Presided by Shona McCarthy, CEO, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society

Shona McCarthy: "We live in a world of endless budgetary pressures, the chasm between rich and poor is growing, societal views are changing in response to massive political shifts. It is a time when cultural festivals are asked less about the arts and artists and more about the environment, tourism, health and well-being and who's paying who. In an open-access festival, how can we recalibrate to meet increasing artist and public demands, remain diverse and inclusive, whilst developing sustainable models that support emerging cultural content?"

Read Shona McCarthy's biography.

Presided by Luis Perandones Lozano, Founder and Managing Director, Muv.ac GmbH

Luis Perandones Lozano is the founder and managing director of Muv.ac GmbH.
After completing his studies in flute, he worked for more than eight years with different symphony and opera orchestras in Germany, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and Austria, five of those working as a flutist in the "Staatsorchester Stuttgart", the orchestra of the Stuttgart Opera.
In 2011 he started working as concert planner for an international agency representing European orchestras and between 2012 and 2016 he held the position of "Orchestra planning manager / Deputy Orchestra director" at the "Philharmonia Zürich", the orchestra of the Zurich Opera.
Muv.ac GmbH launched the first platform www.muvac.com in 2011, which has already established itself as an international reference for the organization of auditions with more than 250 institutions and 50k+ users from 28 countries working with it. The team is currently developing www.klassikal.com, its new platform to connect classical music professionals.

Luis Perandones Lozano: "Participants in this session are invited to discover not only some of the possibilities that the platform “Klassikal” offers but to learn about different tools, services and methods used by other festivals that can help master daily tasks. Session mostly focused on the needs of festivals that organize concerts."

Presided by Tamar Brüggemann, Managing Director, Wonderfeel Festival Netherlands

‘Wonderfeel is a fairy tale’ and ‘Wonderfeel is unique in the world’ are but two of the descriptions by Dutch newspapers of this outdoor festival for classical music, located in the woods near Amsterdam. Wonderfeel is founded and co-directed by Tamar Brüggemann (1981), who started her career at the Utrecht Early Music Festival (2001-2013) and subsequently managed the baroque orchestra Holland Baroque for several years. In December 2019, the first edition of What About Now took place, a long night that focusses on social sustainability by celebrating the here and now. Besides developing her own festival concepts, Tamar also fulfills a number of additional functions, including advising the Performing Arts Fund NL and the Municipality of Rotterdam and Amersfoort. She is also a board member of the Rosa Ensemble and Ensemble Stargaze. Tamar holds a Master's degree in Language and Culture Studies from Utrecht University and has studied Musicology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. From 2016-2018 she was a fellow of the International Society for the Performing Arts in New York. Since 2017 Tamar is part of EFFE’s International Jury, which awards the biennial EFFE Awards to the most remarkable festivals in Europe. To breathe in some air outside the cultural bubble, Tamar plays as a striker in a football team. Her goal is to score a hattrick someday...  

Presided by Fabienne Krause, General Manager, Classical:NEXT

Fabienne Krause is general manager of Classical:NEXT – an annual, global networking and exchange hub dedicated exclusively to classical and art music. Since the first edition in 2012, she has played a crucial role in setting up and developing this networking event, consisting of an interactive conference, showcase festival, and expo. Over the years, around 5,000 art music professionals representing 2,500 companies from 60 countries have engaged with Classical:NEXT. Fabienne joined Piranha Arts in 2009, an independent creative company made in Berlin since 1987, which consults and organizes cultural events. Initially she supported the Piranha Arts team as project coordinator and musicologist on state-funded research projects, and supports WOMEX - the world music expo, each year with onsite production. She holds an M.A. degree in musicology, philosophy and sociology.

Fabienne Krause: "What are the ingredients to creating relevant, interesting, attention-getting classical and art music events? What strategies do daring yet successful artistic directors around the world have in common?

In traveling across all the continents to bring the world of art music together, Classical:NEXT has seen a great many examples of both successful and not-so-successful festival strategies. But among the Do's and Don’ts, is one common challenge faced by all: how to create fresh, compelling classical and art music experiences for the diverse audiences of today?

Find out about useful strategies, what works, what doesn’t and gain an insight into the broad experiences collected by Classical:NEXT from over many years of traveling and sharing. This interactive workshop, led by Fabienne Krause, General Manager of Classical:NEXT, will help you to design, evaluate and optimize your classical music concerts and events."

For further info on Classical:NEXT visit the website and watch the trailer on YouTube.

Presided by Paul Dujardin, CEO and Artistic Director of BOZAR and Magdalena Liskova, Head of International Relations at BOZAR

Paul Dujardin is the CEO and artistic director of the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels since 2002. Under his direction the Centre has turned into an internationally recognised, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary arts centre, offering a wide range of events, from concerts, to exhibitions, cinema, literature, theatre, dance performances or debates and workshops.
As a passionate advocate of the European project, Paul Dujardin enabled BOZAR to become an essential and indispensable actor both in the European cultural cooperation and in the defence of cultural values in the European project. Paul Dujardin represents the Centre for Fine Arts of Brussels in various platforms, such as the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO), the International Society of Performing Arts (ISPA), the Réseau Européen de Musique Ancienne (R.E.M.A.) and ASEMUS – Asia-Europe Museum Network (since September 2010). He is also a Board member of the International Music Council (IMC) and a Vice-president of the European Festivals Association (EFA). In 2018 he was appointed a President of Europa Nostra Belgium. In 2016 he received the Lobby Award 2016 “Brussels Leader of the Year” for his work in re-energising Brussels. In 2020 Paul was awarded with an Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 1st Class.

Magdalena Liskova is a Head of Institutional Relations of the Centre for Fine Arts (BOZAR) in Brussels, which she joined in 2018. She holds a PhD in Cultural Diplomacy and International Cultural Relations and is an expert in international cultural cooperation, cultural policy and management and also a certified project manager. 
Between 2016 – 2018 she was a director of the Linhart Foundation, an independent, non-profit cultural organisation based in Prague. From 2010 to 2016 she lived in Brussels, where she was engaged with several European networks, such as ENCATC, EUNIC and the European Youth Forum, where she was in charge of European projects management, membership and networks development, and international and cross-sectoral cooperation. She obtained her BA and MA Degrees in Theatre Management at the Theatre Faculty of the Janacek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic, where she also defended her PhD thesis 'The Role of the Performing Arts in the Development of Cultural Diplomacy and International Cultural Relations of the Czech Republic'.

"Were you ever wondering how many hours per year all the EFA members together spend in filling in statistical reports for their festivals?
Were you ever wondering how much sense there was in that activity?
In this session we would like to re-connect the data with reality of our work as festival organisers and producers. We want to present a forward-looking approach towards data collection and their usefulness.
We are all very much aware of the fact, that what we are trying to achieve with our festivals, is not only about numbers of participants and annual turnovers.
But how to express the important values we stand for and how to make them fit into the preconfigured report tables of our local, national as well as the EU authorities?
We invite the participants to re-visit the data together and look into new ways of how to valorise the EFA network and its members in order to prove our case and hold out in the competition with other fields. "

More info coming soon...