Culture
Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival Interviews: Vieux Farka Touré
By: Emily Votaw
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Vieux Farka Touré is a West African guitar hero from Mali, son of the legendary Ali Farka Touré. He is also one of the performers who submitted a pre-recorded set to the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, which will stream August 21-22 as a fundraiser for Stuart’s Opera House and their arts education efforts. Below, read a Q&A with Touré, conducted via email. Touré is currently in Mali, where former president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was ousted just earlier this week by a military coup.
Emily Votaw: Your performance for the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival is so appreciated. The virtual festival will be a fundraiser for Stuart’s Opera House and their regional arts education efforts. Unfortunately, public schools in this region often cannot provide arts education for elementary and high school students, which is something that Stuart’s works to aid with its abundance of arts education programming. Why is it so important to support arts education in times of crisis, such as the one we currently find ourselves in?
Vieux Farka Touré: Art, and music specifically, is essential for human life. There are doctors, teachers, politicians, construction workers etcetera who provide the ‘how’ for society, but the artists provide the ‘why’. To make art is to be human. It is that simple. I would say that there is very little that is more important than music for a happy life.
EV: Extending from that question, why are the arts so important in times of crisis?
VFT: In times of crises like this, people feel alone. Music heals the soul and makes us feel connected. People are also stressed and music is a great cure for stress. For every occasion in life, in all situations, music is so important, especially when times are hard.
EV: Right now the main way that artists can connect with their audiences is via streaming and remote performance. Have you found there to be any benefits from connecting with your audience that way right now?
VFT: Streaming and remote performances will never be the same as a true live performance with an audience. I have been able to contribute streaming and remote concerts to projects that are important to me such as the United Nations World Ocean Day and Playing For Change.
In times of crises like this, people feel alone. Music heals the soul and makes us feel connected. People are also stressed and music is a great cure for stress. For every occasion in life, in all situations, music is so important, especially when times are hard. – Vieux Farka Touré
EV: Have you composed any new works over the summer, and if so, has the COVID-19 crisis impacted your writing at all?
VFT: Yes, I am always composing new songs here and there. I would not say that COVID has impacted my writing, except that I have some more time to think and to write. I am not writing about the crisis, though.
Early on in the COVID-19 crisis, the 2020 Nelsonville Music Festival announced its cancellation due to the infectious disease outbreak. In its place, Ohio University School of Media Arts & Studies Director Josh Antonuccio and Nelsonville Music Festival Executive Director Tim Peacock created the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, an online presentation of the popular festival, which is being produced by Stuart’s Opera House, WOUB Public Media, the Scripps College of Communication and the Ohio University School of Media Arts and Studies, in partnership with OU Performing Arts, the Ohio University Center for Entrepreneurship, and the Haden DeRoberts Foundation. Under the direction of Antonuccio, Ohio University students and recent graduates are on location around the region with school faculty Andie Walla and Brian Plow filming performances for the virtual fundraiser supporting Stuart’s Opera House. WOUB producers Adam Rich and Evan Shaw are providing post-production on the project, which will go live on Stuart’s official YouTube page August 21-22.