Greetings from the President
GREETINGS
In times like these writing a preface to a yearbook that should serve as a projection of the future challenges that we as members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions are facing, may appear questionable or rather useless. The future is always unpredictable but now even the present has become so complex and challenging that it sometimes appears as if we had lost our bridge to the past as well as the future. After almost two years of constant crisis management in international music life, facts are emerging: pre-pandemic music life has lost a lot of its appeal. Even after the reopening of concert halls, audience numbers have been shrinking. Due to ongoing travel restrictions, national music scenes are tempted to transform into closed circles. Strangely enough this rather gloomy scenario is an excellent opportunity to emphasize the extraordinary potential of our members. Music competitions, obviously are much more than artistic games followed by an award ceremony. The stages we continue to provide all around the globe are still those most easily accessible to young talents looking to be heard and seen; the transformation from purely live staged events to online and hybrid formats has been advanced mostly by competitions; aspiring talents on stage may attract new and younger audiences and the network of our global federation provides young professionals with the opportunity of taking their first steps inside a fascinating world of cultural diversity. In a nutshell: This moment is crucially important for us as a federation and for every single member to underline our own competence and powerful potential to act as an incubator, providing the future tools, frameworks and contents of global music life. Each of us has their own vision, potential, their own strength, but together we are even stronger!
Peter Paul Kainrath President
4
