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Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the role of music management, curation and programming in the production and consumption of new/experimental music based on concepts and practices of African music traditions, and how this curatorial process shapes areas of work of African composers and other music practitioners.

Paper long abstract:

From a critical music administration and management perspective, this paper looks at the particular intersections between how new/experimental African music connected to local traditions is created, produced and how it is consumed, listened to and experienced.

Ignacio Priego (Program Manager, NewMusicSouthAfrica; Co-Curator, Oluzayo - African Music Futures Festival; Administrative Director, World New Music Days 2023 South Africa), who has been producing and managing music projects for over a decade based out of Africa, often with composers, ethnomusicologists, electronic and traditional musicians, will analyze in the first part the role of music management, curation and programming both inside and outside the continents plays in fostering the composition, production and consumption of new/experimental music being practiced Africa.

Secondly, the paper will look into the influence this curatorial process has in shaping the areas of work of African composers, performers and other practitioners of new/experimental African music in terms of music styles, concept, topics, forms and their connections with local music traditions.

Almost 80 years since Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh composed "Ta'abir Al-Zaar" [The Expression of Zaar], one of the earliest known works of tape music or musique concrète, where he used a wire recorder to capture the sounds of an zar ritual - a traditional magic healing ceremony featuring drums, flutes and singing -, new/experimental African music based on African music traditions is today still emergent, still unfolding, still on the move and, ultimately, still being articulated as a viable and healthy music ecosystem.