Musix mix

Join fellow activists, media makers, educators, journalists, policymakers and concerned citizens in calling for real and lasting changes to the nation’’s media system at the National Conference for Media Reform, June 6-8 in Minneapolis. Bill Moyers will deliver the keynote address. On June 7, the Alameda Writers Group in Glendale interviews humorous author, screenwriter, and producer Eric Garcia, best known for his novels, Anonymous Rex, Casual Rex, Hot & Sweaty Rex, Matchstick Men, and Cassandra French’s Finishing School for Boys. Eric Garcia’s Matchstick Men which was made into a 2003 film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Nicolas Cage. The annual Webby Award Competition, open to all organizations and individuals involved in designing, building, managing, maintaining, marketing or promoting Web sites for business, consumer of general audiences, takes place this year in New York, June 8-10. BANFF World Television Festival 2008 combining an international program competition, the Banff World Television Awards, with a comprehensive conference agenda, will be conducted June 8-11 from its always scenic location of Banff in the Canadian rockies.  Read more...

Ras Nas aka Nasibu Mwanukuzi, a musician and poet from Tanzania, is one of the artists at this year’s Oslo World Music Festival. The Festival, one of the biggest in Scandinavia in World Music genre, takes place in Oslo, Norway from 30th October – 04th November.

This year’s Oslo World Music Festival theme is “Strong Women Voices” and female artists from different corners of the world are well represented. The Spanish flamenco artist Estrella Morente opens the festival

Among other artists are Cesaria Evora, Seun Kuti & the Fela Egypt 80, Rachid Taha and the fast rising South African jazz singer, Simphiwe Dana. “It feels good to be part of Oslo World Music Festival this year”, says Ras Nas, whose real name is Nasibu Mwanukuzi. Ras Nas will also be releasing his long awaited follow up CD “Dar-Es-Salaam”. The CD contains nine tracks with a mix of reggae, afro and dub poetry.

Other African artists that have taken part earlier include Salif Keita, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Oumou Sangare, the late Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diobate.

Ras Nas with an eight piece band plays at Belleville in Oslo, Saturday 03rd November.

Check out Ras Nas live video – Dar Es Salaam here!

The first Mosaic Music Festival launched in Singapore in 2005. Over the years the festival has come to become an annual feature at the Esplanade Theater in Singapore. With each year’s performance being bigger and better than ever before, this music festival is a must not miss event. As time went by the Mosaic Music Festival has gained a good reputation amongst the various newspapers. The Nation newspaper of Thailand, the South China Morning Post newspaper of Hong Kong and The Star newspaper of Malaysia, all have given the Mosaic Music Festival positive appraisals.

The Mosaic Music Festival in 2007 brought together a crowd of about 90, 000 people and the participation for this event has seen an upward trend. The shows included more than one hundred presentations out of which almost sixty of the shows were free. Local Singaporean artists, together with regional artists and international artists put on a wonderful display of musical extravagance.

Initially the Mosaic Music Festival included predominantly Jazz presentations and attracted a rather older audience. But now the Music Festival cover much more genres of music, some of which include folk, rock, experimental, classic, indie folk, Afrobeat ,folk rock, pop, ska and R and B , and now attracts a range of audiences to its various shows, both young and old.

The Durango Independent Film Festival, happening in Durango, will have an array of festival events including late night parties for filmmakers and VIPs running through March 8. The annual Chicago International Movies and Music Festival brings together movies and music, showcasing films about music, movie scores and soundtracks, and other syntheses of moving images and musical performance such as the world premiere of musician Martin Atkins’ directorial debut about his foray into the Chinese musical underground, ‘16 Days In China’, during the festival’s run March 5-8. Interactive discussion panels planned for the Puerto Rico Music Business Conference enable its participants to receive strategies, recommendations and true-life tales, applicable to any music genre, from experts currently shaping industry events. The Miami International Film Festival whose program is international in scope, but with a special emphasis on Ibero-American cinema, hosts over 350 filmmakers, producers, talent and industry representatives from around the world, during it’s run, March 6-15. Entertainment industry career guidance group urnetworkalliance is hosting a series of power breakfast sessions on Saturdays during the month of March. At the opening session Lelia Shearer, Casting Associate of Elissa Myers Casting, currently casting a mini series for PBS, will be in attendance. Joining the sessions is possible through the group’s Meetup page (www.meetup.com/urnetworkalliance/calendar/9613814/) or email to: info@urnetworkalliance.info  Read more...

Showcase Your Talent Become A Music Vendor

If you want a way to get more local exposure, sell your CD’s or other paraphernalia, or just get a chance to play in front of an audience then consider becoming a music vendor at a festival, bazaar, fair, or flea market. This will give you the opportunity to perform and gain more exposure, while possibly selling your work to a receptive audience.

Give Your Music Exposure

If you would like the opportunity to sell your CD and any other products, than you can apply to be a music vendor in a similar way as other craft vendors. There are usually spots for people to play their music on a smaller scale and allow people to listen to samples of their work or perhaps even other sorts of live music or CD’s. This is more along the lines of vending a product and you can submit a normal type of application. You should also make sure that you get your application in pretty early for this type of music vendor position. There may be a limited number of spaces for people selling their own music in this sort of non-performance setting. You may need to send in a sample CD or photo of your booth for this type of music vendor spot. It will depend on the compositeness of the festival. Since you will be set up in a booth for this type of music vending, you usually cannot play your music live. This should be something you take into consideration when you are trying to decide what kind of music vendor you want to be.  Read more...