‘The song of the earth’, motto of the 2023 Cartagena Music Festival

MODIFY. How did the return of the so-called “face to face” come about in the world of classical music?
js: A bit like I told you before: at the beginning you had to take a lot of precautions. For example, ensembles were to have maximum separation between their members, and wind instruments were to play behind transparent panels. But, as I said in my opening words that year, if we didn’t, we’d die.
I AM: It was an important comeback, I would say almost vital for the music industry. The public needs a direct relationship with the artists. In the same way the artists, playing live, receive a thousand stimuli from the presence of the public, especially if warm and involved like the one in Cartagena. The Cartagena Music Festival has tried, in every way and naturally respecting all safety regulations, not to interrupt the direct relationship with its audience. In 2021, in the midst of a thousand difficulties, we created a reduced blended festival (five days), with which we wanted to send a message of confidence to the entire music sector, particularly affected by the effects of the pandemic. In 2022, we continued the work done in 2021 by organizing a seven-day face-to-face festival, which was also broadcast on television. We hope that the edition of 2023 is the transition to the traditional festival format.
CHANGE: After a very difficult two years for live music and other performing arts, what lessons has the festival left behind?
I AM: I think that in the moment of greatest difficulty, precisely from March 2020 and for a good part of 2021, we have all experimented with alternative communication strategies with the public: virtual concerts via stream, educational initiatives via video, virtual appointments of various kinds, interviews and other virtual initiatives. We have experimented with alternative routes to the canonical communication of festivals and cultural events.
js: Firstly, that we are human beings and we need contact. Virtuality is a tool, but nothing replaces the musical experience when there is direct contact with the public.
CHANGE: How was the alliance between Cartagena and Ibagué, where the Salvi Foundation also organizes a music festival?
js: Although both are organized by the Salvi Foundation, they are very different concepts, with different philosophies. Furthermore, the cities of Cartagena and Ibagué have had completely different developments in urban planning and cultural aspects. That’s why you will notice that part of the human team works in both festivals, but on the other hand the curatorship is not shared.