A festival in the African desert, Afghan musicians performing in Germany, old vinyls turning multimedia: the 27th EBU World Music Workshop (WMW) in Thessaloniki, Greece, offered a broad variety of world music projects.

The event was opened on 17 October 2012 by EBU Chair Johannes Theurer (RBB/Germany) and Host Kostas Bliatkas, General Director of ERT3. For EBU Radio producers this day was a unique opportunity to exchange ideas on programmes and projects. Philip Küppers from Franz-Liszt Music University in Germany presented the unique project of Afghan musicians, who went into exile because of the Taliban, now playing together in Germany and hoping to go back to Kabul for a concert (which could be made available on Euroradio).

Preserving African Music

Sigbjorn Nedland (NRK/Norway) presented his project about the digitization of music from Malawi. While journalist Andy Morgan spoke about the "festival in the desert" (http://www.festival-au-desert.org/), taking place in Mali. Despite the current political difficulties, it should still take place next year, with broadcasters invited to attend. Marc Maret, who is in charge of Radio France's music library, presented Radio Vinyle, a multimedia venture. The idea is to invite an artist and comment on vinyls picked from the vaults of Radio France.

Global impact on local music scene in Greece

Dimitris Papadimitriou, ERT Managing Director, and keen artist and musician, spoke about the history of Greek music and the current scene. Globalization has had a real impact on the local music scene, with Greek artists finding it difficult to be signed by internationally-owned record companies.

The WMW takes place every year in connection with Womex, the world-renowned music fair. Concerts are recorded for Euroradio, thanks to a much appreciated cooperation between ERT (Greece), NRK (Norway), RBB (Germany) and BBC (United Kingdom). A broadcast studio is also available for transmissions and reports.