International Rescue

Unable to hold its General Assembly last May, the Secretary General of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, Florian Riem, recalls how the digital world provided the safest space for a global meeting

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Covid, forced the World Federation of International Music Competitions to postpone its 2020 General Assembly. The organisation’s 64th annual meeting, due to take place last May in the Japanese city of Hamamatsu, was among the pandemic’s countless business casualties. Yet it [EW HIWXMRIH XS RH RI[ life online in December.

Florian Riem’s appointment as the

WFIMC’S Secretary General was announced weeks before the Hamamatsu conference was due to start. He knew it would be impossible for the General Assembly to proceed as planned; it was less clear, however, when it would be safe to resume large public gatherings. “I was really looking forward to welcoming people to Hamamatsu,” Riem recalls. “But it was not to be.”

A fallback date in August proved untenable as did the prospect of holding a regional assembly with online guests. Federation members, IEKIV XS WLEVI XLIMV I\TIVMIRGIW SJ running competitions in the time of Covid, welcomed the idea of taking the General Assembly fully online.

In November Riem and his colleagues tested the practicalities of hosting large meetings online with the launch of WFIMC Lounge. The federation opened its new online forum with a session devoted to Asia and held a second virtual meeting to address the situation in North America and Europe. Further WFIMC Lounge sessions are planned for 2021 and beyond.

“People want to be in touch, to learn from others,” observes Riem. WFIMC Lounge meetings, he adds, served as dress rehearsals for December’s online General Assembly. “It was very satisfying to have everyone on board. Everybody made the effort to take part and it worked really well.”

General Assembly delegates were offered a choice of webinars, presentations by host city Hamamatsu and piano manufacturers Yamaha and Kawai among them, and E WIWWMSR I\TPSVMRK XLI MRGVIEWIH importance of social media. The event also included a panel discussion entitled ‘Changing Realities – the road ahead for Classical Music’ and a plenary meeting to discuss pressing concerns of the present.

The subject of competition streaming generated lively discussion. Questions arose about whether the phenomenon is “We want to meet again in person this year, but for now, we must wait and see”

temporary or here to stay. “We can learn a lot from companies like IDAGIO, the WFIMC’S partner organisation, which is selling tickets for its online Global Concert Hall,” comments Riem.

Other discussion points included dealing with the uncertainty of travel restrictions and of contestants being subject to lengthy quarantine periods. “Everyone wants to see competitions go ahead as usual, especially those that only happen every three or four years,” says Florian Riem. “But I think some restrictions are here to stay and quarantine is something we might have to live with for a while.”

In addressing classical music’s future, Matias Tarnopolsky, CEO of the Philadelphia Orchestra, offered a gloomy assessment of the present crisis facing orchestras in the United States before outlining reasons for cautious optimism.

The panel discussion also heard from Stefana Atlas, Senior Vice President with Columbia Artists (CAMI) until the mighty US agency was knocked out of business by Covid last September, about her TPERW XS PEYRGL E WQEPP I\MFPI artist management company. Cellist Camille Thomas gave a moving account of her rooftop concerts in locked-down Paris, while Arthur van der Drift outlined the challenges and rewards of taking November’s TROMP Percussion Competition online. “This was a very informative session,” Florian Riem reports. “We [ERXIH XS I\TPSVI [LEX TISTPI LEZI done and what they think we’ll be doing after the pandemic is over.”

The WFIMC Secretary General’s immediate hopes are for public health restrictions to ease WYJ GMIRXP] JSV XLI RI\X +IRIVEP Assembly to take place in Italy in June. “We really want to meet again in person this year,” he concludes. “But for now we must wait and see.”