Networking, distribution and financing of music and the performing arts, are all key areas of the Professional Sessions at Fira B!

The third edition of Fira B!, the professional Balearic music and performing arts market, will be held in Palma from the 20th to the 24th of September. As well as an artistic programme that includes 41 music bands and 24 performing arts companies, Fira B! offers the possibility of connecting with renowned artistic promoters, such as producers, distributors, managers and other professionals from the industries of communication and culture in general, thanks to its Professional Sessions: a space for discussion and networking that will also favour the promotion further afield of Balearic artists.

 

These Sessions will take place between September 20th and 23rd at the Sa Nostra Cultural Centre and are organised by the Balearic Ministry of Culture, Participation and Sports, through the Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics (ILLENC). In order to participate in one of its main areas, which are the meetings with producers and promoters, it is essential to register previously for them. The last day to request such meetings is September 15th at the online professional space of the website www.firab.org, a basic management tool that facilitates meetings between artists, producers and professionals in general.

The Professional Sessions will kick off with the Gathering of Classical and Contemporary composers and musicians, a space por international and local professionals from these music worlds to meet and network, which will take place on Wednesday 20th from 16h to 19.30h.

On Thursday 21st, the sessions will begin from 9.30h to 12.30h with the first speed meetings, which are one-to-one meetings with producers, distributors, promoters and managers to present projects, research fundraising and create new professional contacts. From 11h to 11.30h two pitches will take place with the presentation of two theatrical pieces: H-O-Hamlet and Ofèlia, by Agnès Llobet and Xavier Frau; and a theatre-radio project by the company La Llarga, which involves a theatrical tandem between Mallorca and l'Empordà in Catalonia.

 

At midday, the annual meeting of Circuito TalentIB will take place, between venues and Balearic artists who are members or who are interested in becoming part of the catalogue. After that, a number of performing arts projects will be presented: the book Xarxa Alcover 20 anys, a compilation of the trajectory of this association of organizations, theatre producers, theatres, universities, associations and people from the geographic area of Catalan language; Contexto Teatral, a web portal to promote and give visibility to the latest trends in the art of theatre; the Association of Balearic Playwrights (ADIB), which has been set up this year; IF Barcelona Festival, a biennial festival of performing arts for the research, creation and presentation of proposals around visual theatre, objects and puppets; the Tercera Setmana Festival in Valencia, an annual festival whose programme invites the audience to understand and share the art of their time, and allows artists to leave a mark on the reality of the society they belong to; and Trasatlántico, a travelling theatre festival that aims to create a dialogue between the different cultural identities of the Mediterranean Sea and those of Río de la Plata.

 

“Manager Meets Band” is the name of the mentoring session that will bring together at 12.30h various music managers and Balearic bands, with the aim of boosting Balearic musical creation and distribution. This session boasts the participation of Salva Alfonso, from Metrónomo Management; César Andión, from Live Nation; Albert Petit, from Pink Tiramisú Agency; Josep Porta, from HelsinkiPro; Julio Quintas, from JQ Management; Juan Santaner, from Industrias Bala; and Cristina Torres, from Tem Productions.

In the afternoon of that same Thursday 21st, from 16h to 17.30h, “Distributing Performing Arts” will offer a space for debating the opportunities and difficulties of distributing performing arts, based on the experience and work philosophy of three distribution companies: 23 Arts – Brother Projections, Toniflix Espectáculos and a+ soluciones culturales.

At the same time, the recently created Asociación Xàfec will be presented as a network of Catalonian Music Festivals that brings together festivals, fairs and exhibitions of small and medium format which have music as the conducting thread of their programmes, as well as the cultural management company Alter Sinergies, organizer of events such as s (a)phònica, Festival de la Veu de Banyolas, White Summer Festival or Càntut, amongst others. A round table will also be celebrated, entitled Meet the Labels, as a meeting space for musicians and accredited record labels, which will open up with a talk about the multifaceted panorama for labels in today's music business, by Marçal Lladó from Bankrobber and Máximo Lario from I*M Records.

On Friday 22nd the Sessions will begin at 9.30h with a second run of speed meetings. At the same time, the festival and creation centre EiMa, from Maria de la Salut, will be presented by its artistic director, Mariantònia Oliver; as well as Circaire, Alcudia's Circus Exhibition, with its codirector Sebastià Jordà.

Also from 10.30h to 13.30h will take place the presentation of the projects that make up the International Meeting Of Residency Centres and National and International Creative Labs, organized in cooperation with the Institut Ramon Llull. In the area of living arts, the following will participate: Recoletas Buenos Aires Cultural Centre (Argentina), Centre Choréographique National de Montpellier (France), La Chapelle Dérézo (France), La Serre arts vivants de Montrel - Festival OFFTA (Canada), Las Brigittines (Belgium), Naves Matadero Madrid (Spain), Circuit-Este centre chorégraphique Montreal (Canada), Berlin Circus Festival (Germany), Contemporary Dance Studio A-Giza (Egypt/EE.UU.), Artistan, International Performing Arts Network (France), Espacio inestable (Spain), Fondazione Fabbrica Europa per le Arti Contemporanee (Italy); in the area of visual arts: Jiser Reflexiones Mediterrànies (Spain), Oslo Pilot (Norway), Centro des Arts Vivants from Rades (Tunisia), Residencia 1+2 (France); and in the music area, Le Rocher de Palmer (Francia).

Meanwhile, at 11.30h, the most important alliance of Mediterranean music fairs will be presented, which aims to dinamyze the sector through a programme to promote artists across the different territories, and includes the Valencian fair Trovam!, Vic's Mercat de Música Viva, Manresa's Feria Mediterrània and Fira B!

 

After that will place the talk Use of Creative Commons sound and music within the creative industry with the presentation of two projects that are being developed by the Pompeu Fabra University to promote its use: freesound.org, a collaborative sound database, and AudioCommons audiocommons.org, a project centred on developing technologies to facilitate the re-utilization of Creative Commons content.

Also that morning there will be a Jazz Festival Gathering, a space to meet and network for international and local professionals from the jazz music world.

Friday afternoon will kick off with the talk Musical composition in audiovisual media, a debate that sets out to be a meeting point for the musical and audiovisual industries, where speakers will reflect from their point of view as producer, with Cesc Mulet; as director, with  Toni Bestard, and as composers, with Ivan Capillas and Miquel Àngel Aguiló. Another talk, Developing cultural audiences, a challenge, with Sílvia Duran, director of the Audiences Department of the Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises (Institut Català d’Empreses Culturales – ICEC), will focus on  possible lines of action in order to generate, amplify and diversify audiences around the performing arts

Two professional gatherings will take place on Friday 22nd at 17h: Contemporary Dance, with Eduardo Fernández Palomares (from the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music), Isabel Ferreira (from Navarra's Contemporary Dance Festival), Claudia Morgana (from the State Federation of Dance Associations and Companies) and Fernando Sáez de Ugarte (from Dantzaz); and Circus, with Lola Casademont (from Circus on the Streets Fair of La Bisbal d'Empordà), Oriol Martí (from FiraTàrrega), Clara Matas (from Fira Trapezi) and Isaac Vila (from Barcelona's GREC Festival).

The last day of Professional Sessions of this third edition, Saturday 23rd, will begin at 10.30h, also with a series of  speed meetings, at the same time as the informative session entitled “Public financing for music and the performing arts in the Balearics”, which will list and describe the different subsidies available from Balearic institutions for theatre, dance and music, with the presence of Natàlia Rabassa, coordinator of the cultural programme Art Jove; Pere Muñoz, director of the Balearic Tourism Agency; Rafel M. Creus, island Cultural Director; Mònica Pérez, deputy director of the Teatre Principal; Eva Frade, councilor for Citizen Participation and Territorial Coordination for the Council of Palma; a speaker yet to be confirmed from the Cultural Department of Palma Council; and Francesc M. Rotger, director of the Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics.

Finally, at 12.30h, the informative session entitled “Public financing for music and the performing arts, at national and European levels” will take place, with Eduardo Fernández Palomares, General Subdirector of Music and Dance for the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music; Rubén Gutiérrez de Castillo, from the SGAE Foundation; Ana Gómez, from the Cervantes Institute in Madrid; Miguel Sánchez Calle, from Europa Creativa Cultura; Miquel Àngel Lladó, responsible for the Cultural Service of the General Culture Directorate of the Balearic Goverment's Ministry of Culture, Participation and Sports, in charge of the programme Euro región Pirineo-Mediterráneo; Maria Lladó, from the Institut Ramon Llull; and Elena Díaz, from AC/E Spanish Cultural Action.