DATE: 2-3-4 of October 2020
INFORMATION: https://congressorganimusic.wixsite.com/co2020oc
THEME: The general theme chosen for this year is: “SOUND GENERATION: environment and music in generations of sound creation”, with all papers related to organological and sound matters being highly welcome.
WHERE: Castelo Branco – central Portugal
LIMIT DATE FOR PROPOSALS: 15 September
Dear all,
we are pleased to be able to organise the ANIMUSIC Congress in 2020, in spite of the known issues we all have been facing during this year.
In the region chosen to hold our congress, there has hardly been any case of covid-19. Besides many good reasons, of which having a low population density is one of them, the air is not polluted, there is no traffic nor confusion on the streets, life quality is known to be very high. There are mountains, forests, ecological farms, self-sustainable agricultural systems (like ours in the headquarters of ANIMUSIC: Quinta da Lira), pure crystalline water fountains and rivers, with beautiful river-pools or beaches and lakes where we all go swim (water we can drink !). Besides these natural healthy conditions, in Portugal people respect the general governmental health policies, wearing masks in public closed places, keeping distance, different “in” and “out” paths, and limiting the number of people in social gatherings. Here, in Castelo Branco, the hospital created a detached alley for treating contaminated patients, fearing a full epidemic everywhere, which did not happen – in fact, the very few isolated cases from visitors to the region were immediately taken care of, and either submitted to home-isolation or transported to specialised institutions. Cases of death “with” virus (not “from” the virus) were minimal: the serious problematic cases were from other diseases.
We are sorry to have heard of worrying publicity regarding Portugal – which led to the creation of travel limitations or quarantine obligations which were not realistic. These last bans, and the earlier general European cancellation of public events, provoked serious limitations to the organization of concerts, conferences or other initiatives, and we all know the damage it caused to the artistic world (and many other worlds), and consequently to musical instruments technicians and all related professionals. We try to go forward with positivism.
We are preparing our event with all precautions: part of the presentations or concerts will be in a large hall, with people respecting the imposed law regulations (sitting distance, masks, provision of disinfectant liquids, special hygienisation of the spaces, etc.), and part of the presentations, weather allowing, will be in open gardens.
We have sent to private contacts a first Call for Papers, to have an idea of the response of potential participants. We are happy to have had a number of proposals which allow us to set up the conference with a good core of participants.
We have thus decided to make a full public Call for Papers, waiting for a while before doing it, having been observing the evolution of the ‘epidemic’ and the various governmental decisions, and so proposing the deadline to the 15th of September. If you are interested in physically participating, please send your proposal asap, so we have a full notion of the program possibilities (we try to have various recitals, in different spaces, to allow visitors to enjoy the different marvels of each place – palaces, parks, castles, etc.). We are also planning a complimentary tour in the region, with a visit to a special historical organ in a village with difficult access. And, as usual, a wonderful delicious banquet.
Please read more about the Call for Papers, transportation, and other information, at the website created for this Congress: link.
Welcome to ANIMUSIC-Portugal.
With warm good wishes,
Patricia Bastos
ANIMUSIC team
