Networking: beyond the concert, a history of meetings and collaborations

Networking: beyond the concert, a history of meetings and collaborations

In over twenty years of activity, the history of APS Musicale Dolci Accenti it wasn't just the story of concerts, festival, record productions or educational projects. It was above all a story of meetings.

Making music, for a cultural association, it certainly means organizing events and offering the public listening opportunities, but it also means building relationships, recognize yourself in the work of others, share ideas, share skills e, above all, create relationships that can last over time.

This is the meaning we have always attributed to the concept of net: not a simple sum of collaborations, but a community of people, associations, institutions, musicians and festivals with which, over the years, relationships based on esteem were created, on friendship and the desire to build new opportunities together.

Dal 2004, year of establishment of the APS Musicale Dolci Accenti, this path developed in parallel with the growth of the association and the ensemble Dolci Accenti, specialized in the performance of ancient music with original instruments.

The first years were characterized by important territorial collaborations, like the one with the cultural association InterArtes of Sassari, with which from 2004 al 2007 we participated in the creation of the Monte Acuto Festival, and subsequently at the Bosa Antica Festival, where concert activities were combined with masterclasses and training sessions.

New relationships were then born with realities such as Music on the Mouths, with the Jana Project association, with musical and cultural associations from Veneto and Sicily, with schools, with conservatories and with entities involved in musical dissemination and the education of young people.

Over time, these collaborations have taken very different forms: from the creation of concerts to the planning of festivals, from record productions to masterclasses, from activities in schools to projects aimed at the elderly and the most vulnerable people.

A significant example is the relationship built with D. Musical High School. A. Azuni of Sassari, which led to the realization of the project Soundtracks between the strings and the production of a CD. Likewise, collaborations with local musical associations and schools have made it possible to bring different generations closer to music, creating opportunities in which musical practice also became an instrument of sociality and growth.

The network, but, has progressively exceeded the borders of Sardinia.

Dolci Accenti ensemble has been invited to important festivals and exhibitions in Italy and abroad: from Romania to Lithuania, from the Czech Republic to Spain, up to the numerous collaborations with festivals and associations in various Italian regions. This led to experiences with organizations such as the Sighisoara Medieval Arts Festival, the Caimari Ancient Music Festival in Mallorca, the Barockada Festival in Romania, il Festival of Baroque Arts nella Repubblica Ceca, the Festival de Música Antigua of Zaragoza, as well as numerous Italian festivals and associations.

Every invitation, every concert and every meeting represented something more than a simple professional opportunity. Often it is precisely from a concert that a new friendship is born, from a friendship to a collaboration, from a collaboration a new project.

It is from this perspective that the path that led to the 2019 at the birth of Note Senza tempo, international ancient music festival organized in Sassari by Dolci Accenti. The festival was not conceived only as a series of concerts, but as a place where artists can meet, scholars, students, institutions and cultural realities coming from different experiences.

Concerts, masterclass, study days, meetings and projects with young people have thus become parts of the same plan: create relationships through music.

A particularly important step was the entrance, In the 2023, in the European network REMA – European Early Music Network, which further expanded the international dimension of the association and inserted the work of Dolci Accenti within a European network dedicated to ancient music.

Even the projects aimed at the new generations were born following this same philosophy.

From the project Once upon a time there was music, supported by the Intesa Sanpaolo Charity Fund and the Sardinia Foundation, all’Cristóbal Galán Academy of Ancient Music, until SYEMF – Sassari Youth Early Music Festival, the network has become a tool for connecting young musicians, teachers, families, schools, conservatories and professionals of ancient music.

The opening of a branch of the Galán Academy in Caltanissetta e, in Veneto, the experience gained through the management of theCity of Thiene Music Institute, today represent a new phase of this journey: a network that no longer limits itself to relating events, but what builds training and planning continuity between different territories.

In this sense, the concept of networking has progressively become an integral part of Dolci Accenti's identity.

The close collaborations over the years with associations such as InterArtes, Study of the Song, Italian Bachian Society, Sicilian Baroque Orchestra, with Italian and international festivals, with REMA, with the conservatives of Cagliari and Sassari, with the Azuni Music High School, with educational institutions, cultural associations and social realities of the territory, they tell a story made up of relationships that have developed over time.

Not all of these experiences had the same form and not all of them became conventions or structured agreements. But this is precisely the value of the network: it does not necessarily arise from a document, it often arises from a human relationship.

A handshake after a concert, a musician inviting another musician, an artistic director listening to a proposal, a young man who meets a teacher, an association that makes its experience available, a festival that decides to share a project: these are the small steps through which, over the years, a network grows.

The balance of this journey is significant. In the 4 in recent years the activities organized by Dolci Accenti have been beyond 250 between concerts, masterclass, musical preparatory workshops and conferences. But the quantitative data, pure important, it does not fully restore the value of what has been built.

The most important result is in fact having created a network of cultural relations that crosses territories, generations and countries, in which music becomes an opportunity for meeting and collaboration.

For a cultural association, networking therefore also means not thinking of yourself as an island.

It means knowing that the quality of a project can grow when it is shared, that a festival can become stronger if it dialogues with other festivals, that a young musician can find new opportunities if he encounters other educational realities, that a concert can be the beginning of something that continues long after the last note ends.

After more than twenty years, we can say that an important part of our history was built exactly like this: from people met, from doors that have opened, from shared projects and relationships that over time have become friendships and collaborations.

And this is probably the most authentic meaning of networking: not simply be connected to each other, ma have something to share and have the desire to continue building it together.