PRESS RELEASE - June 2020

Is the music culture actually systemically relevant?

Culture is clearly one of the corona losers

Prologue: In the broadest sense, the term culture encompasses everything that man creates himself - in contrast to nature that he has not created. Cultural achievements are all formative transformations of a given material: be it in religion, science, technology, in agriculture, food preparation or in the fine arts, but also within ideas - the material of spiritual structures - such as music.

About living with music

- Focus on the concert practice of freelance musicians

There are now over 400 freelance music ensembles that immensely enrich Germany's cultural life. Not all musicians are represented by an active or even idealistic manager. Luck is seldom on the side of the musician, e.g. B. from fee or fee concerts, which are generated from public money, to feed. Many musicians must / are allowed to earn their extra income through additional teaching or casual work. Still others have an additional talent: they are musicians and organizers at the same time - a remarkable talent that has so far received little attention in society. Although this symbiotic achievement does not devour any taxpayers' money, it is not honored by any party, on the contrary: some institutions benefit from it and gain the glamor of a successful event to which they have contributed little.

With a look behind the scenes you can discover astonishing artistic and organizational achievements that are rarely found in this combination of both skills, and in the highest quality. Such actors are exceptional artists - among them are Ariana Burstein & Roberto Legnani .

With a view to the touring event concept developed and practiced by Roberto Legnani in 1995, training centers for cultural management have since used this concept as a successful example.

The corona crisis - cause of serious effects

About the destruction of livelihoods in times of Corona

In March 2020, politicians decided on the lockdown. From one day to the next, almost all public facilities such as theaters, museums, libraries, music schools, etc. were closed. Concert promoters and freelance musicians had to bow to the ban on events. All concerts had to be canceled at short notice or postponed indefinitely.

A heated period of endless debate and discussion began over various damage control bills. Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured that "everyone is being helped ... we are also tackling this problem ... there is plenty of money" . Thus - presumably with good intentions - an oath was taken. The most sacred promises sometimes aroused completely false hopes.

"Immediate help - simplified, quick and easy ..."

The assurances of various aid programs, stamped out of the ground, have "shown that stones were often delivered instead of bread when, for example, the basic security was referred to as a catch basin", as Dr. Gerald Mertens ( Deutsche Orchestervereinigung, DOVmagazin , March 2020, p. 5) put it so aptly.

The media reported daily on the "emergency aid - simplified, quick and easily accessible for all freelance artists" . You could hear some citizens saying with a wink: “You have to be an artist.” But reality cannot confirm this “emergency aid”. After all, the legislators now had room for other things again, because the artists were occupied with the seemingly endless application forms and with the procurement of certificates and evidence for a while.

The internationally known duo Ariana Burstein & Roberto Legnani need support.

Due to the official orders in connection with the corona pandemic, all concerts planned for 2020 have been canceled. This concerns the Germany tour of Roberto Legnani "virtuoso guitar music" as well as the concert series "classical and world music for cello and guitar" with the duo Burstein & Legnani.

As things stand today, 40 concerts have been canceled without replacement, and 12 more remaining dates are in the balance for the time being. In addition to the immaterial expenditure for organizational and artistic preliminary work, there was considerable financial damage of around € 62,000.

While part of society is now celebrating the easing of the lockdown in almost blind euphoria, May 2020 passed for the duo Burstein & Legnani in silence and without any state help.

Corona artist aid - a private initiative as the last rescue package

The volunteer tour and press office Ulla Cunningham has launched a donation campaign with Corona-Künstlerhilfe via the homepage of "betterplace" (https://www.betterplace.me/das-duo-burstein-und-legnani- needs-support). Thus, concert-goers and those interested in culture can support the two sympathetic musicians Ariana Burstein & Roberto Legnani with a donation. Every amount helps! This is the only way to enable the two formidable musicians to present their artistically valuable arrangements and own compositions to their enthusiastic audience again after Corona.

Provided that the donation campaign of this Corona artist aid finds active solidarity participation and achieves its goal, the establishment of a foundation is intended to help other highly talented and distressed musicians in the future or to prevent it from happening in the first place comes to an emergency.

Many of our readers and concert-goers asked when and how Roberto Legnani's canceled tour of Germany will continue, and whether the concert series “Classical and World Music for Cello and Guitar” with the duo Burstein & Legnani planned for autumn will take place.

Going to a concert is not a spontaneous visit to the pub

The tour and press office Ulla Cunningham announces the following: "Despite all the loosening of the requirements regarding the coronavirus pandemic that have now been resolved, there is still no reliable planning security for our type of concerts - namely in closed smaller halls, especially since these are nationwide different Implementation of the easing measures is made even more difficult. "

Postponing appointments and finding alternative appointments with the cooperation partners and many other participants are time-consuming and have to be completely re-coordinated. Future concerts from day X will again have to be financed in advance through the artist's deductible, in addition to the extensive planning work.

With this in mind, and last but not least: Attention deserves all those musicians who want to earn a modest livelihood through livestream concerts. Due to strong competition, these opportunities are also unfairly distributed. As an example: In terms of recording technology and personnel, the (socially protected) colleagues of the Berliner Philharmoniker with their musical performances in the Digital Concert Hall are vastly superior to the small living room concerts. The thought that this would take the butter off the bread of the more needy musician colleagues probably never crosses their mind!

Ulla Cunningham