Thursday, May 15, 2008

Art/Muzike


Newly Established International Folk's “Oscars”
by Altin Topi


For four days, from 8th to 11th of May, two southern Italian towns, San Severo and Alto Tavogliere in Puglia, became "the reference points” of international folklore as the First Festival of Popular Traditions took place there. The Festival offered space and opportunity to all the lovers of pizzica and taranta with a rich program relevant to the art and traditions of folklore. The event celebrated the lifelong contributions of several international renowned folklore collectors, scholars, musicians, ethnomusicologists from different places of the world. It was the first event of this nature and scale.


The event was organized and sponsored by The International Federations of Folkloristic Groups in collaboration with Italian Federation of Popular Traditions which counts for about 450 different folkloristic groups and twenty thousands associates. The local authorities of Puglia Region were very delighted and helpful in assisting the Festival during the different events and festivities which were held in two towns, San Severo and Alto Tavogliere.

On May 11th in the Communal Theater “Verdi” an international jury awarded the first worldwide Folklore's "Oscars” to fifteen prominent worldly personalities in the field of folklore: Lillo Alessandro (Italy), Ramadan Sokoli (Albania), Frank Whelan (Ireland), Ladislav Michalek (Czech Republic), Vladimir Makarov (Russia), Indra Filipsone (Latvia), Augusto Santos (Portugal), Jaques Matuetue (Congo ), Andreas Lanitis (Cyprus), Dorel Cosma (Romania) Send Svirac (Croatia), Claude Sarrail (France), Jose 'Masa Joaquin Romero (Spain), Irfan Nasrattinoglu (Turkey), Edit Varga (Hungary).

Among the winners of the Folklore's "Oscars" of a dozen countries around the world is Prof. Ramadan Sokoli, who only recently passed away. Ramadan Sokoli was born in 1920 in the city of Shkodra, Albania. He studied flute and composition in Florence, Italy at the "Luigi Cherubini" Music Conservatory. Later he established himself as the founding father of Albanian ethnomusicology becoming a towering figure in Albanian and Balkans arts and music on the whole.

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