The 21st edition of the Traiettorie festival, internationally recognized as one of the main Italian initiatives in the domain of contemporary music, was carried out once again without contribution from the Ministry for Arts and Culture.

The members of the Music Commission - composed by Umberto Scarpetta, Antonino Marcellino, Antonio Frigè, Vincenzo De Paola, Piero Rattalino, Marco Tutino, Gioacchino De Padova and Filippo Bianchi - "having examined the project [Traiettorie] as a whole, judged [...] that it didn't meet the quality standards required by the article 5 of the Ministerial Decree dated 9th November 2007".

Among the 359 state-funded institutions (348 in 2010), for a total amount of   57.051.548 (increasing with respect to the previous year, in which a total of   54.694.690 was granted), grants given in 2011 to organizations working in the field of contemporary music are almost inexistent, with the exception of Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia, that received a grant of   574.730 (more than the previous year, in which it received a grant of   551.690).

Less than 1,5% of the total amount was assigned to contemporary music.

The Ministerial Decree dated 9-11-2007, regulating the assignment of grants, orders to "favour artistic quality and constant renewal of the national musical offer, promoting innovation in planning also through the employment of new technologies and through the support to the various musical languages that belong to different spheres and cultures, with special attention to the contemporary"; to "promote quality, innovation, research, experimentation of new techniques and styles in musical production, also favouring generational turnover"; to "facilitate the commission of new works and the increase in value of contemporary Italian and European repertoire"; to favour co-production with international organizations. Considering this, it is clear that the noble objectives of the decree have been, once again, utterly disregarded.

The vast majority of the initiatives that the Music Commission chose to support - unrelated to any contemporary language, very often selected without any objective, meritocratic evaluation, and often devoid of any European perspective - are the tangible reflection of the inadequacy and non-compliance of the Commission with the ministerial guidelines.

The Traiettorie festival has always been pursuing with consistency and intellectual rigour high-profile and European-level cultural objectives in the field of experimental contemporary music. Nevertheless, it will continue not to receive a right and proper contribution from the Ministry for Arts and Culture.

This exclusion takes on an even more serious and paradoxical meaning, considering that in 2011 Traiettorie received the XXX "Franco Abbiati" Music Critics Award for best initiative, due to the merits acquired during its twenty years activity in promoting the musical language of our time. Established by the Italian Music Critics Association, the award is the most prestigious recognition assigned every year in Italy, in the field of music, to the best events and protagonists of the national scene. The awarding report states: "Born with purposes of sound research supported by the encouragement of Luigi Nono and Claudio Abbado, the festival reached its 20th edition with a progressively reinforced image thanks to its commitment in following the production of new composers, with performances always characterized by a stylistic sign of great weight."

Considering unacceptable and offensive the exclusion of Fondazione Prometeo from the state-funded musical institutions, our foundation will do its utmost to file a petition to the President of the Republic. Besides, the news will be widely spread through our information channels, in order that everybody in Europe becomes acquainted with this cultural drift and understands the serious and objective responsibilities of the Commission towards one of the main Italian festivals of modern and contemporary music.
All the artists who participated in the last editions of the festival (such as Klangforum Wien, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, Neue Vocalsolisten, Accroche Note, Ensemble Court-circuit, Ensemble Sillages, Österreichisches Ensemble für Neue Musik, Divertimento Ensemble, MDI Ensemble, Ex Novo Ensemble, Andrea Lucchesini, Irvine Arditti, Hae-Sun Kang, Nicolas Hodges, Pascal Gallois, Rohan De Saram, Garth Knox and others) will be adequately informed, as their presence wasn't able to satisfy the quality criteria of the Commission.

The choices of the Music Commission prove that in our country, beyond propaganda, there have been no political will nor cultural project directed towards the development of the music of our time, whose elements of innovation, experimentation and research are essential for anyone who cares for the future of music and for the new generations of musicians. The fact is that anything extraneous to trivial entertainment and commercial music is simply ignored.

This is understandable for private profit-oriented subjects, but not for a State, which through its structures and operative functions has the duty to safeguard art and research music and to invest in it, even more so in the most advanced linguistic forms.

This is what happens in the vast majority of civilized countries, but not in Italy, also due to the choices of a Music Commission that has the responsibility, with its action, to widen even more the chasm of the differences between Italy and the rest of Europe.

Wishing that the new wind risen in Italy will interest in some way also the music culture of our country, we appeal to the Minister for Arts and Culture Prof. Lorenzo Ornaghi in order that he intervene to put an end to this sad Italian story.

It is possible to consult the list of the initiatives funded in 2011 in the document released by the Ministry.