1. Music
Production
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!
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!
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| Me in Malawi, shot by Trev Chi (scanned from paper in Norway, so any imperfections in image are on myself). |
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| The beautiful Lake Malawi, goodbye for this time! |
Exciting times. :-)
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