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Sylff Acceptance Speech

September 3, 2008
By 20889

Mr. YOHEI SASAKAWA, chairman of The Nippon Foundation,

Mr. HIDEKI KATO, chairman of the Tokyo Foundation,

Dear Guests,

Before saying a few words, I would like to thank The Nippon Foundation and the Tokyo foundation for all efforts they have made to make this ceremony possible, in spite of busy agenda of the chairmen and many of their members.

Mr. Chairmen,

The visit of Mr. Yohei Sasakawa in my country RDC, in last November as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, was for me an opportunity to recall to my mind the philosophy of SYLFF saying that "the world is one family, and all mankind are brothers and sisters".

I would let myself be inspired by this philosophy and the testimony and the personal commitment of the leaders of the foundation. I am convinced, that to be worthy of the SYLFF Prize, all former students must put in the heart of their preoccupations (research or activities), a commitment for all men and women, and for the whole human being, in collaboration with others in order to make our world a better place for humankind.

It is the sense that I wish to give today to the SYLFF Prize that you’ve given to me. I wish it is the recognition and the expression of my engagement to participate with others in the construction of an interdependent world, worthy of the human dignity.

I, therefore, take today's ceremony as an opportunity , to thank the selection committee to for choosing me as the laureate of 2007. I would like to assure you that this will be for me an engagement to make again better in the future.

Mr. Chairmen,

Receiving this Prize, I do not consider this honor being only mine. I would suggest that you become aware, while giving me this prize, that it is given to thousands of people, that beyond the geographical borders, political opinions, religious and ethnic groups and cultural backgrounds, are engaged with myself in facing economic, social, political, religious and cultural challenges of my country, of a society where people long for peace, solidarity and development, but still confront with multiform crises. It is in their name, that I humbly accept this prize.

Mr. Chairmen, Dear guests,

I am proud of having had the privilege to study in my post university degree with the support of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund.

Since then, I learned that this privilege was a call for more commitment. I learned that I was called to exercise in my milieu a strong sense of responsibility, leadership and passion for addressing problems that handicap a full and peaceful life in society.

I learned that the grant I was receiving should enable me, not only to get a degree, but in priority to promote Peace, reconciliation, peaceful coexistence, friendship and solidarity between people and nations. I learned that this work which is carried on locally should be open to the whole world.

I finally learned that the real peace goes beyond the end of the war. It can only be reached when all human beings associate with each other, when our civilization solves the problem of access to the all fundamental needs, such as food, house, health and education.

Today I am again convinced that this is only possible if we, human beings, realize that we are interdependent and we keep an interest in what is going on on our planet. It is in that spirit that everyday I try to mobilize people, means, and energies to work for the advent of the peace in my country DRC.

Mr. Chairmen,

These last 10 years, my country DRC faces two wars, which destroyed more than 5,000,000 of lives. During all this time we’ve been very active in the efforts to bring peace in DRC, but especially we have worked in promoting and protecting human rights as the way to peace.

In DRC, peace means very concrete things: such as political agreement, end of the war, demobilization of the militias, elections, security, protection of children, end of abuse of women, humanitarian challenge and development.

Our manner to contribute to this fragile process was to invest in protecting human rights, civic education, education to citizenship, and popular participation. And finally to give a chance to the first free election in DRC in more than 40 years, I had the chance to coordinate, more than 100,000 Congolese observers and 200 from Africa, Europe and America for the last elections.

But as it is known, elections do not always mean democracy. The way forward remains a challenge. After 32 years of dictatorship and 10 years of war, my country is to be rebuilt.

The prize that I receive today is therefore another call for me to commit in this new field. I wish that this recognition is also a promise from your foundations to come with us in this area.

We ask precisely that you can help our Center of study to reinforce its capacities of research and actions in order to train people who will carry the vision to build an interdependent world where men and women are brothers and sisters and are committed for the good of all the humanity.

Finally, following the last visit of Mr. YOHEI SASAKAWA in DRC, the organizations that I coordinate, wish to locally sustain the campaign on leprosy in order to make grow the awareness of our people on this question and provoke a political will in this sector.

I wish therefore that receiving this prize becomes a beginning of a strong collaboration and a multiform engagement of your foundations and DRC.

To conclude, I want to inform that the entire amount of this prize will be dedicated to pay school fees of 50 orphan children. Parents of 33 of them died of AIDS and parents of the other 17 have been murdered during the conflict.

Thank you very much.

 

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Rethinking Human Rights in a World of Increased Inequalities

July 15, 2008
By 21137

It is my great and humble honour to have this opportunity to share with all of you some reflections that come from my research, teaching and social life experiences inspired by the urgent need to not forget those who are forced to live in abject poverty, deprivation, persecution, global racism and patriarchy as well as imperial interventions and other forms of organized violence. I express my deep thanks to the organizing committee of the SYLFF Asia/Pacific Regional Forum. It feels very good to be amongst many people with different accents for after all, all accents are beautiful. They reflect a tiny part of the great human, social, cultural and ecological heterogeneity of humanity and the planet.

Let me begin my address today by saying that one of the greatest ironies of our times is that human rights have become very much the language of progressive politics around the globe as well as a powerful tool to justify increased weaponization, militarization, global racial profiling and war amidst unprecedented levels of poverty and social inequality, and unprecedented levels of the accumulation of wealth in fewer hands, both locally and globally. This is happening at times when patriarchal ideological practices are being transformed but not disappearing. Nowadays, global patriarchy under the excuse of protecting women, children and national securities is becoming a mask to invade other countries and to curtail fundamental social justice gains in the global north as well as in the global south. As the late Iris Young, a feminist political philosopher from the United States, convincingly demonstrated, patriarchy is being renovated as part and parcel of the logic of masculinist protection that helps account for the rationale leaders give for deepening a security state and its acceptance by those living under their rule (2007: 133). Young’s analysis, however, is not incorporated in the vast field of human rights mainstreaming discursive practice. This regime has established, as a hegemonic truth, the idea that formal legal equality means concrete equality when in fact the ideology of formal equality has co-existed with colonialism, slavery, patriarchy and heterosexism, and with a globally skewed distribution of wealth and income. The recognition of the co-existence of power and wealth in fewer hands, fiercely protected by the rule of law—including through the use of sanctioned organized violence alongside abject poverty—is an urgent call to rethink human rights in a world of increased inequalities together with the proliferation of different forms of violence. Scholar Shelley Wright has offered some important reflections on the paradoxes of power inequality and its main beneficiaries. It is appropriate, therefore, to quote her at length for she points out that, "Economic and social redistribution through industrialization and globalization can also create conditions conducive to violence. The globalization of a Euro-American economic model may have created conditions for peace and prosperity for Western Europe and its former white settler colonies such as the United States, Canada and Australia, but it has not necessarily resulted in such benefits for the rest of the world" (Chowdhury 1995; Cowen and Shelton 1996; Escobar 1995; Rajagopal 2000; Seabrook 1993; Wright 2000).

The effects of unrestrained trade liberalization have given rise to serious levels of violence from the wars over resource industries in Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Congo and Angola (diamonds, gold, copper) to the infliction of intolerable working conditions on people in factories throughout the developing world. The fragmentation and civil war in Yugoslavia can be directly traced to severe economic policies imposed by the IMF and other international economic institutions in the 1980s (Orford 1997). Expropriation of land for the development of cash-crop agriculture has increased the flow of people into urban centres, disrupting traditional economic patterns, community life and political stability, leading to high levels of state-sanctioned violence, workplace harassment, assaults and killings (Waring 1996) [2005: 161].

The imperial logic of masculinist protection, supported by many women, as Iris Young notes (2007), is fundamental in understanding the today’s world-wide increased inequalities for it positions leaders, along with some other officials such as soldiers and firefighters, as protectors, and the rest of us in the subordinated position of dependent, protected people (2007:133).

Patriarchal militarism however, is not new. It was part of direct colonial ruling since the end of the 15th century through the conquest of the Americas. Along with race as a powerful tool of social classification and the appropriation of labour and material resources (Quijano 2000), military patriarchy is part of what legal scholar Anthony Anghie calls the civilizing mission, the grand project that has justified colonialism as a means of redeeming the backward, aberrant, violent, oppressed, undeveloped people of the non-European world by incorporating them into the universal civilization of Europe (2005).

This civilizing mission, Anghie adds, was based on the idea that fundamental cultural difference divided the European and non-European worlds in a number of ways. For example, the characterization of non-European societies as backward and primitive legitimized European conquest of these societies and justified the measures colonial powers used to control and transform them (2005:3).

Sociologist Anibal Quijano notes that the civilizing mission, although officially closed, has endured the life of direct colonial ruling. It informs the current global modern colonial system of power (2000). The civilizing mission mentality feeds today’s common idea that the global north is the inventor of human rights and of their respect and promotion, and the global south is the prototype of a human violator because it still is trapped in pre-modernity. This mentality means, in other words, that “Third World” peoples are incapable of creating liberating knowledge that can serve the entire humanity, especially women, indigenous people and those forced to live in poverty. Under this mentality, “First World” people are inherently invested with “superior qualities,” a binary that only helps the already privileged both in the global north and the global south. This binary culturalizes fundamental demands for social justice. Culturalization is a process that describes “an exclusive focus on culture, understood as frozen in time and separate from systems of domination” (Razack 2004:131).

Challenging this mentality in the field of human rights is extremely important to counteract the all too easy assumption that the global south is the receptor of human rights knowledge whose epicenter is the global north. The term “human rights” may have been coined in non-western spaces but the knowledge and practice of what is just and unjust, individually and collectively is not the private property of certain people or geography. Indeed, knowledge on social and cultural justice has existed both as philosophies and practices in many ancient and heterogeneous civilizations, including, of course, those that flourish in Europe.

Rethinking human rights would mean being able to recognize that in the name of human rights, democracy, prosperity and freedom, terrible crimes and inequities have been perpetuated. As Singer points out, “When we ask ourselves whether a social or legal practice works, we must ask ourselves, ‘works for whom?’ Who benefits and who loses from existing political, economic, and legal structures?” (1990:1841 quoted in Nyamu Musembi, 2005: 32). Such an approach acknowledges the concreteness of unequal power relations within and between nations as well as the existence of hierarchical relationships between the global South and the North. Consequently, we cannot bypass these asymmetries in order to paint a conveniently nice picture of abstract inclusivity. Nevertheless, conventional theories and policies dealing with transnational issues locate these asymmetries as part of the so-called “clash of civilizations,” which is another way of saying that socio-economic and political exclusions do not have anything to do with the shape of our world today for it is the “culture of the other” and his/her “inherent violent un-civilization” that are the problems.

Canadian feminist scholar Sherene Razack notes that there is a revival of the logic that there is an irreconcilable clash between the West and the rest of the world (2004), under which the West is a defender and promoter of human rights and the rest of the world is a violator of human rights. Because “the rest” is overtly patriarchal and uncivilized, therefore unfit to democracy and to the creation of innovative knowledge (Ibid).

Why are these insights not influencing the mainstream world of human rights expertise? It would be extremely difficult to pinpoint a correct response. However, one of the reasons for this purposeful oblivion may be the human rights regime as it helps maintain the illusion that it is possible to escape the general consequences of social inequalities locally and globally by immersing ourselves in the world of abstract equality and the rule of law even when there is countless information that says otherwise. For instance, the United Nations reported in 2003 that there were more than a billion people living in poverty. Numbers alone do not say much but if for an instant we try to imagine ourselves with no food, no shelter and being harassed and persecuted, we then may change our approach to cold numbers about poverty and empty discourse on the rule of law and formal equality as representing human rights. While many do not have to think about the availability of food for their next meal or of a roof over their heads alongside their entitlement to their cultural identities and the inherent respect because they are women, disabled, etc., the majority in the world still demand the foundational right to have rights. And this, dear audience, is a fundamental difference between human rights as theory and human rights as practice.

Legal formal equality, as important as it is, is simply insufficient to reduce poverty, unemployment, racism, and violence because whether human rights experts like it or not systemic oppressions are interconnected and they are lived by millions on this planet. We have sufficient research that demonstrates this fact but we also have research that demonstrates the opposite. Therefore to say that we are defending and promoting human rights is not implicitly just. We need to ask unpopular questions to come up with new and more honest ways to bring about social and cultural justice. We need to ask whose human rights are more protected and whose human rights are ignored and denied. Moreover, these are poignant issues about leadership understood broadly and not as the property of politicians and privileged people.

Long ago diverse grass roots social movements in the global south and many in the global north demonstrated the incongruities of an abstract and universalistic doctrine of human rights in the face of gruesome economic exclusion, political persecution under state terror and the spreading of violence against women. Critical scholars, such as Frantz Fanon also observed long ago that forcing people to live in poverty, to lack education and to daily encounter humiliation based on race, ethnicity, culture, language, and religion are intertwined realities, which at the end, dehumanize entire populations. Brilliantly he reflected that the damnés cannot go to hell for they are already in hell (in Maldonado-Torres 2006). Therefore, to assume that human rights are by de facto at the service of the human condition is not only naïve but dangerous for it is not all humans’ humanity that is included in this assertion but the humanity of some at the expense of the humanity of the majority.

Poverty, imperial wars and its daily and deadly impacts, I am afraid, are dehumanizing all of us because they are becoming a “normal” part of life and when something as deadly as poverty, state terror and war become so obviously “natural” we can continue saying that we support equality and the dignity of all humans and in fact contributing to and perpetuating the hierarchy of humanity in which some humans count as humans, some lives count as lives and some deaths deserve to be grieved.

As part of my urgent call to rethink human rights is the invitation to reflect about the ideological practice to represent persecuted, impoverished and victimized peoples as passive victims in need of salvation for it has serious implications such as indirectly feeding the dichotomy of “deserving and undeserving victims of human rights violations,” where “deserving victims” are thought and treated as “truly innocent and apolitical,” and “undeserving victims” as “partisans, collaborators and even terrorists.” My research as well as others’ attests to this fact (Martinez 2000, 2002, 2005; Grandin 2004, 2006; Jonas 1991, 2000; Razack 2004). Victimized people are survivors who have not created systemic violations of human rights. Feeding the industry of victimology even with the best intentions is not wise leadership; it is the continuation of colonial paternalism and maternalism at best, and indirect and direct racism and Orientalism, at worst.

Paternalistic and maternalistic victimization is dangerous because as soon as political conditions change as it has happened after the tragedy of September 11, 2001, the other face of victimization surfaces: the vilification and demonization of peoples and cultures as threats to the nation, to progress, and to human rights to the point that many men and women legally lose the little humanity attached to their bodies, minds and spirits. They become disposable or “bare life” (Homo Sacer) in Agamben’s terms (1998). In either case, the inferiorized “Other” is seen as lacking creativity to create knowledge and lacking ability to be a progressive actor that dreams of the possibility of another just world.

Keeping in mind the urgency to rethink human rights in a world of increased inequalities and to decolonize and de-victimize survivors and community leaders as a relevant step towards the creation of a new leadership in human rights, I would like to invite you to watch a short video that demonstrates part of the effects of transnational corporate mining in Guatemala, an economic activity portrayed as a good development strategy for a society torn by four decades of state terror during which more than 200,000 people were killed, 83% of which were indigenous people and the rest Mestizo men and women who struggled in practice for an integral vision and practice of human rights (CEH 1999). The video titled “Violent Evictions At El Estor, Izabal, Guatemala” shows how,

"On January 8th and 9th 2007, hundreds of police and soldiers in Guatemala forcibly evicted the inhabitants of several communities who were living on lands that a Guatemalan military government had granted to Canadian mining company INCO in 1965. Local indigenous populations claim the land to be theirs, and resent the exploitation of an outside corporation. Canada’s Skye Resources now lays claim to the land, and paid workers a nominal sum to destroy people’s homes. With the force of the army and police, company workers took chainsaws and torches to people’s homes, while women and children stood by. Skye Resources claims that they maintained 'a peaceful atmosphere during this action' (Rights Action 2007)." This video is available at http://www.rightsaction.org.

References

    • Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Standford: Standford University Press.
    • Anghie, Antony. 2005. Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law. Cambridge University Press.
    • Comisión del Esclarecimiento Histórico -CEH-. 1999. Guatemala Memory of Silence TZ'INIL NA'TAB'AL. Report of the Commission for Historical Clarification. Guatemala. CD Spanish Electronic version.
    • Grandin, Greg. 2006. Empire’s Workshop. Latin America, The United State, And The Rise of the New Imperialism. New York: Metropolitan Books.
    • Grandin, Greg. 2004. The Last Colonial Massacre. Latin American in the Cold War. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
    • Jonas, Sussane. 2000. Of Centaurs and Doves. Guatemala's Peace Process. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
    • Jonas, Sussane. 1991. The Battle for Guatemala: Rebels, Dead Squads, and U.S. Power. Boulder, Colorado: Westview, Press.
    • Maldonado-Torres, Nelson. 2006. The Time of History, the Times of Gods, and the Damnés de la terre. Worlds & Knowledges.
    • Martínez Salazar, Egla J. 2005. The Everyday Praxis of Guatemalan Maya Women: Confronting Marginalization, Racism and Contested Citizenship. Doctoral Dissertation, York University, Canada. Unpublished Manuscript.
    • Martínez, Egla J. 2002/2003. Peace as a Masquerade: Militarization and Post-War Terror in Guatemala. Canadian Woman Studies. Volume 22, Number 2. Pp. 40-46.
    • Martínez-Salazar, Egla. 2001. "Development and coercion in the Maya-Tzutuhil community of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala." In Desfor, Gene, Deborah Barndt & Barbara Rahder Eds. Just Doing It: Popular collective action in the Americas. Montreal, New York & London: Black Rose Books.
    • Nyamu-Musembi, Celestine. 2005. “Towards an actor-oriented perspective on human rights.” In Kabeer, Naila, Editor, Inclusive Citizenship. Meanings and Expressions. London & New York: Zed Books.
    • Quijano, Anibal. 2000. Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South, 1.3
    • Razack, Sherene. 2004. Imperilled Muslim Women, Dangerous Muslim Men, and Civilised Europeans: Legal and Social Responses to Forced Marriages. Feminist Legal Studies 12.
    • Rights Action. 2005. Skye Resources to buy Exmibal properties and legacy in Guatemala. Info@rightsaction.org/
    • Rights Action. 2007. News and Reports on Human Rights in Guatemala. http://www.rightsaction.org (Accessed on November 16 and December 26, 2007).
    • Wright, Shelley. 2001. International human rights, decolonization and globalization: becoming human. London/New York: Routledge.
    • Young, Iris. 2007, Global Challenges. War, Self-Determination and Responsibility for Justice. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
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Human Rights in the Middle East — A Voice from Palestine

July 15, 2008
By 19592

What I will do today will be to serve as a voice for a people whose heritage I share, with the hope that in articulating the suffering of that one group of people I will be shedding light on all types of suffering being experienced by human beings all around the world. I know very well that when I am addressing SYLFF fellows, I am actually addressing souls who are ardently debating issues in societies where the hum of human voices is, in fact, heard. I and others of my generation have the obligation to be the voice of our people because these people have lacked a voice, especially in the United States, and I believe that the current generation of young people around the globe who are like-minded need to be a collective voice for the oppressed wherever oppression occurs. Being a voice is important, but it is not enough. After giving rise to ideas and then articulating them in words, a person or group must recognize the need for action.

When formulating human-rights laws, four points should be kept in mind: (1) UN Charter Article 55 (the UN Bill of Rights, including universal respect for human rights), and making clear the relationship between peace and human rights; (2) These rights are universal; (3) World conferences on human rights issues help to raise awareness of these issues and how important they are; and (4) It is necessary to proliferate these rights by making them more precise and utilizing realistic implementation mechanisms.

I believe that my people have not had their human rights respected since being subject to Israeli occupation 40 years ago. Close your eyes and imagine with me. Imagine yourself tied to a pole with your hands cuffed behind your back and tied to that pole. Your feet also are tied to it. Your eyes are blindfolded and your mouth is taped shut. How would you feel? How would you feel being completely under the control of someone else, having no control of yourself or anything around you? How would you feel being so completely helpless? This is exactly what occupation has done to my people, who are not merely being controlled by the environment around them, but rather being subject to an invasion and control of their souls. This coercive control of the physical and spiritual elements of Palestinians individually and collectively has resulted in widespread violations of their human rights and also has failed to bring security to either the Israeli or Palestinian civilian populations.

That control has manifested itself in various forms, including:

    • Israel’s land grabbing and water grabbing by building the apartheid wall, confiscating arable land, and building and expanding settlements. The wall has created cultural and social divides between the Palestinian people such that a family cannot even get together for a social event.
    • The Israeli checkpoint system is another physical manifestation of the control. Around the West Bank there are about 500 checkpoints, manned by Israeli soldiers. Palestinian people are treated very badly at these checkpoints.
    • There are around 11,000 Palestinian soldiers being held in Israeli jails and detention centers. Some prisoners have been held in “administrative detention” (without being charged with crimes, and without legal recourse) for years. Some 200 female Palestinian prisoners are held inside Israeli jails, some of whom have had to give birth to their children while in captivity, with their children kept imprisoned with them until they are two years old.
    • Israeli settlements are an outrageous grab of Palestinian land and resources. There are 410,305 Israeli settlers living on occupied Palestinian land.
    • About 4,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since the beginning of the Second Intifada in 2000.
    • The Israeli practices and the current international boycott placed on the Palestinian people in the wake of the latest Palestinian elections for the legislative council have led to dire humanitarian conditions all over the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In order to deal with such grave violations of human rights, I believe that there is first a need for courage and vision. The mechanisms implemented by the international organizations—such as monitoring, state reporting, and treaty committees—are essential because they document such violations and raise the international community’s awareness of the violations. It is extremely important to hold countries to their commitments as enshrined in international and bilateral agreements, and such agreements should include clauses that respect and safeguard human rights. I wish to conclude by quoting the late U.S. President John F. Kennedy, who rightly said, “United … there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided … there is little we can do … for we dare not meet a powerful challenge, at odds, and split asunder.” Together we, SYLFF fellows and young leaders, can achieve a great deal in facing perpetrators of human-rights violations.

Thank you.

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Young Musicians Challenged to Perform in Collaboration — A Joint Project of 3 World-Renowned Music Schools

July 15, 2008
By null

(The following is an excerpt from the SYLFF Newsletter No.21, Aug 2008)

Dorothea Riedel and Wolfgang Klos

 

How the Joint Project was Initiated

Among the 68 SYLFF institutions are 3 music universities representing the world’s top training schools for professional performing artists: the Juilliard School in New York, the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

These institutions, which for many years have received generous SYLFF endowments via the Tokyo Foundation, have also been able to benefit from the SYLFF Fellows Mobility Program (FMP), which the foundation launched to promote SYLFF fellow exchanges. The 3 schools jointly proposed, as an FMP project, a challenging exchange program in the field of chamber music. This full-of-spirit project, known as the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar, has produced outstanding collaborations between highly educated people in an international language, namely that of music. Each of the 3 schools organized 10-day-long coaching programs, the first of which was held at Juilliard in New York (2006), the second at the Conservatoire in Paris (2007), and the third in Vienna (2008). The highlight and outcome of each coaching program was a joint concert held at each of these cities in turn at the end of its respective 10-day program.

 

Why Chamber Music?

It seemed particularly meaningful for the 3 institutions to cooperate in this field, because many musically knowledgeable individuals regard chamber music as a dialog on the highest spiritual and mental levels. Moreover, one of the advantages of combining the outstanding musical and technical skills of a small number of the most highly developed students is that wonderful results can be obtained from a minimum of resources.

For many decades, chamber music — with its intimate atmosphere and the challenges it offers to not only musicians but also to audiences — stood in the shadow of the more spectacular performances of symphonies and operas. This position of chamber music has changed dramatically within the last few years, mainly due to sociological and financial reasons. Music universities reacted to this change by offering their graduate students a realistic professional perspective; for example, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna launched a Chamber Music Institute and a chamber music curriculum on the master’s and doctoral levels that perfectly match actual professional demands. As a result, chamber music was the logical choice for the collaboration between the 3 music universities in the SYLFF network.

Our intention in Vienna was to offer to the audience a concert program that reflects significant works from each of the three cultural areas where the schools are located: Paris, Vienna, and New York. We also wanted to present to our fellow musicians from Juilliard and Paris both the major musical areas for which our university is well-known and the methods that our teachers use, thereby offering the visiting musicians the resources, possibilities, and contacts of our university.

 

The Seminar in Vienna: Its Process and Fruits

The students participating in the seminar were expected to be well-prepared prior to their arrival in Vienna. Their schedule during the program was so full that they had to start working the very next day after arrival. The frequency and intensity of the coaching, and the necessity of the musicians having to work with colleagues they had not previously met, was a kind of training very similar to the actual situations that professional musicians face, and is 1 of the factors that make this program so valuable for the students.

In addition, the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar is unique in that it gives each student rare opportunities to compare the learning conditions of one’s mother institution with those of another university, to meet new teachers, compare teaching methods, and to compare one’s own artistic level with that of others.

The end of the coaching program in Vienna was a public concert in one of the halls (Gläserner Saal) of the world-famous Musikverein. The performance included masterpieces by Mozart, Debussy, and Gershwin, and lasted almost 3 hours — a very challenging concert, because so many different formations were presented — from a classical wind octet (to collaborate with Viennese horns and oboes was an amazing experience for our friends from New York and Paris) to mixed ensembles (strings, including a harp; wind; and keyboard), and 2 pianos. Thanks to the rigorous professionalism of the intensive practice sessions, rehearsals, and coaching, this concert was an outstanding event.

To attract public attention to our concert was a challenging adventure for the university’s staff because, as one can imagine, in Vienna every night is filled with concerts featuring famous artists. Moreover, Viennese audiences are spoiled and choosy. Therefore, we were all very happy to see that many people came and nearly filled the hall. The concert was a great success. The success was also expressed in the audience’s applause: a well-earned reward for the many days of hard work put in by musicians, teachers, and organizers. The aims of the program — to widen and deepen the professional and cultural perspectives of all concerned, to make new friends, and to develop close relationships among the participating SYLFF fellows from 3 different music schools — were achieved in a wonderful way.

In addition to this ambitious coaching program, the city of Vienna itself, a center of music for hundreds of years, also left a strong impression on our guests. On the very first day, the students of the three music universities who had gathered in Vienna for the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar were taken on a tour to the city’s major sightseeing spots by a professional tourist guide. Also, with the university being situated close to Vienna’s old city center, the students were able to move around by public transport to explore the city on their own.

On Sunday, which was the only day without rehearsals and training sessions, Professor Wolfgang Klos, former vice-rector and one of the initiators of the project, took students on a special tour to visit very special sites of Vienna’s past: the homes of Mozart and Beethoven, the house where George Gershwin composed his famous work “An American in Paris” (which was part of the final concert’s program), and other places of cultural and historical interest of which Vienna has many. The latter include the cemeteries where Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and other prominent composers are buried, places from which it is easy to access museums, libraries, and private collections that display autographs and other memorabilia of the respective composers. I am sure that the students felt the special atmosphere of artistic creativity that makes Vienna the world capital of music. That Sunday started with a solemn Catholic service with music performed by our university’s Church Music Department in the baroque-style Church of St. Ursula, one of our university’s buildings. This was a very special service featuring a choir, orchestra, and organ music, which is still thriving in Vienna. The day ended with a typical Viennese dinner in the "heuriger" where Beethoven wrote his famous “Heiligenstadt Testimony.” Everyone could feel the atmosphere of the world famous composer’s spirit that led to the masterpieces that were to be performed as the final concert of this intensive rehearsal period.

 

The Importance of This Kind of Project

This kind of project is important, for many reasons, including the following:

    • New professional challenges need new instructional approaches.
    • To bring together high-level musicians from different cultures is a challenge for all participants (students, staff, administrators), and also represents the reality of a professional musician’s life in the increasingly globalized world of musical arts (though for most of these students, being rather young in age, this was a first grand adventure in that world).
    • Cultural interaction of this intensity among such different training institutions offers a unique opportunity to collaborate at the highest level on an extremely challenging program: a world premiere.

The final concert represented the climax of everyone’s efforts, and it was highly appreciated and enthusiastically applauded by the musically spoiled-for-choice and difficult-to-please audience of the Vienna Musikverein; the concert turned out to be a very rare happening. This kind of joint undertaking actively demonstrates that music is an international language and that the sphere of action of high-level musicians is the world in its entirety. For advanced students of these world-leading music schools in different parts of the world that are connected through the SYLFF network, the opportunity to interact with students, staff, and administrators of the highest artistic level from other countries and cultures was an important step in their professional development.

 

The Significance of Chamber Music Education and Training

The current year’s project has revealed that the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminars are significant in at least the following 2 ways.

1. For society

a. When the students complete their highly professional music education, they will be specialists, perfectly trained to entertain the most demanding audience at the highest level. As musicians they will be able to elevate people from everyday life to an artistic sphere, presenting human feelings and a humanistic and dignified approach to human life.

b. Musically educated individuals reach higher levels in all fields of human education (even in mathematics, as internationally validated studies have indicated for decades) and enrich human society by their very intense lives, broad visions, and wide tolerance.

2. For individual musicians

For the reasons already mentioned above, music education at advanced level leads to personal development that offers to the musician both a more fulfilled life through his or her highly developed craftsmanship (as well as through the difficulties experienced along the way) and an artistic insight into human life that makes him or her more mature and richer in personality.

The ability to create and appreciate the fine arts, especially music as a perfect means of international communication, are major factors that define us as human beings.

 

The SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar 2009

In 2009 Austria will celebrate the bicentennial of Haydn’s death, and therefore the 3 music universities have decided to start the second cycle of the 3-year seminar in Vienna. The SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar 2009 and its final concert will take place at Eszterhazy Castle, where the famous composer and “father” of classical chamber music, Josef Haydn, created his masterpieces over several decades. This will be a new challenge for outstanding young artists from the Juilliard School in New York, the Conservatoire de Paris, and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.

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Musiques à trois! — Music for Three!

July 15, 2008
By null

(The following is an excerpt from the SYLFF Newsletter No.18, May 2007)

Gretchen Amussen

From January 24th through February 3rd, 2007, the Paris Conservatoire was the scene of intense music-making as 10 musicians from The Juilliard School and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna joined forces with 10 students and seven professors from the Conservatoire to prepare a major chamber music program that was presented on February 1st and 2nd at the Conservatoire, as part of the school’s annual Quinte et Plus (Five and More) chamber music festival. This intensive event was the second of three SYLFF chamber music projects to be held over a three-year period, the first having been held at The Juilliard School in January 2006 under the FMP.

One specific aim of the Paris project was to include professors in the music-making— indeed this is the drawing point for Quinte et Plus, which features a week-long chamber music festival of the highest caliber. Our approach was to feature works by major French composers of the 19th and 20th centuries (Chausson, Poulenc, and the contemporary French composer Michael Levinas, who teaches at the Conservatoire), rounding out the program with works by the American Elliott Carter and the Austrian Strauss-Schoenberg. In order to enable the SYLFF students to mix with as many musicians as possible, each student participated in two chamber music groups—making for no small scheduling feat! Michael Levinas’ work, doubtless the most challenging on the program both for its musical language and ensemble work, necessitated a sizable investment in time by the quintet’s members. Levinas himself attended several rehearsals as well as the final performance, with which he was very impressed.

Above and beyond the intense rehearsing, which occupied a sizable portion of each musician’s time, a city tour was organized for the entire group on the second afternoon; it proved highly popular. Many Viennese and New York students also took time to sit in on classes given by professors of their respective instruments; for the wind players, attending a class for the virtually extinct French bassoon was a high point of their time in Paris.

Barli Nugent, who had helped organize the project at Juilliard, and who is in charge of chamber music there, accompanied that school’s group. She was able to visit classes and participate in meetings with Conservatoire department heads. Barli’s participation in my department’s meeting was seen by us as a high point of the year, and all of us were on our toes to ask questions in English. Many found it inspiring to hear about how issues like professional development are handled so imaginatively in an American institution, and such an outstanding one at that! Barli’s experience as a former Juilliard student, seasoned chamber music player, doctoral student, and now an assistant dean having responsibilities in career development and chamber music, made our exchanges all the more rich. Barli’s warmth and openness added immensely to the project.

The final result was music-making of the highest order. Our SYLFF musicians had the joy of performing for an enthusiastic audience that included the Tokyo Foundation’s Ellen Mashiko, who took time afterwards to speak with each and every one of the participating musicians, sharing her impressions and getting feedback from them. At the post-concert cocktail party, laughter and delight abounded as musicians who had been absolute strangers to one another the week before snapped photos and eagerly sought to jot down e-mail addresses and phone numbers.

The concert took place in this building―Espace Maurice Fleuret―at the Conservatoire de Paris.

The concert took place in this building―Espace Maurice Fleuret―at the Conservatoire de Paris.

In retrospect, were we to do this again —and all of us believe such exchanges are essential for musicians, whose lives are spent on international stages and often interacting with artists whose training and indeed cultural references are quite different— we would probably reduce the number of participating musicians and designate one or two coaches. The complexity of juggling so many people’s schedules—made all the more complicated because the French students also had their regular course load— would simplify things considerably and allow for visiting students to have more time both to visit classes and to get to know Paris.

Nevertheless, we believe that this was and is an absolutely perfect project for music institutions within the SYLFF family, because chamber music is in fact an ongoing conversation that requires that musicians be able to listen to one to another, the best possible musical outcome only successfully reachable if each musician has engaged in this “active listening and performing” in an atmosphere of profound respect for the different artistic approaches being expressed.

All of us are eagerly awaiting year three of the SYLFF chamber music project and a stellar experience in Vienna. For now, we give our heartfelt thanks to Ellen Mashiko and the entire SYLFF team for providing us with this magical opportunity to get to know one another in the best way we know how—by making music!

 

Gretchen Amussen

Gretchen Amussen

Ms. Gretchen Amussen is deputy director of external affairs at the Conservatoire national superieur de musique et de danse de Paris. She studied music and French as an undergraduate student. Her career has included management positions in not-for-profit cultural institutions in the United States and developing an international program and an external affairs division at the Paris Conservatoire. She is an ardent lover of music, loves to travel, and voraciously reads fiction from the many countries she visits. She is particularly interested in how the music profession is evolving (and what this means for training professionals). She serves as the contact person of the SYLFF Steering Committee and is an avid networker in general. Gretchen, was instrumental (no pun intended!) in organizing and implementing the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar that took place earlier this year at the Paris Conservatoire.

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The Path that Led Me Here

July 15, 2008
By 21140

Jimmy Chiang thanking the first violinist after the performance.

Jimmy Chiang thanking the first violinist after the performance.

I left my home in Hong Kong when I was 18 and went to the USA to further my musical study. I later moved with my wife to Vienna, which became our new home, and where our son was born in October 2006. I am the only son in a traditional Chinese family and —despite my parents’ full support —it has not been easy for people around me to feel fully confident that I would succeed as a professional musician, a conductor and pianist. Some 12 years ago, as a teenager with an uncertain future, I decided that by the time I became 30, I would either have already attained international recognition or I would have to get a regular, steady job. Now, as I have just reached the big “3-0”, I can say that I have fulfilled my dream and my promise to myself by winning first prize at the Lovro von Matacic 4th International Competition for Young Conductors held in Zagreb, Croatia, in September 2007.

 

The Lovro Von Matacic Competition

This competition, founded in memory of the renowned Croatian conductor Lovro von Matacic, is held every four years. From among the many outstanding conductors from all over the world, 16 were picked to travel to Zagreb, based on DVD recordings of their performances. It was an intensive week filled with rehearsals, and a fair amount of psychological pressure from having to maintain a constant state of concentration, despite insufficient sleep. Among the 10 international judges who would decide the winner were Berislav Klobucar, Simone Young, and Dimitri Kitajenko.

More than 15 pieces of music, consisting of overtures, symphonies, symphonic poems, opera arias, and Croatian compositions, were to be prepared prior to the remaining rounds of the competition. The pieces that each candidate would conduct were decided by drawing lots before one’s performance, and only a limited amount of time was allowed for rehearsing the pieces. I was given 30 minutes to prepare Wagner’s Rienzi Overture, J. Gotovac’s Symphonic Kolo, and Leonora’s Aria in Beethoven’s Fidelio. Then, for the final round, I was given 50 minutes to prepare Stravinsky’s Firebird (1945) as well as Papandopulo’s Sinfonietta. For the final concert, I conducted Shostakovich’s First Symphony, the performance of which would determine my fate in the competition. I was allowed only one general rehearsal of the Shostakovich piece, on the day of the concert. During the rehearsal I used mainly clear gestures and expressions, without much talking and interruption of the playing, to show the musicians the interpretation that I wanted, and I wondered if my performance could turn out well under such circumstances.

However, upon ending my performance I felt triumphant! From the audience’s passionate reaction after the last chord ended, I immediately knew that I had done exceedingly well. I felt in my heart that I had won, no matter what the judges result might be. There is nothing better than the feeling after a successful performance—a close bonding between me and the orchestra, and a warm crowd cheering in applause! I must admit that this part of the experience was so overwhelming that I showed almost no outward reaction when it was announced that I was the winner. Congratulations, receptions, press interviews, and the like were to follow. Meanwhile, my mind was still occupied with the sounds of Shostakovich, and that continued for the next few days.

 

What I Learned

The competition was an especially significant experience. In addition to having opportunities to rehearse with and conduct a professional orchestra, I made new friends and learned a great deal from watching others. It is wonderful to see how different conductors educated in different countries perform, and through conversations with my colleagues I was impressed by how different the traditions and teachers are, such as the concept of the role of the conductor, the way to approach a piece of music, and so on.

However, I must admit that I have never been a fan of music competitions. Although such competitions as that in Zagreb can confirm one’s music-making capabilities and power as a conductor, I realize that to win always requires some luck, too. In any case, I believe that music is not a sport that one can or should compete in. To appreciate music involves taste as well as many other subjective factors. To be named “winner” therefore does not necessarily say much about the true degree of one’s abilities. For me, the real prize was that I had won the hearts of both the people in the audience and the members of the orchestra. The appreciation of people is a prize that I will have to continue to earn through concerted effort throughout my life.

 

The Path Leading to My Success

Many factors in the first 30 years of my life contributed to my recent success. First, my parents sent me to piano lessons when I was 4 years old, and through their discovery of my musical talent I was able to receive further support and education. Ms. Ching-yee Choi, my first piano teacher for 14 years and her husband, Dr. Wai-hong Yip, who taught me composition when I was 11, were and still are dear to me. Dr. Yip founded the Pan Asia Symphony Orchestra, with which I was able to start my performing career as a concert pianist when I was 13. I am now the principal guest conductor for that orchestra, for which I was also once a cellist. That orchestra will always retain a special value in my life.

After I earned a Fellowship Diploma from Trinity College London (FTCL) at the young age of 16, I decided to go abroad to the USA to continue my education. It was at Baylor University in Texas that I met my second great mentor, pianist Krassimira Jordan. She had studied in Moscow with Emil Gilels, one of the most important representatives of the famous Russian School of piano playing, heritage which I am honored to be a part of. It was through her summer academy and acquaintance with her friend and colleague, Wolfgang Watzinger, that I made my first connection with Vienna, the city of music. Here I became a student of Watzinger, whose teacher was Rudolf Serkin, a major figure in the German school of piano playing in contrast to the Russian techniques. It was my destiny to be able to master the two schools’ techniques, which complement each other so well and which enable me to understand the importance of maintaining a balance between emotion and intellect in my performances, both as pianist and conductor. Amid all of these developments, in Texas in the year 2000 I seized the chance to found my own chamber orchestra, the Ensemble Amadeus Waco, where I developed both conducting as well as organizational skills.

But it was not until I had moved to Vienna and met my other mentor, Leopold Hager, that I considered myself as having begun my understanding of what it means to be a conductor. He tore down not only my preconceived notions about conducting, but my self-assurance. Then he slowly built me back up through the precious tradition of European conductor training, as well as in his specialty—the interpretation of Mozart. I am considered to be his very last student, inasmuch as he has retired from the university and no longer teaches. Moreover, to be home in Vienna is like putting a beautifully prepared gourmet dinner on a beautiful plate for a stunning presentation. Here I am constantly spoiled by the sound of the Vienna Philharmonic as well as experiencing the rehearsals of great living conductors. I can’t complain!

In addition to all of the above, my experience with Maestro Seiji Ozawa at the Rohm Music Festival in Kyoto in 2003 was enormously stimulating. The ideas he sparked in me during that week vividly remain.

Above all, I must mention my dear wife, a wonderful opera soprano, whom I met in the USA while we were students. We have had not just a loving relationship but a singer-coach relationship for almost 10 years. Because of her, I have developed a sensitive ear for voice, which benefits me very much as an opera conductor and had contributed to my work as an opera coach on a daily basis with singers from all over the world.

To conclude, I am certain that I haven’t mentioned everyone and everything that somehow contributed to my success in my first 30 years of life. But I will end by expressing my gratitude to the Tokyo Foundation; the lasting effects of the support the Foundation has given me as a fellow has been like the ripples formed from dropping a stone into the pond of my life and making waves that will have lasting repercussions.

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New York, New York …

July 15, 2008
By 19588

(The following is an excerpt from the SYLFF Newsletter No.15, May 2006)

Anna Gutowska

This year’s SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar, the first of three such annual events planned and jointly developed by three SYLFF music schools—the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and The Juilliard School, in New York City—took place at Juilliard from January 9th through 17th, 2006, in conjunction with Juilliard’s ChamberFest; a week of chamber music seminars, coaching, and performances.

As a step leading to participation in the seminar, five of us from our university in Vienna—Bojidara Kouzmanova (violin), Philipp Schachinger (cello), Heidrun (“Heidi”) Wirth (bassoon), David Szalkay (trumpet), and I—met at Vienna Airport on Sunday, January 8th, subsequently arriving in New York City after a long flight.

The seminar started on January 9th. It involved intensive hours of practice and coaching each day. We worked with different coaches on different pieces by a variety of composers, such as Stravinsky, Ives, and Friedmann. Juilliard has some 100 practice rooms, so enough rooms were available for us to practice individually and in groups until 11 p.m.— and some days we did so, meeting only for lunches and dinners. However, our time was not all work. Among the much appreciated ‘extracurricular’ events that Juilliard arranged for us during the seminar were a pizza party and a special Chinese dinner.

I was in a chamber group that also included Helena Madoka Berg and Christian Hacker from Germany, Benedicte Royer from Paris, and Ang Li from China. Helena, Christian, and Ang were students at Juilliard, and Benedicte was a student at the conservatoire in Paris. The piece that we chose to play was Anton Dvorak’s Piano Quintet in A-Major, op. 81, a very famous and wonderful piece that actually is for piano and strings and is also my favorite. We practiced in the morning and afternoon every day.

Our coach was Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, chair of the Piano Department of The Juilliard School, from which she had received a doctorate. She has been greatly praised for her musical accomplishments in recitals, chamber music programs, and orchestral performances. Before joining Juilliard, Dr. Kaplinsky taught at the Philadelphia University of the Arts, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of Music. Widely known for her exceptional knowledge of piano techniques, she is in great demand as a teacher of advanced pianists, and she has lectured extensively and judged major musical competitions across the world.

Dr. Kaplinsky provided us with fantastic coaching. She is a very quiet person, but when she is playing, her performance is like fireworks, full of emotion and also very, very warm. I thought that our Dvorak Quintet needed a lot of color and joy, and a little nostalgia, and as a result of her working with us on every element of this piece, we were able to play it in the expressive way that it deserves. I absolutely adore her, and I loved and enjoyed her lessons. Dr. Kaplinsky’s family came from Poland, and I hope that some day she will come to Poland to visit our school. We, the participants in the seminar, had different personalities, were from different countries and cultures, had studied at different schools, embraced different traditions (musical and otherwise), and had different ways of playing. But I think that this “mixture” was fantastic. It gave us many pleasant surprises, as well as much joy and many smiles, and we learned a lot from each other.

The concert in Paul Hall on the final day (January 17th) was held before a large audience, and perhaps it can best be described in these few words: personally satisfying and musically successful! I very much enjoyed performing with my quintet-friends, and, I’m glad to say, our performance was well-received. After the concert Dr. Kaplinsky came to us and said she was proud of us, which of course warmed our hearts and made us feel even more strongly that our hard work and intensive practice had been worthwhile. During the post-concert reception I met people from The Nippon Foundation, the Tokyo Foundation, and the Nippon Music Foundation. I was very happy to see Ms. Ellen Mashiko again after having met her for the first time in July 2005 during the SYLFF Africa/Europe Regional Forum in Coimbra, Portugal.

 

* * *

 

I am now back in Vienna.

My first visit to New York City, in addition to the very rewarding experience of collaborating with other students at Juilliard, was also enjoyable and memorable in other ways. I have many photos that I took while there: Central Park and its squirrels, Manhattan, Ground Zero, Planet Hollywood, the Metropolitan Opera, 34th Street, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown, Times Square, and the Rockefeller Center and its ice rink, among others. Sometimes I look at my photos from my time in New York, and I laugh . . . about David Szalkay, who always had his video camera and was singing Jennifer Lopez songs, and about Bojidara, who was worried about her heavy baggage (she bought a lot of CDs and books in New York). And I remember the wonderful spaghetti party and playing the Uno card game . . . among many, many other memories.

Some of us from Vienna went to Avery Fisher Hall to listen to an open rehearsal of a violin concerto, “The Red Violin,” staged by Joshua Bell and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and we also saw a Metropolitan Opera production of the great ballet Swan Lake.

I also fondly remember a dinner at a sushi bar with my Vienna university roommate, Heidi, and Mathieu and Magie from Paris. The weather was very cold, but we were very happy to share time together. Heidi made entries in her diary every day, and we talked whenever we had a chance. We thoroughly enjoyed the 10 days we passed in New York with the fantastic people we met, played with, and heard play there.

I worked very hard. I attended all the seminar sessions, where I learned a lot. I did my best to contribute to the success of the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar and our quintet’s performance. I hope I will meet all the seminar participants and teachers again someday . . . perhaps even in New York, which I enjoyed a lot.

After spending such an intense, enriching, and wonderful time in New York, a time that was so meaningful to me, I wish, on behalf of all other musicians who performed at the ChamberFest from the three music schools, to express our sincere gratitude to Ellen Mashiko and the Tokyo Foundation for providing us with such a wonderful opportunity and for the trust they placed in us.

I also wish to express my deepest and very respectful thanks to Professor Wolfgang Klos and Ms. Dorothea Riedel of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, for the trust they placed in me and for making it possible for me to take part, first, in the SYLFF Africa/Europe Regional Forum in the summer of 2005, which in turn provided me with the opportunity to perform in the wonderful chamber music concert in the Biblioteca Joanina (King John Library) at the University of Coimbra during that forum, and then, second, in Juilliard’s ChamberFest this past January.

I will never forget New York. I am very, very happy to have had the experiences I did during ChamberFest, and especially to have been able to play and work with musicians and other people from different countries and cultures around the world. I believe that the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminars, by bringing together in this way such different people, with their varied languages and traditions, will help to eliminate misunderstanding and hatred from this unquiet and uneasy world, and bring goodwill and peace instead.

 

Anna Gutowska

A native of Poland, Ms. Anna Gutowska is a SYLFF fellow at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, majoring in violin. She participated in the Asia/Pacific Regional Forum in Coimbra, Portugal, in 2005, and in the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar that was held in January 2006 at The Juilliard School in New York City. This seminar is the first of three annual seminars, developed under the SYLFF Fellows Mobility Program (FMP), to be held at the three music schools involved.

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SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar 2006 at The Juilliard School

July 15, 2008
By null

(The following is an excerpt from the SYLFF Newsletter No.15, May 2006)

Bärli Nugent

January 8th, 2006 was a dreary winter day, but the excitement in the arrivals hall of John F. Kennedy International Airport was palpable. A small group from Juilliard stood behind the barrier, straining to see the travelers emerging from the U.S. Customs section. Five young people had flown through the night from Vienna and landed an hour earlier; five more were soon due in on a flight from Paris. Any string or wind instruments in the crowd? We didn’t know what the students looked like, and we were not sure they would spot the friendly but small, hand-lettered “Juilliard School” signs we were holding. We were eager to welcome them to New York for the start of a project that had been dreamed about and worked on for two years.

This project, later called in this, its inaugural year the ‘SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar at The Juilliard School of the Ryoichi Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellowship Fund Fellows Mobility Program’, marked the first collaboration in a landmark three-year series of exchanges involving the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, the Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, and The Juilliard School. These exchanges have been designed to foster an educational and artistic experience that embraced the learning process at the heart of each institution. A 10-day chamber music seminar, hosted by each institution in turn during the three-year period, incorporated five students from each visiting institution into a chamber music event at the host school.

The seminar at Juilliard placed the 10 visiting students—from Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, and Poland—into 4 chamber ensembles with 9 Juilliard students—from Canada, China, Germany, and the United States. These 4 ensembles joined 14 others that together made up the performers of ChamberFest 2006. ChamberFest is an opportunity for the serious chamber musicians at Juilliard to return to the school during the final week of the winter break for an intensive week of rehearsals and daily coaching on a substantial piece of chamber music. The second week of ChamberFest coincides with the reopening of the school, and the 18 ensembles perform in six concerts given during that week.

People continued to come from the U.S. Customs section in waves. When at last a tall young man emerged with a cello strapped to his back, accompanied by four other people carrying cases for violins, a bassoon, and a trumpet, we saw the looks of relief that spread across their weary faces as they spotted us, and we knew that the SYLFF fellows from the Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien had finally arrived. They were greeted in German by Juilliard graduate and cellist Sabine Frick, escorted to the waiting bus, and whisked off to Juilliard. Our five guests from the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris arrived shortly thereafter, easily identified by their cases for clarinet, trombone, violin, viola, and cello. This group was greeted in French by Juilliard graduate and harpist Sivan Magen, and then also whisked off to Juilliard. The 10 musicians settled into Juilliard’s residence hall in rooms on the 22nd and 29th floors, which offer spectacular views of New York City and the nearby Hudson River, and then went for dinner in the school’s cafeteria with the Juilliard students. I was profoundly moved by the enthusiasm and sincerity of our guests, and I was eager to see what their collaboration with our students would bring.

Days later, I found myself wandering about on Juilliard’s 5th floor, delighted to hear strains of Charles Ives, Antonin Dvor˘ak, Igor Stravinsky, and recent Juilliard alumnus Jefferson Friedman emerging from the studios where the SYLFF ensembles rehearsed. The works by these four composers had been requested by the Juilliard students due to the latter’s desire to share music that represented their own interests and Juilliard’s chamber music traditions. As the days passed, students and faculty alike popped into my office during their breaks, with huge smiles on their faces as they described the joy of discovery, the exhaustion from the long hours of work they were undertaking, and the immense satisfaction of making new friends with each other. Juilliard cello-faculty member Bonnie Hampton perhaps expressed it best when she described the group she coached, saying,

“They were the best group I have had the pleasure of working with at Julliard in terms of attitude, and they were extremely fine players. The other remarkable thing is that they did not know each other at all prior to coming to the Juilliard program, but they worked together extremely well, seriously, and very professionally, and they also seemed to like and enjoy each other. Putting three unknowns together is always a “chance” and this one came up ‘golden.’ None of the musicians had played the Ives Trio before, and they were extremely open and receptive to working with his musical language. It was a real pleasure to work with this group.”

As the days of preparation came to a close, the students joined in our traditional end-of-week ChamberFest Chinese banquet. The marble floors resonated with the laughter and ebullient talk of the 90 ChamberFest participants, who consumed endless trays of lo mein noodles (stir-fried, Cantonese-style egg noodles), sautéed bok choy (Chinese chard), kung po chicken (diced chicken sautéed with sweet peppers and peanuts in spicy pepper sauce), and tofu with mushrooms, among the more than 40 dishes offered. And as is traditional with the ChamberFest banquet, all of the leftovers were wrapped up and given to the students to take back to the residence hall to share in late-night snacking together. This traditional sharing of abundant food from another culture seemed to be a delicious and fitting way to mark the SYLFF exchange as the students prepared for their performance several days hence.

Violinist Elenore Darmon noted,

It [the seminar] was very beneficial because we were put into a situation that one often encounters in a musician’s life: preparing in 10 days a work (contemporary in my case) without knowing one’s partners, and working intensively in order to construct a unity of sound and intonation, and all the while exchanging approaches to the work and choosing an interpretation that pleases each person. And it was also very good for my English!

Juilliard percussionist Luke Rinderknecht remarked,

“Working with the students from Vienna and Paris was certainly an exciting learning experience. Our rehearsals were complicated by language challenges, but with perseverance we learned “L’Histoire du Soldat” and a little of each other’s languages. Our concepts of sound were somewhat different, but through discussions about the educational and musical difference in our various countries I began to understand why that was so. It was a thoroughly fulfilling experience.”

But it was clarinetist Maguy Girard who perhaps summed it up the best, when she said that she

“left home with my clarinets, new tour books, and a new pair of shoes. Result: my tour books are now dog-eared . . . and my shoes have no soles! And the most important thing: I exchanged magnificent musical moments with students from three different nationalities (American, Austrian, and Hungarian). It was during this kind of experience that one can truly realize that music is universal, and especially that it is a language: one can communicate and share emotions without speaking the same verbal language.”

For me, being given the opportunity to observe these collaborations, it was a joy to meet the young people from Europe, entrusted to Juilliard for a too-brief period of time, to see the friendships that began within our walls, and to hear the indescribably beautiful music that resulted. I have also been privileged to make new musical friends myself: early-morning phone conversations across the Atlantic with Paris Conservatoire Deputy Director for External Affairs and Communication Gretchen Amussen introduced me to a soul mate in dreaming and planning for this project, and countless exchanges of e-mail messages with Vienna University’s distinguished professor Wolfgang Klos, whose generosity and energy marked this collaboration. I also gained new friends at The Nippon Foundation and other affiliated organizations: Mr. Yohei Sasakawa, Mr. Tatsuya Tanami, Ms. Kazuko Shiomi, Ms. Ellen Mashiko, Mr. Keita Sugai, and Ms. Takako Nakayama, who bestowed upon Juilliard the honor of their presence at the concert of the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar at The Juilliard School. Their vision, hailed by Juilliard President Joseph W. Polisi, to nurture future leaders who will transcend geopolitical, ethnic, cultural, religious, and other boundaries for the betterment of humankind has found a home in the performing arts communities of the Vienna Universitat, Paris Conservatoire, and The Juilliard School.

The days passed far too quickly. As the students in turn strode onstage before the packed hall and shared their music, the audience cheered their approval, and I began to dream of the next exchange: Paris in January 2007. It cannot come too soon.

 

Bärli Nugent

Dr. Bärli Nugent is assistant dean, director of chamber music, and a faculty member of The Juilliard School, where she also administers Juilliard’s Mentoring, Scholastic Distinction, and Colloquium programs. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard, as well as a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A founding member of the Aspen Wind Quintet, winners of the 1984 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, she has performed in more than 1,000 concerts with the quintet throughout the United States, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and North Africa. She is also an artist-faculty member and director of chamber music for the Aspen Music Festival and School. She was instrumental in planning and running the SYLFF Chamber Music Seminar, in collaboration with her counterparts from the two other SYLFF-endowed music schools.

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New Global Leadership as a Guardian of Human Rights and Human Security

July 15, 2008
By 20992

Mr. Svilanovic chairs Working Table I [Democratization and Human Rights], Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. He served as the minister of foreign affairs of Serbia and Montenegro from 2000 to 2004. He received a SYLFF fellowship in 1990–1991 while working on his master’s thesis in civil procedure at the University of Belgrade.

 

Human Security: A Vague Concept

It is common knowledge that maintaining the territorial security of nation-states through military power has failed to improve their total human condition. In response, the international community has moved to combine economic development with military security and other basic human rights to form a new concept of "human security." Unfortunately, by common assent the concept lacks either a clear definition or any agreed-upon measure of it. Some commentators argue that human security represents a new paradigm for scholars and practitioners alike. Despite these claims, however, it remains uncertain whether the concept of human security can serve as a practical guide for academic research or governmental policymaking, simply because not all neologisms are equally plausible or useful.

 

The Reality concerning Human Security

Sometimes reality is so brutal and so obvious that neither academic definitions nor a consensus is needed in order to conclude that someone’s security and basic human needs and rights are being severely jeopardized. The international community has no clue about how to improve the situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are among the world’s 10 most-insecure countries for living, sharing the top-worst-10 positions with 8 countries in Africa. In Iraq and Afghanistan efforts are being made, not only through humanitarian operations but via a military presence, intended to impose some kind of democratic regime. So what can we expect from common efforts to root out poverty and fatal but curable diseases in Africa?

 

A Call for New Global Leadership

Obviously, what is needed is new global leadership with a new approach, presented by different actors in the political and social arenas, that can set deeper the roots of our commonly shared values where they have already been seeded, as in Eastern Europe, but even more important, to work out how we can spread the seeds of the crops we cultivate to where the soil is not yet ready but where many would benefit from their yields, as in Africa. Whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we see it as a paradox or not, we are jumping into a global order that is not so obvious, that no one fully understands. Whether we understand this new order or not is one issue, but we almost have no choice but to cope with this situation, because it influences our daily lives. It would be good if we would learn more about globalization trends, because this knowledge might help us to know how to conduct our lives under the new circumstances. In contrast to what one might rely on and assume as given, human-rights protection, sustainable peace, development and social cohesion, which are the main features of human security, are not only a matter of concern for national and international decision-makers, but are first and foremost the responsibility of every citizen.

 

The Side Effects of Economic Growth

We can say with great certainty that the foundations of our society have been severely shaken by the economic, social, and cultural revolutions of the later part of the 20th century. A great many of the solutions and structures that existed in the past have been destroyed by the extraordinary dynamism of the economy in which we live. This is throwing an increasing number of men and women into a situation in which they cannot appeal to clear norms, perspectives, and common values, in which they do not know what to do with their individual and collective existence. This is true of institutions such as the family, but also of political institutions that were the foundation of our civilization—the public sphere. Politics, parties, newspapers, organizations, representative assemblies, and states—none of these operate as they used to and as we had supposed they would continue to operate for a long time to come. At present there are no global-scale regulations or institutions that say what we should do or should not do regarding some of the newly emerging challenges, such as the fight against terrorism and nuclear proliferation. In the case of Kosovo, for instance, the current international community is divided on how to resolve the situation. Meanwhile, more often than we would like, we find ourselves without clearly applicable laws that, in this period of global transition and transformation, must be replaced by deeply rooted and widely accepted values and principles to guide us forward. The modern economy cannot operate endlessly without some kind of reference to social traditions and to a new set of values and patterns for collective actions, including those to promote social cohesion and education for democratic citizenship.

 

Potential Leaders to Improve Human Security

Globally cherished icons can dramatically improve human security. Instead of presenting any conclusion that should contain a definition of what new global leaders who might become guardians of improvement of human security worldwide should be, let me draw your attention to the work of one of today’s top fashion models, Liya Kebede from Ethiopia, whose annual earnings total millions of U.S. dollars. Most of you know her from the cover pages of VOGUE magazine, but she has also created the Liya Kebede Foundation dedicated to the welfare of mothers and children (see http://www.liyakebede.com/foundation/lkfoundationhome.html), and she is a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. Her foundation’s mission is to raise awareness of the need to improve the conditions of mothers and children and to fight the horrible facts that each day an average of 1,600 mothers die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth, and that nearly 11 million children die each year before they reach their fifth birthday, including 4 million who die within the first 28 days of life. Liya is not only a goodwill ambassador who serves as a good example for other influential global celebrities who easily attract public attention, but she is becoming a real global leader herself and a guardian of human security in Africa.

Thank you.

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Reflections on the Sylff Program

July 15, 2008
By null

The Sylff Program’s mission―

“To support the education of outstanding students pursuing graduate- level study in the social sciences and humanities who have high

potential for leadership and a commitment to exercising leadership

in local, national, regional and international affairs, in public as well

as in private endeavors. To nurture future leaders who will transcend

geopolitical, religious, ethnic, cultural and other boundaries and will

contribute to peace and the well-being of humankind.

―recognizes the important role of graduate-level (or postgraduate level) study and its impact and ripple-effect throughout all sectors of societies, including the corporate, education, government and non-government sectors. It targets the social sciences and humanities (and performing arts at specific institutions) rather than the natural and applied sciences which not only receive the bulk of funding but generally more public attention.

While focusing on academically outstanding students, the Sylff mission expects that fellowships will be awarded to students with a high potential for and commitment to exercising leadership in local, national, regional and[/or] international arenas, and in ways that benefit the well-being of all and hence contribute to the common good. In sum, recipients of Sylff fellowships (“Sylff fellows”) are expected to complete the degree or program for which the fellowship was awarded and then pursue their careers and personal lives in socially responsible ways and to lead others in doing so. It is a tall order but one which is filled by innumerable Sylff fellows throughout the world.

There are many “stories to tell” of individuals and groups of fellows who are fulfilling the Sylff mission and living its vision―the founder of a scholarship program which enables youngsters from rural villages to attend high school and requires them to return home to teach villagers in their respective dialects during vacation periods; a recent foreign minister and now a leader in a turbulent region; a group of junior university faculty members who have helped transform an impoverished community through an environmental project; young musicians who organize and perform charity concerts to benefit orphanages; and much more. Their stories underscore the fact that Sylff fellows indeed act and have an impact far beyond the Sylff community.

The engine which drives the Sylff Program is its endowment scheme. Rather than the donor (The Nippon Foundation) or the program administrator (The Tokyo Foundation) receiving applications from individuals, universities throughout the world are invited to submit applications to receive endowments or permanent funds of US$1 million each. Selected institutions then invest and manage their Sylff endowments, and use the earnings on their investments to provide Sylff fellowships to graduate-level, enrolled students thus empowering the universities and allowing them to plan over the long-term because they have a sustainable source of revenue. In other words, the endowment scheme generates ownership and takes away uncertainty so a stable program can be planned and implemented.

The Sylffinstitutions also decide on the academic disciplines or themes of their fellowship programs. Examples of theme-based fellowship programs include “Pluralisms, Conflict Resolution and Democratic Governance” (Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia) and “Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Socio-economic, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Human Development” (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India). There are also mechanisms for endowed-universities to alter the academic disciplines or themes of their fellowship programs after a period of time to meet changing needs and priorities.

The lubricants which have helped keep the engine running are the so-called follow-up programs implemented by The Tokyo Foundation for enrolled and graduated Sylff fellows and endowed-university administrators, and online and face-to-face contact which have fostered a sense of belonging and ownership of the Sylff Program by all and mutual trust. Even hybrid vehicles require lubricants to increase the ease of their functioning. In much the same way, the Sylff engine requires lubricants not only to improve its functioning but also to help ensure that the engines power Sylff vehicles to follow a mutual road map (mission) to reach an ultimate goal (vision).

There are currently 68 endowed universities and consortia in 44 countries that make up a colorful parade of Sylff vehicles of different years, makes and models but they share a fundamental commitment to academic excellence and educating and nurturing the next generations to help ensure that the world will be a better place for all. Sylff vehicles travel different roads―some smooth and straight, others filled with pot-holes and sometimes requiring detours―but they are headed in the same direction.

I vividly recall attending a meeting of representatives of African NGOs and U.S. foundations several years ago in New York City. Although I was an observer, I was called upon to introduce the Sylff Program. The first question which I received from a foundation representative was, “Do you actually trust all of the universities to manage their endowments and to administer their fellowship programs?” The second interjection came from a representative of an African NGO who clapped her hands and said, “That’s just what we need, not vast amounts but permanent funds that will enable us to develop and implement strategic plans, and sustain and nurture our organization’s projects. We are responsible people and want to be trusted and encouraged.”

It took some discipline for me to stifle a clap and cheer while first explaining that the foundation and prospective recipient universities engage in considerable discussion about where and how the endowment will be invested, transparent and equitable administration and focus of the fellowship program, participation in the Sylff network, and the submission of annual reports. Then I said clearly, mostly for the U.S. foundation representatives, yes, we trust the universities―the endowment is theirs, in perpetuity, barring any gross mismanagement and the foundations’ (donor and program administrator) commitment to the universities and fellows is life-long.

This and many other first-hand experiences have underscored that the Sylff Program is based upon and thrives on mutual learning, trust and collaboration between and among the foundations (The Nippon Foundation and The Tokyo Foundation), endowed universities and the more than 10,000 Sylff fellows.

 

Thinking and acting outside the box

In the case of the Sylff Program, thinking and acting outside the proverbial box is not simply an exercise but lies within its very essence. In 1986, then The Nippon Foundation President Yohei Sasakawa made a significant leap outside the prevailing box when he transformed his father’s vision into the Sylff Program, then a rare case for a private Japanese grant-making foundation. Twenty-two years later, it is still rare for foundations in and outside Japan to endow universities, particularly in developing countries.

Mr. Sasakawa’s strong commitment and belief in the program led him to take another big step when he led efforts by The Nippon Foundation to establish and fund The Tokyo Foundation in 1997, first and foremost to strengthen and enhance the Sylff Program and secondarily other scholarship activities (by the new foundation’s Scholarship Division), and to engage in policy studies (Research Division). (At the time, the Japanese government was limiting the number of new foundations hence the scholarship and research initiatives were joined into a single organization.)

During the second decade of Sylff, he continued to be a generous source of support and inspiration. Combined with the expertise and guidance of the Scholarship Programs Advisory Board (previously called the International Advisory Committee), the Sylff Program continued to innovate and translate the Sylff vision and mission into follow-up programs and activity, including the building of the Sylff Network, the mechanism that allows the Sylff community to keep the engines running at best levels of performance.

Sylff institutions not only participated in and facilitated follow-up programs but some also initiated and engaged in university-to-university and in some cases, consortium programs and activity with funding from sources other than Sylff. In other words, they too explicitly or implicitly thought and acted outside the box. A dozen universities have also hosted various forums and meetings and thus made incalculable in-kind contributions.

During the same period, a growing number of Sylff fellows actively participated in follow-up programs, including the Sylff Fellows Council. Through their research, social action and networking initiatives, they too innovated, experimented and acted on top of their ongoing academic work, and professional and personal responsibilities. They deserve a loud round of applause not only for multi-tasking but also for leading and serving as role models for others within and beyond the Sylff community.

For all stakeholders, thinking and acting outside the box involved both process and content matters―taking bold steps in making processes participatory and more transparent, and designing follow-up programs and activity to facilitate trans-disciplinary, trans-national research and social action.

 

Moving forward

The Sylff Program is not perfect nor a panacea for all ills. It is a living system and thus a work-in-progress that requires ongoing reexamination, fine-tuning and transformation if it is to strengthen, grow and mature. There are various mechanisms to reexamine and fine-tune existing programs and activity, such as self-study techniques. However, transformation in the context of higher education, and thus of Sylff, goes beyond the rational processes and substance of assessment and cost-benefit analyses. As Richard H. Hersh recently wrote, “Transformation is about intellectual deepening and broadening; …rigorous and humble introspection; …encountering the great human conversations as a means of learning how to construct meaning in far more defensible and rigorous ways. [And] learning―and the transformation it fosters―is never strictly cognitive….Learning is about being able to link thought and emotion, and all with action, in ways that are humane, caring and responsible” (The Chronicle of Higher Education, August 1, 2008, p. A64 ).

On the world stage, the Sylff family of fellows, universities and the foundations may be a modest company of actors in terms of numbers but together and through individual endeavors the clan can make a difference. A quarter century ago, scientist Lewis Thomas wrote in a collection of essays:

“Altruism, in its biological sense, is required of us. We have an enormous family to look after, or perhaps that assumes too much, making us sound like official gardeners and zookeepers for the planet, responsibilities for which we are probably not grown-up enough. We may need new technical terms for concern, respect, affection, substitutes for altruism. But at least we should acknowledge the family ties and, with them, the obligations. If we do it wrong, scattering pollutants, clouding the atmosphere with too much carbon dioxide, extinguishing the thin carapace of ozone, burning up the forests, dropping the bombs, rampaging at large through nature as though we owned the place, there will be a lot of paying back to do and, at the end, nothing to pay back with.” (Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, 1983, pp. 106-107).

What will the Sylff family choose to do in its third decade? Commit to further mutual learning, collaborative action and transforming challenges into opportunities? Do “good” but in seclusion or for self-serving purposes? Slip into indifference, complacency and inactivity? Do we have a choice?