Brigitte Fürle, the new artistic director of Spielzeiteuropa, found a few minutes to talk with us about her project, just an hour before the official opening of the festival. She has previously worked on a range of productions at Schauspielfrankfurt, the Young Directors Project at the Salzburg Festival, the Bavarian State Theater and the Wiener Festwochen. Since 1995, she has been teaching Theater Studies at the University of Vienna, offering a course on the work of Robert Lepage.

Spielzeiteuropa opened on November 16 at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele, which changed its attire dramatically for the occasion. Brigitte brought in a photo installation by the Latvian artist Monika Pormale, in order to inhabit the house before the arrival of the audience and the artists: the facade and foyer of the building were draped with large-scale photos of couples embracing in different Berlin locales. Brigitte alludes to the significance of this installation in the interview, relating it to the central themes of this year’s festival.

Photo installation: Alles Wird Gut, by Monika Pormale

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Alain Paré is the founder and Président-Directeur Général (Chief Executive Officer) of CINARS, Canada’s International Exchange for the Performing Arts. For 17 years, he was a manager and agent for many well-known Quebec artists, as well as the founder of the production company Les Productions Contour. He also served as president and board member of ADISQ for the recording and performance industry. From 1989 to 1994, he represented the Conseil Francophone de la Chanson as vice president in North America. The Paris-based Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique retained his services for the organization of 3 editions of the Marché des Arts du Spectacle Africain (MASA), which were held in Ivory Coast in 1993, 1995 and 1997. He was also the co-founder in 1999, and the president from February 2000 until June 2001, of Festivals Montréal.

As this year’s CINARS was coming to a close, KadmusArts sat down with Alain to talk about the different approaches to selling the performing arts, and the latest trends in work created for touring.

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Johnny Palazzotto has his sounds playing throughout the music world from his base in the home of the blues — Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Over the last thirty-six years, Johnny has guided some of the most successful artists through their careers. In addition to producing Baton Rouge Blues Week, Johnny runs the recording label and marketing company Club Lousianne, music publisher Ertis Music, audio/video post facility Main Street Studios, and Pal Productions for producing events and representing talent. In other words, if you want to make music, you might want to be in touch with Johnny.

In this interview, Johnny talks about how the music industry works, how it should work, reminds us of the old saying that the Blues and Jazz had a baby — it was Rock ‘n Roll — and lets us in on his playlist this week: be sure to check out Raful Neal and family.

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