Europe in C kicked off in Trieste on November 5th, 2018 with its first transnational meeting with all partner organisations. Collaborators from France, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Italy met in the beautiful port city of Trieste in the Northeast of Italy and began working on the innovative project funded by Erasmus + : Strategic Partnerships for Youth.
On the morning of November 5th, Artistic Director of PIANOANDCO Nathalie Négro opened the conference with a description of her organisation, which she started in 2003 in Marseille, France. Then, Claire Demaison, PIANOANDCO’s European project coordinator, presented the Europe In C project, its principal activities, planning, staff, and partners. Perrine Verstraeten, PIANOANDCO’s administrative officer, then presented the Erasmus+ budget and the financial rules of the program. Finally, Claudio Allocchio from the GARR Consortium introduced LOLA System, an essential component of the project, to the partners. For lunch, the collaborators headed to Birreria Forst, where they shared their first meal together.
After lunch, there was an open forum around the question: What is important for you in this project? All the partners answered this question on post-it’s and put them up on the wall, then explained their main concerns about the project. A musical workshop around "In C" led by Nathalie Négro followed, before the group headed out to visit Trieste’s heights and hills. They ended their tour at the main plaza where they shared a spritz!
The second day, November 6th, opened with casual conversations around morning coffee, followed by a visit to the LOLA recording studio. The group was split into two, one guided by Claudio Allocchio, and the other by Stefano Bonetti from the Tartini Conservatory of Music. The groups used LOLA to communicate with each other, and demonstrated its capacity for high quality audiovisual communication through a workshop around “Clapping Music” by Steve Reich, led by Nathalie Négro.
After the workshop, the groups split up into operational teams: one group focused on the planning and pedagogy dynamics, the other on the budget, and the last focused on the digital platform, LOLA, and technical and digital considerations. Before lunch, most of the partners walked around Trieste, while Anne Alix, director of the documentary on the Europe In C project, and Olivier Stalla interviewed Anastasia Georgaki, director of the LabMAT. Everyone reunited at Birreria Frost for another delicious lunch.
Full of pasta, the collaborators then participated in a collective intelligence workshop led by Claire Demaison. The open forum focused on the question: What do you think must be on the digital platform? The collaborators split into four groups, each focusing on a different topic: instrumental database, youth network, LOLA and technical considerations, resources and research.
The meeting ended with a short focus on the dynamics of collaboration. PIANOANDCO presented the collaborative tools that would be used throughout the project, and explained the project stages coming in the near future. The two days of meetings ended with one final dinner at Birreria Frost, and of course, with some laughs shared around spritzes!
On the morning of November 7th, right before heading to the airport, Nathalie Négro, Anne Alix, and Thibaut Camerlynck, a young musician from Dunkirk, walked around Trieste with cameras to film parts of the city for the documentary, which will be shown during the closing event in Marseille on November 1-2, 2019.
Next on the agenda is Europe In C’s 2nd Transnational Meeting, which is scheduled for March 28-30, 2019, in Athens, Greece!