International Jew's Harp Festival in Yakutsk 2011

Below is the first information package for the 7th International Jew's Harp Festival in Yakutsk, Siberia.

If you are a resident of the Americas (North, Central, or South) interested in attending the festival as a performer or a special guest, please reply to me no later than Thursday February 3 (see the competition categories and regional contacts below).
Visas are required to enter Russia and all performers must receive official letters of invitation from the festival organizers.
There will be food and accommodation provided for performers who are selected to participate in the official competition.
All non-performing audience members are welcome to attend the festival at their own expense.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this exciting event. It's sure to be a one of a kind experience for aficionados and fans of the jew's harp around the world!

All the best,

Deirdre Morgan
Coordinator for the Americas




PROGRAM
For implementation of main events
VII International Congress-Festival
“Khomus (trump) in the cultural dimensions of the world” (further VII. IJHF)
23-26 June 2011, Yakutsk

22.06.11 Wednesday
Day of arrival and accommodation
15:00 Opening of exhibition “Jew’s Harps of the Peoples of the World”
16:00 Departure for Namskiy, Khangalasskiy Ulus

23.06.11 Thursday
1st day of VII. IJHF
09:00-09:45 Festive opening of VII. IJHF with participation of President and Government members of Republic of Sakha-Yakutia
10:00-12:45 Plenum session of Congress
14:00-17:45 Congress: working groups.
Master classes of Jew’s Harp-players and pedagogues
16:00-17:45 Competition of International Jew’s Harp Smiths
Auction of Jew’s harps from renown masters
19:00 Grande Concert “Resounds Khomus of Oeloenkho”.
Competition of International Jew’s Harp Virtuosos

24.06.11 Friday
2nd day of VII. IJHF
09:00-12:45 Continuation of Congress-workshops
14:00-17:45 Final meeting of the Congress with resume
19:00 Festive closure of VII. IJHF
Honoring the winners in competitions
Gala-concert “Khomus gathers friends”

25.06.11 Saturday
3rd finalizing day of VII. IJHF, in Yakutsk
09:00-17:45 Participation in the national solstice festival “Ysyekh”
12:00-13:15 Opening Ceremony with participation of delegates from VII. IJHF
14:00-16:00 Competition “Khomus Kuo” (young female players)
Departure of participants for Vilyuisk


26.06.11 Sunday
4th day, Vilyuiskiy Ulus
09:00-11:15 Opening of Ulus “House of Masters”. Opening of studio Kylaan Uus.
Opening of the exhibition “Fates, linked by Komus”
11:30 Ysyekh-festival of the Khomus (trump) of the peoples of the world
15:00 Gala-concert of the Jew’s Harp Players of the world.
18:00 departure for Yakutsk
Departure of the participants
Head of the working commission
Vice-minister of culture and spiritual development
M.M.Donskoy
(working translation by Franz Kumpl)

Additional Information
All information provided so far is from Russian documents (translated by Franz Kumpl) and email-communication between Franz Kumpl and Nikolay Shishigin, director of Khomus (Trump) Museum in Yakutsk, received since 25 January 2011. The Organisation Committee has promised to provide with English translations on their homepage http://www.ilkhomus.com/
There are still many open issues (e.g. competition entry, competition categories, gender split, concerts of groups, accompanying musicians, etc) which will be answered in the weeks to come.

Performers
A total of 100 players from Europe, the Americas and Africa are anticipated, besides players from Asia and the CIS. The IJHS has formed a Programme Committee (PC), existing of Franz Kumpl, Michael Wright, Philippe Dallais and Aron Szilagyi whose task is to recommend the foreign performers from Europe and the Americas to the Organizing Committee in Yakutsk (YOC). The PC collects the national lists of proposed participants from the below listed board members. Anyone wishing to be considered should contact their nearest board member as soon as possible in order to be considered. The PC will forward the list to the YOC by middle of February, so that the participants will be able to successfully organise the trip.

Travel
The YOC have proposed two options for performers:
Option 1: Invited guest - flight from Moscow, accommodation and food provided – this will be a limited number (31 from all around the world) and the decision as to who will be chosen will be by the YOC.
Option 2: Invited participant – for any participant who enters the competitions (see below) the YOC will pay for accommodation and food, but not for transport.
A third option applies to non-performers:
Option 3: Audience - all costs to be picked up by non-performer, but the YOC has promised to help with cheap accommodation and if possible, even extend the invitation, which is needed for getting the visa.
Participants are expected to arrive in Yakutsk on Wednesday, 22nd June. The flight Moscow-Yakutsk is usually a night-flight, which means that participants will fly on Tuesday, 21st June during daytime from their respective cities to Moscow and continue in the evening

to Yakutsk; -Yakutia Airlines leaves Moscow at 18:20 and arrives in Yakutsk at 7:00 the next day.
Return flight is expected to be Monday, 27th June in the morning by Yakutia Airlines, leaving Yakutsk at 8:00 in the morning and arriving in Moscow at 8:40 (flying with sunrise), continuing the same day back home. This flight Moscow-Yakutsk-Moscow costs about €900.

Visas
Invited guests and invited participants will receive the invitation from the YOC, with which you may obtain the visa at your national Russian Consulate. At the Consulate you will need the filled in Visa-form, the invitation from the YOC, 1 (sometimes 2) passport-photos, and a medical insurance for the given period (20-27 June 2011). You can avoid this bureaucracy by working through a tour agency in your home-town which offers journeys to Russia. You might be able to get a quite cheap package at the tour agency, including at least the visa and the flight.
Audience will get everything at the Tour Agency, even an invitation, for which one has to pay some extra-money.

Accommodation
All participants will be accommodated by the hosts. Anyone travelling as audience (i.e. non-performer) should notify their PC member as soon as possible.

Dietary issues
Please indicate to your local contact (below) any dietary issues you might have as soon as possible.

Tickets
Information on event tickets to follow.

Contacts – National and Regional contacts:
Americas – Deirdre Morgan deirdreannemorgan@gmail.com
Austria – Franz Kumpl franz.kumpl@aon.at
Germany – Gerd Conradt mandala.vision@gmx.de
France – Tran Quang Hai tranquanghai@gmail.com
Hungary/Slovakia – Aron Szilagyi aural@t-online.hu
Italy – Luca Recupero luca_recupero@yahoo.it
Scandinavia– Svein Westad s-westad@online.no
Switzerland – Philippe Dallais dallais@vmz.uzh.ch
Netherlands – Daniel Hentschel mail@danibal.nl
UK – Michael Wright jewsharper@btinternet.com

Recommended do’s and don’ts in Russia and Yakutia
Information to follow.

Competitions
Three competitions will be held during Congress:
- best Jew’s harp smith
- best female player (until age of 25, possibly till 30)
- best male virtuoso
According to the information so far, competition entry costs $100.
Jew’s Harp Maker competition
There will be 9 categories. The Yakutian masters Chemchoev, Gotovcev and Osipov will not participate in the competition, since they already have earned at some time the grade “Best Khomus of the World”. The international jury will define 9 Jew’s harp makers from the whole world who earn this title.
The 9 categories include:
- Best maker of traditional Jew’s harp according to national diversity
- Best maker of a broad range of Jew’s harps
- Best maker-innovator
The Commission has the right to add a category, if needed.
Organisers of the competition are the Ministries of Culture, of Education and Science of Sakha-Yakutia, the Mayor of Yakutsk and the Jew’s Harp Museum.
The makers who get the title “Best Jew’s harp of the World” become member of the international experts’ commission.
The participating maker has to present to the Commission 3 Jew’s harps, a Jew’s harp player has to demonstrate the musical quality of the instrument either live or by video.
The participant has to present material about his/her activities (printed matter or DVD) and about musicians playing on his/her instrument.
The Organisation Committee has the right to give the presented material, including the Jew’s harps, to the Khomus/Trump Museum in Yakutsk.
The 9 winners will receive a diploma and a price.
There will be also an auction for sale of Jew’s harps from famous makers.
The Organisation Committee provides the invitation and pays for accommodation and food of the participant, but not for transport.

Competition of female players
The respective document says that the ladies have to be between 16 and 25 years old, but in certain cases up to 30 years will be allowed.
The presentation has to be a solo-performance, only pre-recorded tape is allowed as background, no live accompaniment.
The player has to perform 2 pieces of 3 minutes each.
The procedure is:
1.stage: presentation in national dress and a traditional piece
2.stage: free improvisation
There will be 7 categories. The Commission has the right to add up to 3 more categories, if needed.
The winners will receive a diploma and a precious price.
The Organisation Committee provides the invitation and pays for accommodation and food of the participant, but not for transport.
Competition of male virtuosos
Minimum age of participant is 25 years. Master-players who already have received the title “Jew’ Harp Virtuoso of the World” will be part of the Commission and not participate in the competition itself. From Sakha-Yakutia will be maximum 7 jury-participants.
The presentation has to be a solo-performance, only pre-recorded tape is allowed as background, no live accompaniment.
The player has to perform 2 pieces of 5 minutes each.
The procedure is:
1.stage: presentation of a piece with traditional styles and techniques of his culture.
2.stage: free improvisation
Criteria for evaluation:
- Performance of traditional styles and techniques of his culture

- Musicality

- Virtuosity

- National dress

Making use of other instruments besides the jew’s harp is not allowed.
There will be 9 categories. The Commission has the right to add up to 3 more categories, if needed.
The winners will receive a diploma and a precious price.
The Organisation Committee provides the invitation and pays for accommodation and food of the participant, but not for transport.
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Other News
Danibal tells us that the new Society URL is www.jewsharpsociety.org. Restyling of the site is in progress.
Lindsay Porteous’ re-issued recording ‘Portrait of a Scottish Jew’s-Harp Player’ is now available on CD. Michael Wright (jewsharper@btinternet.com), will forward all enquiries to Lindsay.
If anyone wishes to provide pre-event news, please contact Michael. Wright (jewsharper@btinternet.com).