Sister Cities | مدن شقيقة

Music Development in North Africa

Sister Cities responds to urgent music making and capacity building needs of independent music scenes, communities and individuals in Algeria and Egypt. The two-fold ambition of the project includes capacity building and artist development, across two years, sowing the seeds for new ideas, works, collaborations and projects that can later on be supported by our network of partners to breath new life into active, yet struggling, young music communities.

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The Project

Capacity Building in Music Making in partnership with Kamilya Jubran's Zamkana

Musicians from Egypt and Algeria have already attended mentoring sessions with Jubran where they explored their roots, discussed their contemporaneity and reflected on innovative ways to move forward with their practise.

Capacity building in Music Management

Originally conceived as intensive workshop series in Egypt and Algeria, plans pivoted into an online platform of music management skills development in Arabic for DIY artists and aspiring music managers. The platform will be launched as a new independent venture in Summer 2021. Watch this space!

Commissioning New Work with Egyptian composer Maurice Louca to potentially collaborate with Algerian musicians

Louca has been engaged in online listening sessions delving into Algeria’s rich musical genres with Algerian interlocutors Salah Badis (writer & music researcher) and Bhar Bensalem (musician and researcher).

Outputs

Music Industry 101 Seminar

Simsara Music delivered music management training as part of the Sister Cities programme. The two-hour interactive workshop received 87 attendees, and touched on the essentials of the music industry, highlighting major players and the specificities of the industry.
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Online Music Workshops with Kamilya Jubran

Due to restrictions on practice-based workshops in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, Simsara, Zamkana and Loutart conducted artist development workshops through Zoom, with groups of musicians in both Egypt and Algeria.
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