This year's EFA Members General Assembly will take place online on 25 November 2020 and is composed of 5 specific moments during the day preceded by a yoga session. 

Members can join online from 10.30 AM CET. The EFA team and board will be there to welcome you!

Yoga for all or for those who want to have the full EFA day with each and every ingredient we have stirred up for you.

Ambika from Sampoorna Yoga Studio will prepare you for an energetic day.

Join as from 8:45AM with your video on and have the following material with you: a yoga mat, a blanket, a cushion (for breathing exercise and chanting) and if you have, a small face towel or eye cushion (like you get in the airplanes) for relaxation. Ideally, not drink coffee before the class nor eat something heavy (better some banana or other fruit) as to not interfere with your practice.

The General Assembly will include a presentation of the last 12 months spent together, in person or on zoom; the proposals for EFA's joint agenda and development of the organisation, and the adoption of some decisions EFA members have to make. 

For those of you who cannot be present, give a proxy to one of your colleagues to represent you when voting.

Check the follow-up page to consult the reader, participants' list and other useful documents. 

Each General Assembly is also the opportunity, and above all for members, to meet, chat, share drinks, and good ideas with each other: upcoming projects, new co-productions... We are happy to offer you this space in the EFA Lunch tête-à-tête virtual restaurant to make your reservation and enjoy your lunch with your colleagues.  

You are able to meet your colleagues and friends whenever you want between 13.00 and 15.00 PM. 

On the menu:

• speak to your friends you have not met for a long time
• share how you are, how 2020 was for you, how much energy is left for 2021
• ask about possible collaboration proposals
• propose a new idea
• just relax and hear what happens in someone else's life, festival, city...

Take the "mike" to pitch your co-production project, address a specific topic or share your experience/update about your festival.

The 4-Minute-Mike-Moment is meant to exchange with other members, connect and collaborate. The EFA Team will also be present to answer your questions on the EFA programme.

Presentation of the topics

• Mario Hossen - Varna Summer International Music Festival, a live festival in 2020
• Maruša Šinkovič - Reflection of this year and the representation of the 68th Ljubljana Festival
• Jurriaan Cooiman - CULTURESCAPES: Take a break and see who is at the table: next steps for the in-depth programmers meetings
• Jelle Dierickx - Festival Van Vlaanderen Mechelen (Lunalia): the role of digitisation in the arts
• Haris Pašović – Sarajevofest Art and Politics: Need for international collaborations in post corona times: Invitation to collaborate on projects
• Jahangir Selimkhanov - Nasimi Festival: INDASTORAL, a new audio(visual) project
  
• Laura Lahoud – Al Bustan Festival 2021: Reconnect
• Jovanka Višekruna Janković – Serbian Festivals Association: Festivals and young talents
• Ibrahim Spahić – Sarajevo Winter Festival 2020 and 2021: towards the Cultural Olympics
• Thomas Hummel – Usedom Music Festival Orchestra
  
• Peter Inkei - EFFE Hub Hungary: How you can contribute to FestivalFinder.eu (a)Live?
  
• Natália Oszkó-Jakab – Valley of Arts Festival: EFA membership benefits experienced so far
  
• Sona Hovhannisyan - Yerevan Perspectives International Music Festival presents the draft programme of the Arts Festivals Summit 2022 in Armenia

To start the evening, we will have performances of young artists you should absolutely discover and a keynote speech of Norman Lebrecht. 

• Welcome by Jan Briers (EFA President) 
• Introduction Speech by Darko Brlek (EFA Honorary Member) 
• EFA Young Artist Concert / Festival Castell de Peralada: Spanish bass Manuel Fuentes. He won the Festival Castell de Peralada Prize at the Prestigious Tenor Viñas Competition this year and he will debut at the Festival Castell de Peralada.
  The performance will be followed by a brief presentation by Oriol Aguilà (Director Festival Castell de Peralada) of the Young Artist Prize.
• Keynote speech by Norman Lebrecht: 'What classical music has gained from Covid'
• EFA Young Artist Concert / ArtLink Belgrade: Cellist Petar Pejčić. He won the Anna Kull International Cello Competition 2020, in Graz (Austria). He also won the ArtLink Award for the Most Promising young Artist in Serbia in 2019. 

____________________________________________

The performances are proposed by Festival Castell de Peralada and ArtLink Belgrade, two EFA members who have set up prizes for young artists. 

Norman Lebrecht will talk about the future of music. He is a British commentator on music and cultural affairs, a novelist, and the author of the classical music gossip blog Slipped Disc. He was a columnist for The Daily Telegraph from 1994 to 2002, and assistant editor of the London Evening Standard from 2002 to 2009. On BBC Radio 3, Lebrecht presented lebrecht.live beginning in 2000, and The Lebrecht Interview from 2006 to 2016. He won the 2002 Whitbread Award for First Novel for The Song of Names, at the age of 54. He also writes a column for the magazine Standpoint. Gilbert Kaplan described him as "surely the most controversial and arguably the most influential journalist covering classical music."
More info on: www.slippedisc.com and www.normanlebrecht.com