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Malaysia Travel Guide

LA CHIVA GANTIVA AND ANA ALCAIDE IN RWMF 2019

KUCHING: There is no doubt that Latin and music from the Spanish-speaking world is far outpacing many other genres on the world music stage. There has always been a Latin group thrown in the mix at the Rainforest World Music Festival and at the 22nd edition this year there will be two bands – La Chiva Gantiva from Colombia who will provide an insight into their roots with their sensual, upbeat, danceable and contagious music and Ana Alcaide from Spain who fuses traditional sounds from around Europe and the Mediterranean with the cultural mix of her hometown, Toledo, Spain.

La Chiva Gantiva plays music without borders. Genre bending and adventurous, they’ll make you dance with abandonment with their original combination of rock, funk, hip hop and punk with Colombian rhythms, while preserving a jam mentality and multicultural origins.

Known for their live antics and frontman Rafael Espinel’s empathy towards the audience, La Chiva Gantiva are a treat to see live but also an amazing trip around the world when any of their three studio records play at a Colombian party, at a Belgian bar, or at a Mexican radio station.

At the end of the other musical spectrum is Ana Alcaide, a singer, composer and instrumentalist from Toledo, Spain. Her prime instrument is the nyckelharpa which she came across while studying in Sweden.

Rooted in ancient traditions yet resolutely modern, her compositions deftly blend musical styles from different cultures. From the inspirational backdrop of the city of Toledo, Ana writes and produces her songs, creates new arrangements and adapts the nyckelharpa to ancient melodies that originated in medieval Spain and have travelled throughout the Mediterranean region. But her personal and artistic evolution leads her to conquer new creative fields in the recent years.

In 2016, her fifth album Leyenda reached Top 10 in the WMCE (World Music Charts Europe) as well as on the Transglobal World Music Charts. Leyenda was also on the top of some of the International radios around Australia, Canada, UK, USA and Europe. The album has received reviews from professional critics around the world including Songlines Magazine which awarded Leyenda a 5 Star Review, Top of the World.

Alcaide has presented her music in some of the most important festivals, theatres and venues around Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Morocco, Canada, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Switzerland, South Korea, Uzbekistan, Argentina, Uruguay, and has performed in more than 500 concerts in 4 continents.

Since 2016 she is the Artistic Director of the ‘Toledo World Music Festival’.

The Rainforest World Music Festival takes place on July 12-14 at the Sarawak Cultural Village and is organised by the Sarawak Tourism Board, endorsed by Tourism Malaysia and is supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Youth Sports Sarawak.

LA CHIVA GANTIVA

ANA ALCAIDE - Photo by Ander Olaizola

For further information on tickets, festival activities and logistics, please log on to https://rwmf.net/

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Malaysia Travel Guide

Sarawak’s Great Success At WOMEX

Sarawak’s Great Success At WOMEX

Kuching, Tuesday – Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) and their representatives attended this year’s World Music Expo (WOMEX) in Poland with great success on October 25 to 29 to promote Sarawak’s trademark event, the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF).

Attending this 23rd edition of WOMEX were STB Director of Events Angelina Bateman, Event Manager Sarren Michael and the RWMF Artistic Director Jun Lin Yeoh, promoting the RWMF among the international crowd.

“Sarawak’s unique culture and music truly shone during WOMEX, supporting the fact that there is no better destination for an event celebrating the uniqueness of world music from many different lands than Sarawak and the Rainforest World Music Festival,” said Angelina.

Also attending the Expo local musician and artist Alena Murang and musician Eldrick Udos or ‘Bob’ from the band At Adau, both of whom have performed at the RWMF and are impassioned supporters of maintaining and passing on the Bornean cultural heritage.

They participated in WOMEX with the objective of promoting Sarawak’s cultural music as well as their own brand, while networking with the attending key players in the World Music industry.

“This is a big step that has been given to us from At Adau and mainly Sarawak to build the bridge across the world to help achieve our objective of enlightening the world about the beauty and uniqueness of Sarawakian music, arts and culture,” Bob expressed after participating in the Expo.

Bob also expressed excitement over his opportunity to discuss strategies and future prospects with some big names in world music such as Derek Andrews, Artistic Director of Mundial Montreal and Indigenous Music, Canada,  Kaushik Dutta, CEO/Artistic Director of Song of Soul Festival in Kolkata, India and Mr Alejandro Orellana, Programmer and Coordinator of WOMAD The World’s Festival, Chile.

During this Expo, Angelina Bateman alongside Alena and Bob were interviewed by Drago Vovk of Radio Sraka, one of the most popular radio station broadcasting from Novo Mesto, Slovenia.

The 21st edition of the Rainforest World Music Festival will take place next year on July 13 to 15, at the Sarawak Cultural Village.

Womex 2017

From the right, Angelina Bateman, Bob, Alena Murang and Drago of Radio Sraka during the interview at the booth.

Issued by:

Communications Unit
SARAWAK TOURISM BOARD
T: +6 082-423600  F: +6 082-416700
E: [email protected]

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20th Rainforest World Music Festival Comes To WOMEX 2016

20th Rainforest World Music Festival Comes To WOMEX 2016

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, SPAIN, Thursday – Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) is presenting the 20th installment of its annual event, the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) in World Music Expo (WOMEX) in Santiago de Compostela, Spain from October 20-23.

The RWMF will be celebrating its 20th edition next year at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Damai, on the 14-16 July, with plans on making the Festival celebration bigger than ever.

With the interactive afternoon workshops, the audience has the opportunity to learn, understand and play the indigenous musical instruments from the performers during the day and later on witness and appreciate its beauty during the nightly performances.

As a supporter of all ethnic arts, including the culinary arts, festival-goers are able to taste a variety of local and fusion cuisine from the Village Food Mart.

They will also be able to buy local beaded, woven, painted or carved handicrafts or witness their creation, or even get a traditional hand-tap tattoo at the nearby Tattoo Expo.

The festival, one of its kind in the region, has attracted over 20,000 returning foreign and domestic attendees and has been awarded Songlines’ Top 25 Best International Festivals award six years in a row since 2010.

Datuk Haji Abdul Wahab Bin Aziz, Chairman of Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) said, “We want to stage the uniqueness of world music by bringing in performers from other parts of the world and also to showcase our own ethnic music and to provide them with an opportunity to perform amidst international bands.”

“More innovative ideas are already in the works for our coming 20th Rainforest World Music Festival next year.” said Angelina Bateman, Director of Events Corporate Relations of Sarawak Tourism Board (STB).

While the performance plans remain a surprise, the Board’s efforts in publicizing the Festival are not, with promotions happening at various tourism and travel trade fairs around the world such as ITB Asia in Singapore, World Travel Mart in London, Taipei International Travel Fair in Taiwan and the Asian MICE Forum in Taiwan.

The Festival encourages the appreciation of ethnic art and music from around the world, as well as new interpretations and integration of those arts within modern expression, and it is now brining these values to the world stage.

Updates on the Festival as well as tickets can be found online at the Rainforest World Music Festival official website, www.rwmf.net.

This event is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Malaysia, Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak (MTAC) and endorsed by Tourism Malaysia with Malaysia Airlines Berhad as the presenting sponsor.

rwmf2017-womex

Picture shows Barbara Benjamin Atan of Sarawak Tourism Board (left) with Jo Frost, the Editor of Songlines Magazine UK and Jun Lin (right), Artistic Director of RWMF.

Issued by:

Communications Unit
SARAWAK TOURISM BOARD
T: +6 082-423600  F: +6 082-416700 M: +6019-8188946
E: [email protected]

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