2009 will be a difficult year for musicians if the state does not change attitude towards them. Info-Prim Neo interview with the president of the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Moldova, Ghenadie Ciobanu

[ - How was 2008 for the musicians of Moldova?] - In 2008 and during the past eight years of development, the artistic works in Moldova have not been a cultural priority. There is no programmatic document in which the state (the Ministry of Culture) would assert its position about the development of artistic work. The artistic projects are implemented by unions of creation and some of the institutions of culture even if the state ignores the modern professional artistic works. The civilized countries support the musical compositional works by different methods: grants, contests, orders from festivals and musical and theatrical institutions, etc. We had only one system – the Commission for the Acquisition of Musical and Dramatic Works of the Ministry of Culture. A sum of 25,000 lei was allocated in 2008 for purchasing musical works. By comparison, the Top Prize of the patriotic song contest was about 20,000 lei. The international festival “Days of New Music” organized by the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Moldova (UCMM) is the only evidence that the professional musical works are disseminated and put to good account. The aid offered to the UCMM for organizing the festival during the past eight years amounted to about 45,000-50,000 lei, while every symphonic, coral or cameral concert of the 10-12 concerts of every edition should total 10,000-15,000 lei, except the accommodation expenses etc. As there are no orders from the state institutions, the composers do not write such complex genders of music as opera, symphony and ballet. It was the orders from foreign singers and festivals that gave an impetus for creating cameral music works. [ - What changes did the national musical work witness during Moldova’s independence?] - During the last decade of the XX century, the musical work in Moldova saw essential modifications as regards the approach to new compositional conceptions, methods and technology, the new imagistic and thematic universe. These changes helped overcome the local provincial level of compositional work in Moldova. Gradually, the works of the national composers have been accepted and included in the programs of such prestigious performances as: Ensems (Valencia), Aperta Music (Bergamo), Spazio Musica (Cagliari), Varwe Musika (Vienna), the International Week of New Music (Bucharest) and many others. Evidently, these performances included not the works of all our composers, but first of all of the generation of the 80s, of those that accepted the change of the musical paradigm and were able to bring it closer. The artistic processes started to be forgotten in 2001, when retrospective visions were imposed in the culture and arts. Only the projects with propagandistic ideological character were favored. The genuine artistic work was massively substituted by productions of bad taste. The framework left for professional musical work became extremely limited. Nowadays we have young composers with a great creative potential, but the professional music is not adequately supported and they have no other choice than to settle abroad and work there. [ - How would the things develop next year?] - If the situation and, respectively, the attitude towards the artistic work in general and the professional musical work in particular do not change after elections, 2009 could be even harder. Possibly, the financial crisis would reduce the number of concerts, tournaments, festivals abroad and this would have a negative impact on the compositional and interpretative musical work in our country.