of fruitful collaboration with EMI. I am having so much fun and I can control my work from its conception and throughout its hopefully long life. I know that I will not run across heart breaking compilations that are ill-conceived by someone whose knowledge of music is questionable with little or no artistic taste. I believe that the majors who do classical music as they do now are a thing of the past. Smaller companies and labels who are artist or at least art driven and whose output will be based on a artistic vision, belief and love of the music and a true belief in the musicians will be the future for classical music. I went into a studio to do a trial of the Blues, Billie Holiday program that I am touring now with Magnus and Matthias. The others members of the quartet were not free. I have just received the tapes and am pleased. We will go back to do a complete CD with the whole band. I am in the process of negotiating with EMI to license my recordings as CDs and maybe even in vinyl. Too many of them have been out of the catalogue for many years and completely unavailable. I am fighting for my moral artistic rights to exploit my own work in the way that I, the artist conceived my work. This will be a difficult fight but I am determined to continue to fight to win. It is my life’s work and will have a life long after the present directors of EMI have left for their well paid retirements. Since I believe that the “majors” lost confidence in the repertoire a long time ago I no longer have confidence that any of them will take care of my work. I will keep you posted. Started to complete Handel and Purcell with Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble. Until next time All the best BH |
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