BOGOTA - UNESCO City of Music

Posted: Wednesday 9 January 2013

NEW CITY OF MUSIC

by Svend Brown, Director - Glasgow City of Music

Bogota was awarded the title of UNESCO City of Music early in 2012 but waited to launch it until it had a fantastic weekend of performances in September. I was lucky enough to be invited to cross the world for the weekend along with my colleagues from Seville, Gent and Bologna.

Bogota’s by far the biggest City of Music – its population is 65% larger than Scotland’s! And that has grown incredibly fast from 1.6 million in 1964 to an estimated 8 million plus today. It’s a city of extremes: poverty levels are high (more than 30%), but so is affluence. A drive around the city takes you into very slick and well-maintained suburbs and gated communities as well as shanty-towns, some of them with no basic amenities.

Demographic mix is also fascinating and complex reflecting Colombia’s turbulent history and its orientation (with new communities arriving from its Pacific and Atlantic coastlines). That’s directly reflected in the traditional and pop music, some of which sounds pure African, some entirely Andean.

The sheer range of music in Bogota is ear-popping. As well as those musical traditions from Africa, Europe, US, it looks to its Andean hinterlands, it draws on ancient pipe and drum traditions as well as being a major centre for dance music like tango, salsa and cumbia. Accordion is hugely important, as is windband, the backbone of the music education system. Awareness of tradition is immediately apparent and strong and manifests itself in activity across the spectrum – from the orchestra commissioning new orchestral arrangements of traditional tunes to a vibrant Celtic Connections style scene of pop, rock, club and techno musicians creating new work in the old style.

It’s quite a festival city – loads of them. The biggest are the festivals in the parks, all delivered by different city partners under a single banner. They’re all weekends and feature rock, opera, contemporary dance, salsa, jazz, and traditional music. It’s going to be really exciting working with them and finding ways to bring their amazing music and musicians to Glasgow…