ab (06.02.2009, 18:10): Dem Barock-Ensemble La Petite Bande soll es an den finanziellen Kragen gehen. Bitte hier durch eine Unterschrift unterstützen!
satie (06.02.2009, 19:59): Ich habe sofort unterzeichnet. Und ich kann nur darum bitten, möglichst viel Werbung dafür zu machen. Es ist eine Schande, wenn ein solches Ensemble weggespart wird, während man den Banken Milliarden in den Rachen schmeißt. Solche Sachen sind traurige Beispiele dafür, dass das Wort "wertvoll" nur noch eine ökonomische Bedeutung zu haben scheint.
cellodil (06.02.2009, 21:30): Da möchte ich am liebsten platzen für Wut. Und der Gedanke an die Milliarden, die in irgendwelchen schwarzen Banklöchern verschwinden, der drängt sich tatsächlich auf. Ein Skandal!
Habe auch gleich unterschrieben. Hoffentlich nutzt die Unterschriftenaktion was.
Liebe Grüße
Sabine (empört)
HenningKolf (06.02.2009, 22:20): Habe gerade ebenfalls unterzeichnet. Wer nichts mehr für Kultur ausgeben mag, muss sich nicht wundern, wenn sich mehr und mehr allgemeine Kulturlosigkeit in weitestem Sinne breitmacht......
Gruß Henning
nikolaus (06.02.2009, 22:46): Dito
Nikolaus.
LazarusLong (13.02.2009, 12:26): Habe mich auch angeschlossen
Frank
ab (31.03.2009, 10:11): Soeben folgende Nachricht erhalten:
Dear Friends who signed the petition "Save La Petite Bande",
A very warm thank to all of you who have signed our petition! Thanks to your support, La Petite Bande has been able to mention in its defence of mid-February to the Commission the 15.000 protest votes at that moment, from more than 100 countries. A selection of your personal comments has been added to this document.
The Minister will take his final decision on the subventions in the coming weeks. We would like to keep you informed about this decision and its consequences for the future of La Petite Bande. Because of the very strict legislation on privacy, this mail is the only one we can send to you all.
Therefore : if you want to know what the Minister will decide and what consequences it will bear on the future of La Petite Bande, please subscribe here to be informed by Sigiswald himself about the result of our petition. It's our only way to keep you informed.
The petition will stay on line in the coming weeks; the number of signatories has now reached 20.000! And more signatures are welcomed! Maybe still some more of your friends might like to sign?
As a sign of special thanks, Sigiswald Kuijken sends you this personal message :
"Your support and sympathy have moved me deeply. It shows clearly the invaluable need for music and the arts which surpass daily life. Musica Medicina Dolorum! Our world needs this healing power"
It will be a pleasure for us to continue to inform you on the developments in the near future.
With warm regards,
Esther Visser, initiator of the petition & Sigiswald Kuijken
ab (09.05.2009, 20:34): Eine weitere Nachricht bekommen: A message from Sigiswald Kuijken, artistic director of La Petite Bande
Dear Sir/Madam,
Dear La Petite Bande sympathiser,
Rejoice with me: today I am able to inform you that on 24 April, Belgium’s minister of Culture Bert Anciaux awarded an annual subsidy of € 590,000 to La Petite Bande for the next three years (2010 to 2012). The extremely negative and tendentious preliminary advice the Artistic Evaluation Committee gave him in early February thus missed its intended goal: La Petite Bande’s survival is no longer threatened, for the time being, thanks to this ministerial decision.
There is no doubt that your explicit appreciation and support – and that of so many others with and through you – via the ‘savelapetitebande’ petition made a huge contribution to the minister’s favourable decision. Your sympathy and unanimity had already filled my heart with gratitude, and now they’ve even produced tangible results! I feel very lucky to have this harmonious, organic exchange of energies.
I was also happy that many of you clearly made it known that excellence in culture is close to your hearts. It was thus very significant and beneficent that your call for respectful conservation of our communal heritage sounded so loudly at this opportunity.
However, even after this subsidy redistribution, the financial future of La Petite Bande can be called anything but secure:
>From 2003 through 2009, La Petite Bande has applied for a yearly subsidy of € 700,000 to carry out its planned artistic projects; the effective subsidy during all these years amounted to € 600,000 per year (increased by a slight adjustment to the index). Now that its annual subsidy has fallen to € 590,000, this € 100,000 annual shortfall will amount to € 110,000 per year. In 2009 alone, this recurrent budget deficit has already resulted in having to cancel two planned Haydn CD recordings: the ‘Paukenmesse’ and a recording of three concerti which was to finish an already-begun project. There are other plans underway for the future, which assume considerable budgetary reserves (such as the research and staging of a Neapolitan ‘intermezzo’ by J.A. Hasse). The continuation of our highly successful Bach Cantata series for ACCENT is also an operation which absolutely must not be shelved.
It is clearly necessary that we create ADDITIONAL RESERVES in order to avoid cutting any more projects and to get through our artistic agenda.
Encouraged and inspired by the overwhelming international response to the on-line petition ‘savelapetitebande.com’, on 6 April 2009, after due consideration, we decided to start a foundation. The new Foundation ‘SUPPORT LA PETITE BANDE’ has its office at Vital Decosterstraat 72, B-3000 Leuven. Through the foundation we can develop a way to be less dependent on increasingly uncertain government subsidies, and to be able to handle any financial shortfalls without having to compromise our artistic objectives.
A great many people, like you, have subtly sensed what is important to La Petite Bande in its work; accordingly, we hope that we can count on such kindred spirits as you for some devoted support.
I wish to continue steering my independent course with La Petite Bande in the music world – indeed, for me it’s not about ‘surviving’ by adopting a more ‘commercial’ mentality. On the contrary: any support given to La Petite Bande is totally disinterested and above all reveals the particular human and artistic like-mindedness of the supporter, who recognises him- or herself in the essence of the Petite-Bande way of thinking.
Thus, I am frankly and explicitly appealing to your willingness to support us financially in this context through the Foundation “SUPPORT LA PETITE BANDE”. This support could be a substantial one-time donation, or it could follow a more sustainable formula, which we would work out together (a tax deduction is currently not an option; obviously, publication of names of benefactors is possible).
As a sign of gratitude for your support, I’d like to offer you the opportunity to meet with me (and the musicians) personally at events organised especially for them.
All donors are welcome at the first of these events, a concert of Bach cantatas on Sunday 6 September 2009 in the lovely Gothic church of St. Martin in Kortrijk (Belgium). On the day before (Saturday 5 September), I’ll give one or more detailed introductions to the programme, with an opportunity for dialogue (possibly in Dutch, French, English or German!).
Hoping for your generous reaction on this request, I’ld like to give you the bank-account number for the new Foundation ‘Support La Petite Bande’:
IBA: BE76 7350 2267 9695 BIC: KREDBEBB
Please bear in mind that we need to cover every year the sum of € 110 000.
For more information or to communicate about this new initiative, you can always write to the sender of this e-mail (that is, the webmaster, easily reached using the ‘reply’ key: he collects everything and passes it on).
In the name of what binds us in deep artistic experience, I send my most cordial good wishes; I gratefully look forward to getting to know you better.