Action plan of ECA-EC – page 2
STRATEGY
In November 2013 the Board of the European Choral Association – Europa Cantat (ECA-EC) worked out a strategy for the years 2014 to 2017 and beyond, which was then approved by the General Assembly on November 9th 2013. This strategy under the title “Benefit from the singing community!” has 5 main strategic objectives:
1. Strengthen the Network – meaning that the association should be strengthened, the network of members developed, capitalized and made sustainable, the financial sources diversified and stabilised, the services adapted to the members’ needs and the means of communication updated and modernized
2. Facilitate Peer-to-Peer Approach – meaning that direct cooperation between members should be encouraged, cooperation within the choral world in general should be promoted and concrete opportunities for peer-to-peer learning should be offered
3. Invest in Capacity-Building and Training - meaning that the activities of ECA-EC should focus on the learning process, professional training should be offered to conductors, composers, singers, managers and music pedagogues, the creation and circulation of repertoire should be encouraged and the new generation should be provided with new opportunities
4. Reach Out - meaning that ECA-EC should reach out the entire singing community beyond the membership, that there should be activities connecting persons in risk of exclusion with the help of singing, that more people should be involved in the experience of singing, there should be activities aimed at audience development and cooperation with other disciplines should be enhanced
5. Raise Awareness – meaning that ECA-EC should contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge on singing, communicate the benefits of singing together, advocate for singing on decision making levels, promote singing in music education and support advocacy for music education in schools, in cooperation with other associations
These objectives shall be reached through different concrete actions throughout the coming years, with different priorities in each year – see detailed action plan on the following pages.
ACTION PLAN
Guided by the Strategy under the title “Benefit from the singing community!”, based on the needs of the choral world identified, the Board of ECA-EC has worked out an Action plan according to the 5 main strategic objectives shall be reached through the following actions between July 2014 and June 2017, with different priorities in each year (see action plans per year below).
1. Strengthen the Network
ECA-EC will put a focus in the first year on strengthening the network as a means of strengthening the capacity of the choral sector at large, especially concerning trans-national and international cooperation, and the organisation of international events. By strengthening the sector, and enlarging the network of members and partners, ECA-EC will also help structuring the choral sector in Europe (on local, regional and national levels) and encourage its member organisations to participate in the process. Thus, and to ensure a long-term strengthening, ECA-EC will:
- start a membership recruitment campaign, to attract more participants to the activities and find new members (also see audience development below), with a special focus on the Mediterranean region and Central-Eastern Europe as “border regions” of Europe which include many new and future members of the European Union. As a first step, membership services shall be evaluated with a survey, revised and adapted to members’ needs
- further develop the youth network coordinated by the Youth Committee of ECA-EC by enlarging the network and reaching out to new countries in order to strengthen youth participation and empowerment in the choral sector, adding the voice of youth both to activities and decision-making bodies in the association and beyond
- evaluate all activities offered by ECA-EC in cooperation with the local organisers, to modernize and updated them, preparing new, innovative formats, from 2016, and offer models of activities with sample budgets and guidelines
- support members in the planning, preparing and organising of international events,
in some cases helping them to internationalize events which so far have a national scope.
- offer support to the travel expenses and subsistence costs for member organisations in economically disadvantaged countries in order to make it possible for them to participate in the General Assemblies, conferences and other capacity building events. This action is in line with the solidarity principle of ECA-EC
In order to be successful in its activities, reach out to new audiences and spread information and knowledge, thus empowering choral operators across Europe, ECA-EC shall revise and professionalize its communication strategy and tools, adapting to the 21st century with new digital tools (including marketing tools such as short films, a market research, a feasibility study for an “interactive activity platform”, a questionnaire to the membership for the future of ECmagazine, Apps, new ways of combining print and digital media, a revision of the Website and digital newsletters and a stronger presence in the Social Media, as well as capacity-building in communication for members and partners of ECA-EC (see below). Also the association will look into new business models (sponsoring agreements, different structure of income) and long-term financial stability. In order to reach these strategic aims, ECA-EC will:
· employ a communication and marketing expert for the development of a communication strategy (see below) and to secure long-term funding for the association in order to assure a stable and sustainable future
· subcontract members for regional development in the Mediterranean region and in Central-Eastern Europe
2. Facilitate Peer-to-Peer Approach
2. Facilitate Peer-to-Peer Approach
It is part of ECA-EC’s understanding of being a network, to foster and encourage direct cooperation among members and create opportunities for peer-to-peer learning, among others in the frame of conferences ECA-EC organises in connection with is General Assemblies, with inspirational sessions, presentations of examples of good practice and Open Working Groups for the exchange of experience and knowledge. Concrete offers will be:
- three conferences, in 2014 , 2015 and 2016
- the programme for conductors, composers and managers at the EUROPA CANTAT festival in Pécs in 2015
- additional capacity-building events for organisers of international activities, based on peer-to peer learning, starting in spring 2015 in Bonn in order to plan the concrete programme of activities for 2016 and the following years – with brainstorming about innovative formats and the future of choral/vocal music and its audiences, workshops, discussion groups and presentations on artistic aspects, the integration of Open Singing into the events, presentation of new business models and organisational aspects as well as (digital) communication
- submitting an application for a new multiannual cooperation project which shall enable members and partners of ECA-EC to cooperate with each other and with players from other sectors
- developing a project called “Chorasmus”, invented by the Youth Committee, which shall enable conductors from different countries to visit and learn from each other and cooperate with each other digitally
- organising visits of international events by those planning a similar event in their own country
- facilitating meetings of staff members from different organisations organising similar events, for an exchange of experience and information as well as providing sample files
- encouraging member organisations to offer work placements for staff members from other choral organisations, with some opportunities also offered in the offices of ECA-EC
- offering work placements for staff of other European culture networks and sending staff to work placements with these networks, as well as attending meetings for the exchange of knowledge/experience among staff
- creating an “interactive activity platform” for which a feasibility study is planned (see above), which shall also become a tool for peer-to-peer learning, as well as a capacity-building tool (see below)
Finally, in most capacity building activities ECA-EC will create opportunities for peer-to-peer learning (e.g. in conductors’ training courses participants can present each other scores from their countries during one evening)
3. Invest in Capacity-Building and Training
All activities of ECA-EC have a pedagogical aspect, i.e. a focus on the learning process and it is the aim of the association to provide new opportunities for the young generation, either for participants of events bringing amateur singers together, or for professionals in capacity building events. Concretely ECA-EC will offer:
- the EUROPA CANTAT junior festival, the EUROPA CANTAT Festival and the International Singing Weeks as well as Eurochoir sessions which will bring together choirs, singers conductors, composers and managers from all over Europe and beyond - they are focusing on the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity and intercultural dialogue, they contribute to the dissemination of choral repertoire and they offer a high European added value
- capacity building offers for conductors, composers and music teachers at the festival EUROPA CANTAT
- the World Youth Choir (co-organised with JMI and IFCM) as a means of helping young singers internationalize their professional careers - in year 1 ECA-EC is planning a market research on opportunities for high-level concerts
- training courses for conductors in different European countries with the aim of providing them with specific skills and competences they will need for their professional career, and especially for their international work
- the International Competition for Young Conductors which will help young conductors prepare for international work and allow ECA-EC to discover new talents among the young professionals
- the European Academy for Young Composers and the European Award for Composers as well as several commissions, which will allow composers to become well-known beyond the borders of their own country
- cooperation with TENSO, the network of professional choirs, with opportunities for students to attend their workshops and with common commissioning of new choral works
- song collections ECA-EC is preparing in cooperation with publishers (also using digital material as support) – these are at the same time educational tools providing conductors with new international repertoire, as well as tools for the circulation of repertoire across Europe and thus the internationalisation of the careers of composers
- management training, with a Choral Arts Management Programme, a new capacity building event, and a Young Event Management Programme as well as international teams of volunteers at different events
- the Youth Committee of ECA-EC, a tool for empowering and involving young people and training them as future members of boards, commissions or staff, involving them in all levels of decision-making and action planning
4. Reach out
The aim of ECA-EC is to reach out to the singing community at large, far beyond the membership of the association. Through a pilot research in the frame of the VOICE project the association is currently trying to define the scope of the singing community in Europe in order to get a more clear picture of the potential for reaching out. Also the association will intensify its co-operation with a number of networks in choral music and beyond
- in the choral sector with the International Federation for Choral Music IFCM, Musica International, the Choral Festival Network and with the Network of “Singing Cities”
- with the world of professional choirs and vocal ensembles with TENSO, the network of professional choirs,, inviting guest groups to the EUROPA CANTAT festival and offering workshops for vocal ensembles
- in the music sector with the International and European Music Council, with several of their members, concretely with the Association of Conservatoires AEC, with the European Music School Union EMU, with Jeunesses Musicales International, with associations from other music fields, as well as with the European Voice Teachers’ Association
“Reaching Out” also means audience development which is part of the strategy of ECA-EC:
- most activities during the project period will be open to non-members and especially the festivals and singing weeks aim at reaching big audiences through concerts, fringe programmes and open-air-events
- the interactive calendar for choral events on the website is open to the entire singing world
- the association will pick “hot topics” that concern the singing world at large, such as copyright and the use of digital media for choirs, discussing them and disseminating possible results
- the next multiannual project planned shall include aspects of audience development (new venues, new concert formats and programmes, cooperation with other art forms, reaching out to non-singers)
- the European Choral Video Award will encourage choirs to produce videos of their performances which will then be shown to large audiences at the EUROPA CANTAT festival and on digital video platforms
- ECA-EC will develop a strategy of inclusion and diversity, aiming at having inclusive aspects in its own activities and encouraging more organisations across Europe to organise inclusive events, reaching out to people in risk of exclusion (e.g. bringing disabled and non-disabled people together / intergenerational projects / using singing as bridge in conflict areas / singing with people with dementia)
- an important tool for audience development, aiming at involving more people in the experience of singing, will be the development of a strategy for the so-called Open Singing at which singers and non-singers are brought together in concerts (singing with the audience), in open-air venues and in public spaces
Finally, ECA-EC has been cooperating and seeks to increase cooperation with other institutions, networks and organisations beyond the music sector:
- with research institutes / universities (in the frame of the VOICE project)
- with architecture departments (at the last EUROPA CANTAT Festival)
- with institutions in the social field (e.g. associations for disabled people, the Red Cross, Nursing Homes, associations in the field of dementia) in the frame of its inclusion activities
- with other culture networks in Europe such as Culture Action Europe, FACE, TEH, IETM and others, attending staff retreats organised by FACE in Malta and by Culture Action Europe in the UK, attending conferences of other networks and exchanging staff for work placements (see above) as well as planning projects together
5. Raise awareness