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Bluegrass Europe #83 to be mailed out soon!
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Change in EBMA leadership as of 1st April 2012!
On the last day of the 4th European Bluegrass Summit, on Sunday morning, 4th March 2012, EBMA held it’s 11th Annual General Membership assembly to approve the financial results of 2011, which disclosed a comfortable net profit of EUR 4’726.75 (more than making up for last year’s loss of EUR 3’276.42). The treasurer was given discharge. All the current board members were elected again, unanimously, as were the two auditors.
As a major change in the organization, EBMA’s board of directors announced that it had decided to distribute leadership tasks more evenly between all board members. One way of doing this was to change to a rotation of chairmanship. Having served as chairperson since 2009 in addition to her other tasks (treasurer, webmaster, chief editor), Angelika Torrie (CH) requested to step down from this position. As an official act, she handed over the (original Martha White) cooking spoon to Petr Brandejs (CZ), an accomplished musician, teacher, event organizer and long time president of the Czech BMA, who will lead the EBMA ship until this ime next year. As it was also decided that the 5th edition of the European Bluegrass summit, and EBMA’s 12th Annual General Membership assembly would be hosted by Capek Instruments in Prague, CZ in 2013, this will be the place and time where the chairmanship will be handed over to the next EBMA board member.
All members of EBMA’s board of directors – in addition to Angelika and Petr these are Martino Coppo (I), Christopher Howard-Williams (F), Rienk Janssen (NL), Chris Keenan (IRL), and Dagfinn Pedersen (N) – are confident that this system will work well for them, as at the same time they started sharing all relevant documents in a so called cloud, where all board members can equally obtain all information necessary to lead the organization – even for shorter periods if necessary.
- Chairperson Angelika Torrie handing over the spoon to new Chairman from 1st April 2012 Petr Brandejs, giving just one advice: „Beware of the banjo pickers!“ (photo: Dagfinn Pedersen)
New: 1st European Bluegrass Festival Directory 2012/13 released 3rd March 2012
For the first time, a complete and comprehensive directory of all festivals in Europe featuring bluegrass music (known to us) has been published by EBMA. The directory is a service as part of the EBMA Festival Network EFN. All EBMA members and subscribers of BE will receive a copy of the directory, which will also be available at no cost at the various participating festivals.
EBMA recommends to all of you Bluegrass festival goers (or festival goers to be!): Don't be shy or lazy! Travel, take your family, enjoy the countries, the people and the music, pick up some language skills, support or sponsor these festivals ... and encourage the promoters not to give up!
See you along the European axis of Bluegrass Music!
This is just a gentle message to remind our members that in most cases membership will expire at the end of March 2012. We hope that you will renew for another year. Please use the respective button on our MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS page. Thank you!
Upon receipt of your payment, we will send you your new membership card, valid until March 31, 2013.
The next issue of Bluegrass Europe magazine will be out by April 1 - don't miss it!
(Please pay before March 15, so we can send you the magazine when it comes out - it is quite expensive to send individual copies later.)
The annual rate for an active membership is € 50.00. Alternatives are:
- supporting membership at € 30.00 per year;
- supporting membership - couple: two members, one magazine - at € 40.00 per year;
- sponsor membership at € 150.00 or more per year.
Munich Bluegrass Friends to receive a Bluegrass Foundation grant in 2012
- Two members of the Girlie Band, performing 2009, photo (c) Thomas Betz
The Foundation for Bluegrass Music has just announced the grant recipients for 2012 which honor the legacies of Carlton Haney and Hazel Dickens. Congratulations to EBMA member Munich Bluegrass Friends, who will receive $2,500 as recipients of one share of the Hazel Dickens Artistic Development Awards. Based in Germany, the association will use their grant to establish a Bluegrass Youth Fund which will provide instruction for young people interested in learning to play bluegrass instruments in a band format. The Munich Friends organization formed in 2009, with the goal of building the bluegrass community in their region by teaching children and teens to play and improvise, how to arrange a song, how to put a set together for a band, how to book and advertise a concert, emcee and presentation skills, and more. Grants up to $400 Euros per person will pay for individual and group lessons for a year.
NEWS
EBMA member Lilly Pavlak to receive IBMA Award!
- Lilly Pavlak, August 2011
18.08.2011: Congratulations to Lilly for receiving this well merited award!
IBMA DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS ANNOUNCED
Nashville, TN: The International Bluegrass Music Association is proud to announce the recipients of the Distinguished Achievement Award, an honor which recognizes individuals in the bluegrass music industry who have fostered the music’s image with developments that will broaden the genre’s recognition and accessibility. The following people will be honored at the Special Awards Luncheon on Thursday, September 29, 2011, at the Nashville Convention Center during the IBMA Business Conference:
- Greg Cahill
- Bill Knowlton
- Lilly Pavlak
- Geoff Stelling
- Roland White
Lilly Pavlak is a journalist, photographer and sometimes booking agent/tour manager originally from the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia), now living in Switzerland. An active journalist for more than three decades who has been enormously important in telling the European bluegrass story in the U.S. (and vice versa), Pavlak is first and foremost a hardcore bluegrass fan who has devoted a large portion of her life and energy to promoting the music and artists she loves. The first American artist Pavlak heard in Czechoslovakia was Pete Seeger, in 1964. “I had never seen a live American before,” Lilly recalls. “We learned the worst things about ‘American imperialists’ in school and some people even believed they ate little children! After the first tones of the banjo, I knew this was the strange instrument from the hillbilly music I liked so much. That was a defining moment for me, and for the bluegrass movement that followed. Nowadays the Czech Republic claims the highest concentration of bluegrass musicians on earth!”
In 1975 Pavlak went to her first folk festival at Lenzburg Castle in Switzerland. The next day she flew to America for the first time, later returning with 20 pounds of bluegrass LPs and a guitar. She taped the albums and sent cassettes to her “Tramp Music” friends behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia—which was their only opportunity to hear bluegrass for 12 years. On a shoestring budget, Pavlak has returned to the States and Canada many times to hear and write about bluegrass music. She subscribed to American bluegrass publications and bought music to educate herself and her friends in Europe about new bands and trends. Lilly is one of the original members of the Swiss Bluegrass Music Association and the Bluegrass Association of the Czech Republic. Despite health issues in recent years, Pavlak attends nearly every bluegrass event in central Europe, sending reviews and photos to the bluegrass press around the world. “I feel home is where the heart is, and my heart is where good music is,” Lilly says. “I was always kind of a bridge between East and West, trying to put musicians from different countries together and make them friends.”
For sale: bluegrass postcards
Available online: Limited Edition of unique Postcards with Bluegrass Artwork by Liz Meesters-Janssen. Check out EBMA-Shop for details!
LOOKING FOR A BAND FOR YOUR EVENT?
Check out EBMA's Booking Network!
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Send a real postcard bluegrass greeting online!
EBMA's new service has been improved and now works: Send a Bluegrass Greeting (200 signs) from wherever you are to any destination worldwide. Check out EBMA's Online Shop for more!
EBMA board of directors
Angelika Torrie, Chairperson
Christopher Howard-Williams, Vice Chair
Rienk Janssen, Membership Admin
Dagfinn Pedersen, National Rep Network
Martino Coppo, at large
Petr Brandejs, at large
Chris Keenan, at large
Our mission statement:
Working together to support Bluegrass Music across borders.
EBMA's Missions
- EBMA works towards an integrated European bluegrass scene that enjoys strong, mutually supporting relations with international and national organisations.
- EBMA promotes and facilitates the sharing of Bluegrass enjoyment across borders (regional or national)
- EBMA supports bands, fans, musicians, organisations, professionals and everything connected with Bluegrass
- EBMA is a non-profit, professionally-run, dynamic and inclusive organisation
- EBMA adopts the core values of IBMA
EBMA's goals:
The European Bluegrass Music Association strives to
a) further bluegrass music in Europe by getting more people interested and involved,
b) further European bluegrass musicians and bands and
c) enhance bluegrass music's image.
This shall be achieved in particular by:
- annual gatherings
- a website as the main means of communication
- contacts between European bluegrass people (networking)
© 2011 European Bluegrass Music Association
P.O. Box 367, CH-4102 Binningen, Switzerland
Ph: +41 61 423 96 91 • Fx: +41 61 423 96 90