Globally minded music presenters usually face an uphill struggle to build local audiences, but they may soon prove that there is strength in numbers.  The North American World Music Coalition is a new organization that brings together cultural organizations, theaters, musicians and the media for a continental network.  Along with coordinating tours and promoting the music, the coalition will also lobby on behalf of foreign artists who seek performance visas.

“This is a niche genre,” said Dmitri Vietze of the music publicity firm Rock Paper Scissors and a founding member of the coalition.  “We can increase the presence and sustainability for those international sounds in North America that much more by working together.”

The groundwork for the coalition has been underway for the past few years as presenters have met and discussed issues at such events as the annual WOMEX festival.  In 1999, the Maryland-based Folk Alliance organization hosted a more formal initial meeting of the coalition and last December, the founding members applied for 501C3 non-profit status.

In January, the coalition received a burst of media attention when Joe’s Pub in New York hosted Globalfest, which brought together musicians from 16 countries and was held, in part, to promote the viability of world music for the Association of Performing Arts Presenters organization that met in New York at the same time.

“Globalfest demonstrated that we’re not marginal,” Joe’s Pub director Bill Bragin said.  “And that the artistry is top notch, the audiences are there for it, and there’s new value [in world music].  Globalfest also gave us a platform to raise the issues of visas and economic realities to the mainstream media.”

Another benefit of improved communication among music presenters is that it would become more feasible to set up a string of concerts so that artists from distant lands can play the heartland of America.

“If a presenter in Toronto is bringing in Alim Qasimov from Azerbaijan, who is at the highest level of his art form,” said Michael Orlove, program director of Chicago’s department of cultural affairs, “isn’t it a waste if he just goes to Toronto and then goes back home?”  

 -Aaron Cohen