Lydia Tyrakowski-Cebulla - Managing Director of the Music Network, Germany

Dear friends from the CPR,

I've got the good news, and I am so sorry I can't go to the Giving Voice Festival this year (I did twice, and year after year I am hoping and planning to return there!), because I never have met such an interesting meeting of voice artists from all over the world, and it has been for me an exceptional experience to learn from and with them (Joan Mills, Venice Manley, Frankie Armstrong, Judy Kahn, Jonathan Hart, and others). And it is not subordinate that I discovered the heart breaking beauty of Wales by those journeys...

And I read the bad news. First I wish to give you all my solidarity. As a "music worker" for more than 20 years here in Bavaria/Germany I've known and seen several times those "switches" in the funding politics, and I can tell you it is a hard thing. These decision-makers don't really know of the value of arts for ALL ALL ALL human communities in the DAILY LIFE. They don't imagine and they don't feel the loss of this "basic food" for the soul of all civilisation, because it is not a sudden break down but a creeping starving. For as long as an artist exists he/she will try to nourish art work with the own blood (that is: more and more working, renunciation of salary, investment of own capital for infrastructure, and so on)and it is only a question of time untill he/she will be out of breath. I know lots of out burned artists... But they all have "only" their individual fate, and therefore most of the politicians don't realize. They live for the moment, for their own success, they don't imagine these long term consequences. And it is not only the artist who suffers from out burn. The quality itself comes down inevitably if there is no funding reliability. If you want to use a car you can't always start from nothing and invent the wheel first.

Without reliable funds the first thing that is lost is the complicate net of communication ...

So you see I hope for you and I wish you a "long breath" as we say here, because on the other hand: politicians come and go. Yes it is a struggle and you have to be alert and active. Your reasoning is true and strong, and I wish you will find good and sensitive people who support you in Wales!!

Be strong and positive,
Lydia Tyrakowski-Cebulla
Managing Director of the Music Network and former Director of Urban Music School in Eichstaett