The sixth installment of the Aboriginal Music Performers Camp (AMP Camp) is in the books. The week included discussions about festivals, music placements, marketing, touring, conferencing, and radio along with a number of workshops to help the participants improve their songwriting, musicianship, and performances skills. The participants made the trip to the Falcon Trails Resort from Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia and the instructors brought close to 300 years of music industry experience to the table.
Manitoba Music’s Aboriginal Music Program is pleased to announce the list of invited artists for the 2012 edition of the Aboriginal Music Performers Camp (AMP Camp). A total of 42 strong applications were received, making the adjudication process both interesting and difficult.
Earlier this year, Canadian Heritage announced that the Canadian Musical Diversity fund was being cut, the biggest casuality being the Canada Council Specialized Music Recording Grant. This grant allowed artistically driven projects to get support for making albums. Many jazz, concert music, folk and roots, and experimental artists received funding through this fund. Often, these are projects that don't have the sales projections to justify funding from FACTOR, but were designated by the Canada Council juries as artistically excellent and valuable to the artistic culture of Canada. Heritage Minister James Moore claimed that the cuts were driven by consulations with the music industry.
This week, a committee of Canadian Heritage has recommended reversing the cuts to the Canadian Musical Diversity fund that were planned for April 2010. The MPs of the standing committee on Canadian heritage said they could find no compelling justification for the cut. New Democrat heritage critic Charlie Angus (and musician) has been driving the effort to have the cuts reversed.
