The Palestine Music Expo, in cooperation with the AMQF Culture and Arts Program (CAP), organized a workshop titled “Let Your Music Shine[AO1] ”, led by UK musician, Jeff Thompson, director and founder of Un-Convention – a global music network and development agency. The workshop was held Saturday, January 28, 2017, in the AMQF headquarters in Ramallah, in preparation for the April Palestine Music Expo.
The workshop tackled a number of important subjects relevant to music professionals, such as website building, social media management and art promotion and marketing.
Commenting on the workshop, Rami Younis, co-founder of the Palestine Music Expo, said, “We aim to provide artists and music professionals with the tools they need to market their work and deliver their message to the public. We also hope to build some kind of continuity after the Expo.”
Thompson expressed his joy with the good number of participants at the workshop. “Every person or group attending the workshop leaves with new ideas that they later transmit to others,” he said. “This is a good thing, which we can build on in the future."
A number of young musicians and music and art amateurs attended the workshop. Musician Samir Joubran commended the event, “This kind of workshop is vital, especially in Palestine”. He added, “Here, we have a lot of talent, bands and art products, but we lack the needed infrastructure for art production to become an integral part of the economy.”
AMQF is an organizer and supporter of the Palestine Music Expo. “Since the launch of CAP in 2000, AMQF has been drawing new musical talent to the Palestinian art scene,” said the director of AMQF’s Culture and Arts Programme (CAP), Mahmoud Abu Hashhash. “We have been providing musicians with scholarships, production grants and opportunities to meet the public and interact with fellow artists. What they still lack, however, is the ability to enter the market and make a living out of their music”. He added, “Locally, the music scene is very dynamic, but its presence in the international music industry remains weak. So we hope that such events will help build international interest in the Palestinian music scene.”
The Palestine Music Expo will be held, for the first time, in the period from 4 – 7 April 2017.
[AO1]على الأغلب، ثمة عنوان موجود أصلاً بالإنجليزية