Following a decision taken at the General Assembly last February in Brussels, the next ECSA session will take place in Alicante, Spain. The dates have now been been set for 3rd – 5th October.
Further information such as meeting venues, hotels and detailed program will be announced in due time.
Alfons Karabuda (SKAP Chairman, ECSA Executive Chairman)
On the 16th of May, ECSA’s member, SKAP-the Swedish Union of Composers of Popular Music, celebrated its 85th anniversary at the prestigious Stockholm City Hall.
During the evening 13 stipends and awards were granted to composers, songwriters and lyrisicts. Handing over an award to Freemuse for its work against censorship and oppression of composers and musicians, Jan Eliasson, the former chairman of the U.N. General Assembly and the former Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs stated that censoring musicians is an abuse of human rights.
In her turn, giving a present to SKAP, the Iceland’s Minister for Trade and Cultural Industries, Katrin Juliusdottir emphasized the importance of SKAP’s and STIM’s help to establish STEF (the Islandic authors rights’ society) and the significance of SKAP’s work dedicated to the development of FTT (Félag tónskálda og textahöfunda- Icelandic Association of Composers and Songwriters). Ms Juliusdottir also pointed out Alforns Karabuda’s effective chairmanship at ECSA.
The dinner was also attended by the Sweden’s Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask and the Minister for Culture Lena Adelsohn-Liljeroth as well as by ECSA representatives and ECSA members.
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On the 11th of April, a working breakfast took place between ECSA delegates and Staffan Nilsson. Mr. Nilsson was recently elected President of the European Economic and Social Committee and heads the Committee for the next three years.
The meeting proved to be an excellent opportunity for an in-depth discussion on authors’ rights, Authors’ Rights Management Societies and the necessity for finding new licensing models. Leading the delegation, Alfons Karabuda stressed that whilst ECSA claims for increased standards of governance, Europe’s composers and songwriters consider Authors’ Rights Management Societies as indispensable. In turn, Mr. Nilsson briefed ECSA on the work of the Committee in this field, as well as the Committee’s relation with other EU institutions. Both, the EESC and ECSA agreed to keep in contact.
Later the day ECSA representatives met with Member of the European Parliament Marielle Gallo.
Best wishes and a Happy New Year 2011!
To all ECSA friends and supporters.
ECSA will hold its General Assembly meeting on February 3rd 2011, at 3:00 pm in Flagey, Brussels. As usual, the meetings of the pillars, APCOE, ECF and FFACE will take place the same day, at 10:00 am. On the occasion of the first General Assembly of ECSA in Brussels, the Austrian Composers Society will hold a Brussels edition of its club-like concert event entitled “Composers Lounge”. The concert takes place on February 2nd 2011 at 7:00 pm in Flagey, Brussels and can be attended only upon invitation. The Composers Lounge is dedicated to the creative variety of contemporary music and usually takes place in Vienna’s famous Jazz Club, Porgy and Bess. The Brussels Edition aims to introduce eight composers and songwriters to the international audience of Brussels’ cultural sector as well as to all ECSA’s members.
On 1st of June, Deputy Head of Cabinet Kerstin Jorna welcomed ECSA’s Co-Chairman Klaus Ager and Spokesperson Patrick Rackow for an exchange of views. The meeting took place in the EC Headquaters in Brussels and dealt with issues of concern for the European music writers.
The location for the Bilbao General Assembly meeting has been fixed: ECSA’s meeting, as well as the meeting of ECSA’s pillars, is going to take place in the Campos Theater, Calle Bertendona, 5.
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Claudia Schmied, Federal Minister for Education, the Arts and Culture of the Republic of Austria visited ECSA’s Brussels Office on 10th of May. Welcomed by ECSA Secretary General Patrick Ager, Minister Schmied was guided through the venues of Flagey by Director General Hugo de Greef, as well as informed about the European House for Culture by Kathrin Deventer, EFA Secretary General.
ECSA Spokesperson Patrick Rackow and Secretary General Patrick Ager provided Minister Schmied with a comprehensive information folder on ECSA and welcomed the opportunity to talk informally with the representative of the Austrian government.
The Austrian delegation also included Mr. Hanspeter Huber, Chief of staff of the Ministers’ office and Mrs. Heidemarie Meissnitzer, Counsellor of Embassy of the Austrian permanent mission in Brussels.
From Left to Right: Patrick Rackow, Patrick Ager, Claudia Schmied, Hanspeter Huber
Hosted by John Groves, the Coercion Committee met on 8th of May in Hamburg for a day-long working session. “The meeting was extremely constructive, I didn’t expect such inputs. We have now an ambitious action plan for the coming weeks,” as pointed out by Committee Chairman Örjan Stranberg when concluding.
Among others, the committee discussed in deep the growing business practice that acquiring a composing commission for a film- or TV- production includes signing off a “publishers’ share”, as high as 50%, to be paid back to the TV-station. This routine had been unanimously declared as an extremely immoral practice retrieving fees to authors’ societies on the costs of the creators, thus seriously jeopardizing the living ground of composers.
The next meeting of the Coercion Committee is set for the 10th of June in Bilbao.
Left to right: Loek Dikker, Patrick Ager, Patrick Rackow, Chris Smith, John Groves, Örjan Strandberg and Lorenzo Fererro.
