To:The European Music Council

From: The Supremus Pilot Project

Einar Solbu

Introduction

The European Music Council (EMC) Supremus Project was established as a pilot project, based on the assumption that the gap between the conservatory diploma and the international career for a young, highly talented performer of music represents a challenge for which the wider musical community needs to take responsibility.

There is a large number of 'actors' taking part in the processes which bring a young conservatory graduate from the 'safe' institutional recital hall filled with friends and sympathetic supporters, to the larger — and, in many respects tough — concert arenas of the world. Not only are there many 'actors'. There is also a wide range of interests and agendas which may make the promotion processes quite confusing and even contradictory. What we have in mind is the large variety of artistic, commercial, personal and even political interests tied to the possible success of a performing artist.

Who are we - the Supremus Pilot Project Steering Group? The group has consisted of leaders of well established national programmes for the promotion of young performing musicians in six European countries. The idea was that each of us would represent a 'system' and an infrastructure of which the Project could take advantage. In addition, the Secretary General of the EMC has been a member - and the convenor - of the group. The members have been:

Ursula Bally-Fahr, Switzerland, Secretary General of the EMC

Thomas Rabbow, the German Music Council

Beáta Schanda, Interart Festivalcenter

Einar Solbu, Norwegian Concert Institute (Rikskonsertene)

Jakob Stämpfli, the Swiss Music Council

Walter Vergnano, the Italian Music Council (CIDIM) (CIDIM chose to leave the project in the autumn of 1997)

Frans Wolfkamp, Holland Music Sessions.

The Supremus Pilot Project (SPP) is over. In this report we have chosen not to present a large number of details with regard to the practical operation of the project. The group's main aim with this report is to share with the EMC a few conclusions and recommendations with regard to future initiatives for young performing artists.

There are a number of words and terms in use in any discussion on young artists. Some of these — also used in this report — can indeed be interpreted in a variety of ways. We want to focus upon one such term: young artist, to make it clear what we mean when using it. For us a young artist is a person who has revealed genuine artistic qualities on a high level in his or her music making and musical communication; one whose artistic potential contains secrets which we would be more than interested in becoming acquainted with; and one who is young in the sense that he or she has not yet made an international career, but whose artistic messages the world ought not to miss. We do not mean talented youngsters whose musical and artistic potential may be visible, but who have not yet developed into mature artistic individuals.

Supremus - a Pilot Project

The aim of the SPP was to contribute to the development of international careers for a selected number of talented young performers of classical music. The objectives were to tailor programmes suitable to each individual performer, and to establish a network of organisations and institutions which, together, in a variety of ways, can meet the needs of the individual young performer.

These aims and objectives were formulated in the early stages of the project. As the project developed, the focus shifted to some extent. We will briefly describe the various stages and aspects of the project.

The SPP group met 12 times over the period of approximately three years. The group meetings have been spent partly discussing the many aspects of the promotion process, and partly on planning practical measures. Without going into too many details, the following summarises the main elements of our work:

In its very first stage the group made a fairly thorough study of the existing programmes and initiatives for promoting young artists in the participating countries.

After that, the discussion took place along two parallel lines: first, a general discussion with regard to the phenomenon of career development and promotion, and second, the tailoring of a promotional programme for young artists from the six participating countries.

The general discussion was concerned about issues such as the following:

The establishment of a mutual understanding and use of terms such as young talent, young artist, and young soloist, in order for the group to focus its work on a defined target group of performers (see definition of young artist above).

The balance between on the one hand focusing on a very limited number of the very best of young artists, and, on the other hand, the need for a larger group of talented performers to get the best possible opportunities for artistic development.

Selection procedures.

What, in fact, are the 'needs' from the point of view of young artists? Are the young artists themselves capable of defining their needs? What is, and what could be implied in such terms as support, help, and encouragement and other terms describing initiatives and actions aimed at catering for the 'needs' of young performers?

A scheme for a comprehensive programme for promoting young artists from the six participating countries was developed. The main points of the scheme were the following:

It should be based on structures already existing in the participating countries with regard to promotion and concert presentation.

In each participating country a national SPP structure should be established, involving concert organisers and presenters, such as festivals, orchestras, radio/TV stations, concert halls and other concert venues, possibly also educational institutions and recording companies. It was presupposed that the participating organisations should enter into the project with a certain commitment with regard to presenting young artists from the six countries.

Each country should have the autonomy to select its own artist(s) to the programme.

When the artists had been selected, individual promotion 'programmes' should be developed, based on the needs and wishes of each artist, and the offers given by the many participating concert organisers in the national infrastructures.

The project was limited to Western classical music; soloists, duos, trios and quartets; and performers between approximately 20 and 30 years of age.

The next phase was more difficult than we had expected. When presenting the scheme to concert organisers in our respective countries, we found that the general interest for presenting young artists was present, in many instances even very positive, but very few would commit themselves with regard to participation in a defined programme or scheme. In other words, we found that the scheme developed by the SPP group could not be implemented the way it was designed.

After some further discussion about the conceptual aspects of the SPP, it was decided to run a small scale project of which the following elements should be basic:

Each participating country should select one soloist. We agreed on a division of instruments.

Each soloist should be offered at least one concert in each of the participating countries, preferably more.

Holland Music Sessions took the responsibility for organising a mini-festival with concerts for all the six soloists in Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

A CD should be issued with samples from the Concertgebouw concerts, presenting all six soloists.

Discussions should be set up with the artists and with concert organisers, impresarios and other 'actors', in order to obtain the best possible information about the various aspects of the promotion processes.

This mini-project was implemented, to a large extent in accordance with its aims. The Concertgebouw concerts took place in August 1997, and a double CD came out a few months later. Three of the six soloists (the Hungarian clarinettist, the German cellist, and the Norwegian pianist) have, partly as a part of the project, partly as a result of it, obtained a fair number of concert engagements. The last was in Budapest in March 1999 where they also played as a trio. There is reason to believe that these three performers, which, by the end of the project period have proved at several occasions to be outstanding artists, will continue to work together and obtain further engagements as a more or less direct result of the SPP.

Findings

The description above indicates that the SPP did not come out exactly the way it was planned from the very beginning. However, the SPP group will, in general terms, conclude by stating that the Project has — in addition to having been of some support to a group of young performing artists — given valuable insight into an area which will, in our view, require great attention from the musical community in the future. It is our hope that our findings will be taken advantage of by those who, in the International Music Council (IMC) system, will continue to establish bridges over the apparent gap between a conservatory diploma and the international concert arenas.

The group has drawn conclusions related to two positions: that of the concert organiser, and that of the young artist. We will summarise our findings accordingly:

The Concert Organiser Perspective

The group makes the following points:

In general terms there is a broad interest among concert organisers/presenters for presenting young artists. We have found, however, that each organiser wants to have his freedom to make his/her own selection. In other words, very few — if any — concert organisers find it interesting to be involved in a collaborative programme which entails commitment to engage a performer who has not been chosen by themselves. We know that there are exceptions: concert organisers with similar aims who have already established a close relationship and mutual confidence (e.g. major concert halls) may agree to take each other's artists.

On a national level a number of selection programmes have been established. The programmes established by the German Music Council are, in our view, the most comprehensive. Also the programmes established by the Norwegian Concert Institute are worth studying for others who plan to develop national programmes for the promotion of young artists. Also in the other countries involved in the Supremus projects there are one or more programmes through which young, talented artist are identified. In most cases, the screening programmes are linked to practical schemes aiming at helping the young artists. The scope of these schemes differ greatly.

Many concert organisers are genuinely interested in promoting and presenting young artists, and are hence in search of information in order to choose those which meet the profile of their individual concert programme. There is a limit to how much resources (time and money) any concert organiser will spend identifying artists generally unknown to the public and themselves. The group has found that there are organisations working to supply such information. Holland Music Sessions is clearly one of the most active in this field. It combines the running of targeted programmes for young artists from all over the world with proactive information about its large portfolio of artist to concert agents and organisers internationally. The general need for information among concert organisers should be seen in relationship to the need for information among young artists (see below).

The Young Artist Perspective

It is a well known fact that the number of young performers who graduate from conservatories in Europe is growing. There is evidence that the number of highly gifted performing artists is also increasing, and that competition in the international arena is gradually becoming harder. There is, however, also evidence that the international scene will change in the next century: that the roles of agents and impresarios may alter as a result of new technology, that the concert formats and concert venues will be more differentiated as a result of the globalisation and the increasing communication between musical cultures, and that the interest of audiences will become more diversified. This may imply that there will be room for a wider variety of artists.

The SPP group maintains that the traditional conservatory educational programmes do not, in a satisfactory way, cater to the needs for the specially gifted performers. It is encouraging, however, that there seems to be a growing awareness in the conservatory world that performers who aim at an international career need to develop a comprehensive artistic basis and a number of skills beyond the strictly musical. The group will encourage initiatives aiming at the development of programmes — inside and outside the formal conservatory settings — to meet the needs of coming international performers.

The group is aware of the fact that a large number of opportunities are offered to highly talented young performers: competitions, master classes, summer camps, scholarships, promotion programmes etc. (the programme of Holland Music Sessions, as described above, is a good example). The group has found that there is a great need for easy access for young artists to information about existing opportunities. There is also need for a continuous dialogue between the various 'actors' in the area of promotion — the young artists themselves included — to develop forward-looking programmes.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The SPP has clearly demonstrated a need for international co-operation along two lines:

There is a need for a continuous discussion and dialogue aiming at unveiling and understanding the mechanisms which influence the process of entering the international arena as a performing musical artist. The clearer this picture is, the more targeted any initiatives aiming at supporting young artists in their career development can be.

Practical measures need to be taken in order for the highly gifted young artists to enter an international career and, through encounters with a wide variety of audiences, and opportunities to concentrate on studies of musical material and repertoire, to develop his/her artistic potential.

In our view, the Supremus concept should be continued. It should, in the future, embrace continuous discussion as well as practical initiatives.

The SPP has taught us, however, that certain conditions need to be met in order for such a scheme to be successful:

Any process which requires day-to-day attention must have its base in an operative institution or organisation with the necessary infrastructure.

The selection of artists for public appearances need to be left to concert promoters and presenters. On the practical level the IMC structure should limit itself to facilitate easy access to information and to making the interaction and co-operation between artists, agents, promoters and presenters as easy as possible.

As indicated earlier in this report, there is a large number of 'actors' taking part in the promotion process. It is also a fact that the process itself is complex, and that it entails often difficult encounters between a number of different agendas. A good scheme needs to involve the various 'actors', and take into account the complexity of the process. At the same time it is important to acknowledge the fact that any one scheme will cover only a limited sector with regard to musical styles and geographical coverage, and will cope with only a limited number of the many hurtles which exist in the area.

[Editor: The SPP goes on to make a number of recommendations to the EMC. In brief summary:

Establish a Think Tank to continue the discussion and dialogue which was established in the SPP group.

Establish a data base as a market place for young artists as well as for concert organisers, promoters and agents.

Future initiatives with regard to promotion of young artists should embrace all musical genres, styles and cultures.] 8

Einar Solbu is Director of the Norwegian Concert Institute and President of the International Society for Music Education.