Taipei hosts the 15th Migration Music Festival (流浪之歌音樂節) this weekend, with folk musicians from a variety of cultures coming to perform.
This year features an all-female line up of 11 acts from nine countries. The theme, “I’m not in my room” is a nod to Virginia Woolf, who famously said “a room of one’s own” was a necessity for women writers to flourish. The festival celebrates creative women breaking boundaries in the world of music.
Trees Music and Art’s (大大樹音樂圖像) artistic director Chung She-fong (鍾適芳) says she knew all the artists personally and wanted to create an event where they could all gather and share their talent.
Photo Courtesy of Trees Music and Art
“We hope to encourage female artists through this event,” Chung says. “Women face more obstacles as artists.”
Many of the invited performers took the stage at a press conference yesterday. Flamenco-inspired notes emerge from the guitar of Portuguese singer-songwriter Lula Pena, as her deep, husky voice holds the audience captive.
The Norwegian and Swedish trio of Golbma Jiena sing traditional pieces in the Sami language in three-part harmony, playing with glottal stops and contorting their bodies to produce other-worldly sounds.
The festival will not only showcase music rarely heard in Taiwan, but also screen short documentaries which tell stories of women who undergo great sacrifices to make music. Open discussions and storytelling will follow each screening.
The main performance space will be Zhongshan Hall (中山堂), with performances also held in small studios and cafes around Taipei, Chung says.
This year’s line up includes acts from as far afield as Somaliland and Scandinavia, as well as Taiwan’s own Aboriginal singer-songwriter Panai Kusui.
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