The Spirit of Fès is the international component of the celebrated Fès Festival of World Sacred Music and the Rencontres de Fès Colloquium. Its mission is to transport the message of peace beyond Morocco in order to broaden the dialogue begun in Fès about Art, Culture, and Spirituality as a humane response to pressing global issues. In 2001, the United Nations honored the Festival as one of seven events in the world that are the "Unsung Heroes of Dialogue" having reached across the "divide" to the "other."

The Spirit of Fès programs nurture this core value of the Festival and Colloquium through a series of lectures, discussions, workshops, concerts and touring programs presented in collaboration with like-minded organizations throughout the world to engage artists, scholars, spiritual leaders and a cross generational public in long-term exchanges. Partnering organizations include: the Dijon Festival of Sacred Music (France), the Festival de Musicas Religiosas Del Mundo, Girona (Spain), Lyons Festival (France), and World Music Institute (New York) among others.

The Spirit of Fès Tour

In the United States, The Spirit of Fès, Inc. in partnership with Columbia Artists Management, LLC and Jungli Billi Productions launched the groundbreaking Spirit of Fès 2004 U.S. National Tour (www.SpiritofFes.com) in eleven states and seventeen cities across the United States. The Tour was developed to advance the Fès Festival's humanitarian goals to promote international and intercultural understanding. This was an unprecedented event, where Algerian Jewish vocalist Francoise Atlan, accompanied by Lebanese-American percussionist Jamey Haddad and Moroccan oudist Farid El Foulahi, with African American gospel ensemble The Anointed Jackson Sisters, the Moroccan Hadra des Femmes de Taroudant, Israeli Gabriel Meyer and Palestinian Yacoub Hussein, collaborated together to engage and educate American audiences by sharing music that they hold sacred.

The specially created film, Sawt-e-Sarmad: The Sound that Intoxicates Man, directed by Terrance Grace, opened each concert. The richly textured work which, The New York Times claims, is "…an impressionistic, rapturous swirl", layers color and sound to set the mood for the live music presentation by contextualizing the Fès Festival and Rencontres de Fès Colloquium for attending audiences. The Fès Festival's message will travel further to new audiences throughout the U.S. and other parts of the world as Sawt-e-Sarmad is presented at film festivals over the course of the year.

A full complement of programs enriched the concert presentations at educational and cultural institutions in key cities. These programs included children's concert programs, master classes for university students with artists, and discussions on vital world issues titled "In the Spirit of Fès: A Vision for Peace." The panel discussions-held at the Library of Congress, University of California at Berkeley, Harvard University, University of Illinois, University of Texas, among others-were inspired by the Rencontres de Fès Colloquium. Multi-disciplinary panelists, part of past Fès Colloquiums, participated with local city residents to stimulate further, more regionally specific public conversations.

Starting at The U.S. Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the Tour proceeded to the Hampton, Virginia Arts Commission; University of Arizona, Tucson; Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, Arizona; University of California, Irvine; UCLALive University of California, Los Angeles; Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, University of California, Davis; Cal Performances, University of California, Berkeley; World Music, Boston; University of Maine at Orono; Capitol Center for the Arts, Concord, New Hampshire; New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark; Bardavon 1869 Opera House, Poughkeepsie, New York; Krannert Center, University of Illinois, Urbana; Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, Georgia State University, Atlanta; Savannah Music Festival, Savannah, Georgia; and ended at the University of Texas, Austin.

The more than 30,000 American audiences who experienced the Tour's programs responded with rousing cheers and standing ovations at every single concert. From all accounts, including the overwhelming media coverage, the Tour was a resounding success and had a large impact on those who experienced its programs. Below are additional comments from leading presenting partners and media:

"There have been but a precious few times in my career in which the capacity for performance to move one's spirit has come through as deeply, as powerfully, and as surprisingly, as in the case of the Spirit of Fes project. Knowing that one is in the midst of experiencing something truly important -- something that reaches deep below the surface differences of politics, religion, cultural norms, and belief systems -- is a sensation that we seek, often passionately, but that we rarely find. The Spirit of Fes project is a beautiful conduit to that experience -- that sensation of knowing -- and one for which I will always be grateful to have had the privilege of bringing to our community."
Mike Ros, Director, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"The Fes Festival holds a unique and uniquely important position in the world as a cultural entity seriously forging links and building bridges through the widest possible interpretation of spirituality. Never has it been more needed. UCLA Live is proud to have played a part in the first American Tour by the festival and will be proud to participate in any return visit."
David Sefton, Director, UCLALive, University of California, Los Angeles

"Part concert tour, part peace mission, the Spirit of Fes Festival started its 17-city itinerary on Saturday
night at the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress…" and got, "…a staid audience on its feet…"
Jon Pareles, The New York Times.

"The touring edition of the Fes Festival opened with a quietly spectacular performance: Yacoub Hussein, a Palestinian Sufi, and Gabriel Meyer, an Israeli son of a rabbi, standing side by side, raptly joined in prayer. While the interlaced cadences of the Islamic prayer and the Hebrew "Ein Keloheinu" had an austere beauty, Meyer's davening while Hussein intoned Arabic verses was a moment of grace, dignity and emotional uplift that will probably not be matched this year… the rest of the two-hour distillation of the annual Moroccan festival…was a thoughtfully engaging showcase of women's voices from three continents singing in Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions…… The evening's finale brought this home, as all the performers took the stage, joining voices for a Native American verse translated into Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish and English. Watching the Jacksons and the Moroccans teach each other dance moves as Hussein spun around the stage reinforced the festival's plea for peace; for a few hours, the borders, bombs and troubles of the world were put aside, replaced by love and joy."
Steve Mirkin, Variety, March 17th, 2004

"On this night, music was powerful enough to cross boundaries, showing that cultural and religious differences are simply lines in the sand."
Tad Hendrickson, New Jersey Star Ledger, March 29th, 2004

The Fès Festival's North American based Spirit of Fès, Inc. is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, cultural and educational organization committed to extending the humanitarian goals of the Fès Festival and Colloquium in North America. Columbia Artists Management, LLC (www.cami.com) is an international leading performing arts management agency headquartered in New York City with worldwide offices. New York City based Jungli Billi Productions (www.Junglibilli.com) initiates, develops and produces multidisciplinary arts projects-film, television, theater, music and dialogue, with educational and cultural organizations and artists in North America and around who share common values. The three organizations are currently in the process of planning the second edition of the Tour for Spring 2006.

Spirit of Fès, North America

The Spirit of Fès was founded in 2002 as a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit, nonpolitical, cultural and educational organization in order to extend the mission of the Fès Festival and Colloquium to North America. Through dialogue and cultural programming, the organization encourages a respect for the plurality and uniqueness of all cultures. At its core, the Spirit of Fès seeks to build a global citizenship through the peaceful co-existence of communities bound together by common goals and aspirations.

The Spirit of Fès actively seeks out partnerships and collaborations with other like-minded not-for-profit institutions. For further information please contact:

The Spirit of Fès, North America
Zeyba Rahman, Director,
244 Fifth Avenue, Suite B287
New York, New York 10001-7604
Tel/Fax 212.969.8423
ZRahman@fesfestival.com

Columbia Artists Management, Inc.

Columbia Artists Management Inc. (CAMI), formed in 1930, is an international leader in managing the touring activities of instrumental soloists, opera singers, conductors, classical music ensembles, orchestras, dance companies, popular and theatrical attractions, and fine arts media productions. The company continues its seventh decade with growth in established and new areas of the performing arts.
CAMI's distinguished list of managers includes those specializing in the careers of classical instrumentalists, conductors, and opera singers and the touring of orchestras and instrumental ensembles. In addition, CAMI has taken a strong role in the discovery and career development of an important generation of young artists throughout the world.
For further information, please contact:

Columbia Artists Management, Inc.
Jean Jacques Cesbron, Executive Vice President
165 West 57th Street,
New York, New York 10019-2276
Tel: 212.841.9564; Fax: 212.841.9552
JCesbron@cami.com