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WFIMC Board visits Shanghai

Federation

Extensive Presentations and Promising Encounters at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music

In a sign of China further opening its doors and enlarging its musical activities, the Shanghai Conservatory of Music recently opened a new "International Research Center" for music festivals and competitions at a historical building on the conservatory’s campus. The opening ceremony was held together with a meeting of the International Artists´Advisory Council, an illustrious group of professionals that included Liao Changing, President of the Conservatory; Joseph W. Polisi, former President of Juilliard School; Jonathan Freeman, Principal of Royal Academy of Music, and a number of others. The board of the World Federation had also been invited to take part, and seven members (Peter Paul Kainrath, Glen Kwok, Sisi Ye, Jacques Marquis, Marcus Barker, Rob Hilberink and Florian Riem) as well as outgoing board member Maria-Leena Peas Arjava also attended. During a busy 3-day agenda, WFIMC members presented competitions, introduced new strategies and ideas, and prepared the ground for future collaborations between the Federation and the Shanghai Conservatory, China’s oldest music school. 

The meetings also coincided with the finals of one of the youngest WFIMC members, the IPEA Percussion Competition.

WFIMC board members with Shanghai Conservatory President Liao Changyong

WFIMC President Peter Paul Kainrath introducing the Federation

Founded in 1927, the Shanghai Conservatory is regarded the most prestigious music and arts school in the country. It employs 50 professors and 120 associate professors, and there are approximately 1200 students enrolled at the moment. The school maintains close relationships with many first-class conservatories and famous musicians, including collaborations with schools in the US, France, UK, Russia, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Germany and Japan. Many internationally well-known musicians such as Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Leon Fleisher, Pinchas Zukerman, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Yo-Yo Ma have served as honorary or guest professors.

Shanghai
At the opening ceremony of the new Research Center

In his presentation titled “The Artist of the Future”, WFIMC President Peter Paul Kainrath pointed out his vision of a music competition: 

"A competition needs to be much more than only a competition. Discovering talents, connecting stakeholders, reflecting about new roles of artists, anticipating game changes in the international music life -all this makes a competition not only powerful but - even more important - significant beyond the local impact of being a successful cultural project. A competition can be seen as an enterprise with a clear strategic plan, in which cultural values are the content and innovation the tool for it to make it relevant".

 

©WFIMC 2023/FR