The end of Summer finds us in a new home in a new county.  After being a Broward County non-profit, since April 2007, WIJSF, Inc. is now doing business in Palm Beach County, Florida.  There is a rich cultural scene, here, in the City of Delray Beach, where my grandparents resided all of my childhood.  Now, their entrepreneurial spirit will hover over the work we do to promote women musicians, globally.

Many thanks to member and professional golf instructor Ronnie Dunayer for recommending this wonderful new home office to me. I believe our Palm Beach County members – Ronnie, Debbie Pierce, Rory Ranucci, Roberta DeMuro, and Lindsay Johnson will bring added insight to our future plans to move WIJSF forward.  We have an important Board/Planning Meeting coming up on September 15 at the Delray Oaks West Clubhouse and I am sure to have good things to report in the October Newsletter.

Items on the agenda will be MEOW Con in Austin, TX, and MUSICWOMAN MAGAZINE for which we are developing a business and marketing plan to publish the second online edition in November with advertisement.  We’re asking for your help to get us to MEOW Con, October 24-26, where Lorna Lesperance and I will have a booth to promote our three compilation CDs and YOUR personal CDs, if you are interested.  The booth is $800, which gives us two registrations that are normally $300 a piece.

We have a fundraiser at www.gofundme.com/octoberconferences and ask that you support this effort, generously, since our presence at MEOWCon will probably be the only group from the Jazz/Blues genre. We’ve decided to forego attendance at the Rex Nettleford Arts Conference at Edna Manley College, in Kingston, Jamaica, in the beginning of October, due to lack of funding for travel expenses.

The statistics in the graphic above explain why a conference of women musicians is so important to attend, especially by representatives of an organization like ours that is dedicated to increasing awareness about the marginalization of women musicians.

Finally, the Call to Women Composers for submissions of one song from 10 members that must be received by November 1, with $125 submission fee pays for 20 CDs plus the $25 submission fee. The CDs are valued at $15 each for a return of $300 for your $125 investment. Traditionally, we’ve manufactured 1,000 of each compilation with 200 going to the composers and the remaining 800 CDs being sold to raise funds for the organization or sent to various DJs and radio hosts for airplay to continue our work to promote our musical members. Some composers chose to give their CDs as gifts or sell them for $15 or $10 dollars.  That is a personal choice.

No country is without women making music. Humanity would be poorer without our contribution. When children are born, mothers sing! ANNOUNCEMENTS: On September 12, we are at Europe House in London for the English presentation of WIMUST. FONDAZIONE ADKINS-CHITI: DONNE IN MUSICA In Need of Key Changes A Composers’ Symposium on the Challenges Facing Contemporary Music Workshop for Composers at the European Parliament in Brussels November 13, 2013 Presentation It is largely understood that within the musical world “talent alone is not sufficient for the success of a professional career.” Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity by UNESCO (2001) and the European resolutions on the Status of Artists (2007), nothing has changed. The statutes of artists are still being endangered and questioned every day, whilst equal opportunities in the performing arts are far from being a reality. In order to act on this critical observation Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica and ECSA, both actively representing the rights of European composers, are joining forces and organizing In Need of Key Changes. The event will enable the creation of a common platform, engaging the Parliament in talks over the working conditions of today’s composers of art music and the necessity to safeguard, empower, and sustain their positions within the European cultural/world heritage, for the sake of EU competitiveness as well as the future of creativity. Topics Authorship in Music Today (definition of the term and usage, presentation of the fields of work, role in the music value chain, music composition, and income reality) Forms of Discrimination and Statute of the Artist (reminder on statutes of artist, presentation of discrimination forms) Equal Opportunities in the Performing Arts (promotion of all repertoires, better balance between men and women in the performing arts, value of equality on musical diversity). Art/Contemporary Music and its place in Society (presentation of niche repertoire, importance of diversity of creative work, role of culture as a vector of identity). Aims To expose the frailty of composers and songwriters’ situation (today and in the future). To provide policy makers with clear recommendations towards the protection of composers and songwriters’ creative sources/outlets, livelihoods, and rights. To improve social and economic conditions for composers and songwriters and to stress the importance of the Equal Opportunities Act. To ensure that the future of all young composers and songwriter/creators now engaged in vocational studies (at formal and informal levels). Target Audience Politicians: MEPs, civil servants DG EAC Stakeholders: broadcasters, publishers, record producers, music practitioners, national music councils, orchestras, festivals, unions General Public: composers, artists, all organizations working for equity in the performing arts Sede Legale: Teatro Comunale, Piazza Trento e Trieste 1, Fiuggi Città Tel: 0039 0775 168 56 35 forum@donneinmusica.org | http://www.donneinmusica.org Membro dell’IMC – International Music Council, UNESCO Membro EUC – European Music Council Organizzazione Internazionale Non Governativa in partnership ufficiale con UNESCO Biblioteca – Archivio sotto la tutela della Soprintendenza Archivistica della Regione Lazio

GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Featured Guest at Standard Bank Joy of Jazz Festival
By Lenore Raphael

Landing in Johannesburg on Wednesday, August 23, I was surprised at how different the city is than I thought. New Yorkers tend to think of other places as small cities. Johannesburg has six million people and everything any large city has – supermarkets, coffee shops, drug stores, good restaurants, movies theaters, and shopping malls.  The people are mostly Afrikaans, which has the Dutch influence and language of the Boers (farmers) that settled there. However, everyone in this culturally diverse city speaks English as well.  Everywhere we went, people seemed happy, smiled easily, and were relaxed. There was none of the stress that one feels in large, urban cities. But there are problems due to unemployment.

From the moment my husband Joel and I arrived, we were welcomed by our hosts Brian and Monica Hough. Brian is editor and jazz reviewer of his magazine JassMan.

My Master Class in Pretoria at the University of South Africa (UNISA) was a wonderful experience.  UNISA is the only All-Steinway school in South Africa. The students were eager to learn more about jazz as we know it. They asked very perceptive and interesting questions and really seemed to enjoy playing for me. The jazz they played was more pop-oriented. But we discussed all kinds of jazz and I suggested many artists that they might listen to. They knew most of the names but had not listened to their recordings.

On Saturday, August 24, I was a featured artist at the Joy of Jazz Festival in Johannesburg. I had not met with the South African rhythm section but a half hour sound check told me we were going to be fine.  It was MORE than fine because bassist Jimmy Mngwandi and drummer Walter Kote were a treat to perform with. They listened and were really in tune with what I was playing. Jimmy is moving to the United States, so I expect we will be working together more.  We performed to a full house at the Market Theater and got a long, standing ovation. It was a wonderful experience.

There were many great artists at this festival sponsored by Standard Bank and, over the years it has become a major event with names like Ahmad Jamal, Abdullah Ibrahim Dollar Brand, Eddie Daniels, Rene Marie, The Batiste Family from New Orleans, and many more scheduled for this year. All in all, I had a wonderful time on this trip, including a safari and sleeping in a tent with a monkey on our roof and hope to go back again!

Charlotte, Ronnie, Joan, Leslie, and Lorna spent a musical evening with
Jacksonville flautist Linda Witsell at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach, FL

As a gatherer of women musicians, I’ve been visiting jazz venues, since 1968, and it was at a piano bar near the United Nations building in New York City that I found Marian McPartland.  She paid homage to living pianists on her NPR show “Piano Jazz”.  However, it was the fact that she was the first woman to acknowledge -women in Jazz on NPR in a 13-week series that impressed me the most about this amazing musicwoman.  Born on March 20, 1918, in Windsor, England, Marian was a phenomenal pianist and composer.  Her first job in New York was on 52nd Street.  Her parents disapproved because she was involved in “the bad life” but a two-week engagement at the Hickory House lasted a year and all of the greats came to hear her, including Benny Goodman and Dizzy Gillespie.  In 1971, she formed her company, Halyceon Records.  She worked for an extensive time at Cafe Carlyle and hosted “Piano Jazz”, a radio show on National Public Radio, since 1970.  On Public Broadcasting System (PBS) she produced a 13-series Women in Jazz program.  The guest of national symphonies.  She died on August 20, 2013, in New York, NY.