Call for musicians: International Women's Sound

An Invitation to a Women's Music Festival in Yerevan, Armenia

Dear folks,

Utopiana and our soundlaboratory invite all-female music bands and individual musicians to take part in a music project called International Women’s Sound which includes a music festival, music workshops and seminars.

We are seeking artists who produce and perform primarily in the following contemporary genres: alternative, experimental, avant-garde, sound performance, rock, and punk, as well as contemporary classical music.

Preference will be given to female musicians who are not currently recognized in their communities due to their gender and genre of music. Our aim is to promote and support the work of artists (either bands or solo musicians) in contemporary music who have not had a great deal of exposure in their countries.

Application Deadline: April 1 , 2009

Project Dates: September 18 - 25, 2009
Festival Dates: September 20 - 21, 2009

Please submit completed application forms to the attention of Tsomak (Armine Oganezova) at ts_oga@utopiana.am, and contact us if you have any questions:

tel. +374 93 391712
fax. +374 10565026
mob. +374 93 391712

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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT

Title: International Women’s Sound
Duration Of The Project: September 18 – 25, 2009
Project Director: Tsomak (Armine Oganezova), Artist, Musician, and Activist

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Project Features:

Sound Workshops
During workshops participants will learn how to use different music computer programs to create music. Participants can offer their own suggestions how to conduct the workshop.
Bands can also organize their own workshops.

Seminars
These meetings are formally called seminars, but they are going to be debates and discussions about music and our creative processes.

Music Festival
The festival will include girl bands and independent musicians from different parts of the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia), Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Palestine, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and countries of Africa. The festival aims to show how radical are the ideas that we have inside of ourselves.

Project Goals:

To break the wall of silence instituted by patriarchies, and to deconstruct the stereotypes and traditional roles of womenfolk;
To inspire women to stand up and fight for their rights and freedom;
To create knowledge and exchange experience through workshops and seminars;
To imagine women as strong and creative members of society;
To introduce and disseminate radical ideas in the Caucasus.

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Application Form

PERSONAL INFORMATION
International Women's Sound

First Name:
Last Name:
Passport Serial number:

Address:
Country:
Telephone:
Email:
URL:

BAND/MUSICIAN INFORMATION

Band Name:
How Many Members:
Genre:

Please mention the URL where we can access your music or email samples to ts_oga@utopiana.am.

Or mail a CD/DVD to the following address:
UTOPIANA
Zarubyan 34, 0009
Yerevan, ARMENIA

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are planning to send a CD/DVD by regular mail, please email your application form separately to the email address provided above, and include only your name (or band name) in the CD/DVD package.

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Photo © Sidney Robertson Cowell Collection, Library of Congress. Mary Goshtigian playing the oud (1939).