Second Music Fair Turin The exposition The events The concerts Music Education Stories from music Initiatives for trade visitors

Second Music Fair Turin

Music Fair, the second edition: after the challenges, successes and criticism of the first year, the exhibition that in October 1996 involved 995 exhibitors and 164,000 visitors (of whom 11,470 were trade visitors) comes back renewed.
The Music Fair comes back with the awareness that the music world needed a common home where activities could be presented, problems could be discussed, artists could exhibit and where common and professional visitors could meet each other in a festive and working atmosphere. It comes back willing to offer higher quality exhibitions, to search for new cultural and spectacle proposals and also to make production activities and music market trends known to the public.

As in the first edition, the Music Fair will focus on production: artistic, organizational, manufactured and industrial.
The entire Lingotto, in both the expositon and conference areas, will be transformed into a big "square" overlooked by the "houses" of Italian and international record and instrument producers, the "palaces" of the big institutions, the music schools and the media stations - newspapers, radio and TV- all united by a sonic wave.

In order to better satisfy the requirements of the public and the exhibitors in the exposition area, the organization has taken steps towards sensible improvement of the acoustics.
The Performance Stage (250 seats) has been moved onto the large square behind pavilion number 3. The Palalingotto (800 seats) has been constructed on another large square (located in car park B). The Arena (with the same capacity of 4,000 people) has been moved from pavilion number 3 to pavilion number 1 (which has no columns to interfere with vision and hearing).
The exhibitors were expressly requested to construct their stands orienting the diffusion of sound towards the inside; in accordance with European laws, a threshold of 85 decibels shall not be exceeded.

The events

The main message of the first edition of the Music Fair was "contaminate the music", in fact the slogan was "all the music of the world, all the world of music" and the main events were R@dio Trance conducted by Mau Mau, the convention on Elvis Presley and the concert of Caetano Veloso. The second edition delves deeper along those lines looking even more carefully at the main music genres.

Carte Blanche for...
The 1997 Music Fair will give carte blanche to the main characters of the music world at every phase. It will be like getting up in the morning with an artist and seeing live all the moments of the making of music, from the relationship between instruments, to the analysis of his favourite music, to the encounter with other musicians with whom he plans a show, to the moment of the real show.
The personalities that have accepted to put themselves on the line - offering their experience to the public of the Music Fair - are Uto Ughi for classical music, the Italian Instabile Orchestra for jazz music and Lorenzo (a.k.a. Jovanotti) for pop music.
Carte Blanche for... is an attempt to reflect upon the vast and important subject of the cultural responsibilities of musicians and their relationship to the public. Musicians have always had to consider the environment in which they work. They also had to consider the public whether touching, flattering, amusing or exciting it or taking it to sublime destinations. Only recently have the social impact of music and the problem of cultural consumption been the subjects of consideration. Under this perspective, Carte Blanche for... will be an effective chance to summarize the long process that culminates in the making of music. Musicians will make an attempt to strongly connect education with enjoyment. An attempt will also be made to restore the division in genres, being aware that this will enable the understanding of specific moments, dialogue and mix.
Every guest will speak with a students public in the morning, illustrate the composition of music in the afternoon and close the day - with the exception of Uto Ughi - with a performance. Every guest will be able to work with colleagues as well as with young musicians not yet in the limelight to share the making of music, it's joy and its creative tension.

Frank Zappa Memorial Afternoon
This year the Music Fair offers a convention like the one dedicated to Elvis Presley in 1996. The subject this time will be Frank Zappa, a musician of primary importance needed to stress the matter we have at heart: the mixing of musical genres in the modern post-Ptolemaic era of music (a horizontal world, no longer vertical). The highly creative productions of Frank Zappa, his wild independence and his extraordinary talent, put him in touch with Igor Stravinskij and Captain Beefheart, the Penguins and Pierre Boulez, Edgar Varèse and John Lennon. Riccardo Bertoncelli and Enzo Restagno will lead an encounter on the Zappa "factory" in which will participate friends, fans and experts on this great American musician to reconstruct his extremely original story. Leading off the encounter will be the musical group Ossi Duri, young Zappa fans since 12. The Tankio Band will follow revisiting Zappa's jazz sounds and Elio e le Storie Tese, one of the principal Italian pop groups have agreed to perform musical pieces in which their mixes combined with the ones of Zappa will throw the public into a state of "wild" celebration.

The concerts

The experience from the first edition showed that some culturally important genres must be supported. This year the Music Fair chose to support jazz music, therefore the exposition will open and close with two jazz concerts: the Egberto Gismonti Trio and The John Abercrombie Organ Trio.

In addition to the model step of Carte Blanche for... the Music Fair has committed itself to creating a series of in-depth musical encounters, for young students. The students will not only have the privileged entrance to Carte Blache for..., they will also be able to participate in a "master class" of singing held by Maestro Elio Battaglia. The simulation of a singing lesson will allow the understanding of the technical and aesthetic problems of vocalism as well as the problems related to opera singing. The ones who would like to test their own vocal talent can participate in the Voice Audition Centre and make a reservation for an audition. The school bands that participated in the first edition of Ora di musica! - held last May in Milan, Venice and Turin - will meet and play with well-known artists. The educational path that was planned directly by the Music Fair will end with two sessions. The first dedicated to classical music and lead by Maestro Antonio Ballista will be a panorama on American music from the 19th century to the present, from Gershwin to Copland, from Porter to Bernstein. The second will be a session in which Africa Unite will offer young people the history of reggae, dub and jungle music.

Talking about music also means talking to the people that contributed to music history. Considering the success of the first edition, in 1997 the series Stories from Music will continue. Every day emblematic figures such as Gottfried Wagner, Robert Wyatt, Joe Boyd will narrate their life experiences characterized by their commitment to music: Gottfried Wagner will narrate on his illustrious roots, Robert Wyatt on his artistic work, Joe Boyd on record production. Talking about music also means commemorating mythical characters like Maria Callas: 20 years after her death, the Music Fair dedicates to her an encounter in which Maestro Elio Battaglia will offer an analysis of the feminine voice through one of the greatest opera singers.

Initiatives for trade visitors

11,470 trade visitors participated in the first edition of the Music Fair. The enthusiasm of the event produced numerous new contacts. So it has been decided to offer dedicated initiatives to the trade visitors. The first sector which the Music Fair has dedicated itself to is the role of festivals in innovating rock music. In co-operation with Arezzo Wave and Yourope, those responsible for the principal European festivals and the representatives of institutions are invited to discuss this subject.
Participating at Maastricht Rock - the role of festivals in rock music - co-ordinated by Mauro Valenti (Arezzo Wave) will be: Stèphanie Gentilhomme (Rock & Folk), Gunnar Lagerman (Hultsfred Festival), Fernands Marquez (Le Printemps de Bourges), Jean-François Michel (European Music Office), Carles Sala (Mercat de Mùsica Viva de Vic), Jan Smeets (Pinkpop), Holgar Schmidt (Rheinkultur), Moustapha Terki (Le Printemps de Bourges), Keit Williams (International Event Management).
Moreover, in order to show the fundamental importance of the commercial and cultural production of records, the Music Fair has aided the organization of many specialized events and offers directly Quality of Selling Points, a seminar on how to attract customers to outlets through different examples such as chains, mega and specialization stores in Italy and Europe.
In addition to the activities that will develop throughout the exposition there will be a prize for the best window on the theme "music genres". The winners will be given a week long trip to Kenya, Egypt and Tunisia for 2 people.

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