Tuesday 11 February 2014

Snowdrift News — February 2014


1. Music Production



Panorama of my mix-suite by Geir Simonsen.

Readers that have read my blog before might remember a post from a couple of years ago where I was working with a studio in Norway that is developing a small portfolio of local talents. The collaboration has developed, we have invested in some new gear and new artists have gone into the studio. Another project I posted from where we collaborated was on the web-casted release-event for thealbum of singer/ songwriter An-Magritt. On a current project produced by studio owner Geir Simonsen I am recording and mixing. Geir posted a couple of pictures from my own studio the other day on Twitter, so the existence of the project is no longer officially secret. But you’ll have to wait for the single release to hear it and find out what artist we’re working with this time. I will keep you posted once it’s out!


Yours truly mixing for a new single release, by Geir Simonsen.


2. Arts Education in Norway


Another collaboration is the collaboration with Alive Creative Institute, formerly known as Alive Dance. It was Alive Institute that held the initiative for the 2011 and 2012 Skogbrann Festivals that I have written about earlier. Alive Creative Institute is in the process of developing from a regional dance school with some six hundred part-time students into a full-fledged arts institute aiming to cover all contemporary art forms. Alive Creative Institute will in the future have full-time and part-time programmes across a range of topics. My role has been to start the planning of programmes that will fit the vision of the institute. A first generation of documents has been developed that aim to put the academic side of the institute on tracks. Several rounds of planning are needed but a broad foundation for both the institute and the programmes has now been laid.


3. Arts Education in Malawi


As you might have seen, I spent parts of December in Malawi in Africa. I absolutely loved it to pieces! My friend Trev Chi is a renaissance multi talent who works in finance and HR, while managing a portfolio of local artists and running his own photography and video-production company. His company has worked with some of Malawi’s biggest artists including Piksy, Armstrong Kalua and Trumel. Trev brought some of us visiting-musicians-in-town to a local studio and we started dreaming up a new education program for the creative arts in Malawi. Countries like Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa have put their distinct marks on the regional music industry. Malawi has lots of creative talent but very little in terms of established creative industries and arts education. We believe education and creative industries are closely linked. In Norway I recently met a group of exchange students from the Music Crossroads project in Lilongwe. Music Crossroads educate musicians in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a great new initiative to benefit young talents and the regional music scene.

After my stay in Blantyre we have developed a document that outlines a comprehensive creative arts education that works along with established industries, government sectors and universities in Malawi to develop a new generation of talents, and a more established arts and entertainment scene. The project incorporates every branch of modern performing arts and media/ technology based arts. If you have any questions about the proposal please do not hesitate to get in touch!


Me in Malawi, shot by Trev Chi (scanned from paper in Norway, so any imperfections in image are on myself).
The beautiful Lake Malawi, goodbye for this time!

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