Fez Festival loses its Artistic Director
Blog: The View from Fez - 21 October 2009
By: Helen Ranger
The View from Fez has just learned that Gerard Kurdjian, Artistic Director of the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music, has resigned.
Gerard Kurdjian at the 2009 Fes FestivalGerard was a popular and much respected member of the festival team, so his departure has shocked festival fans.
"It's a sad day for Fez," says former UK representative Mary Finnigan. "Gerard's energy, his deep musical knowledge and his vibrant personality made a lasting impression on everyone who worked with him".
Except for one edition in 2006, Gerard has curated the festival since it started in 1994. During his 15 years in the role, he has brought some of the greatest musicians on the world stage to Fez - including Ravi Shankhar, William Christie, Youssou N'Dour, Miriam Makeba, Jessie Norman, Salif Keita, Julian Weiss and Gilberto Gil - to name but a small selection.
Gerard's decision to leave follows a string of resignations that started with the departure of the festival founder, Faouzi Skali, in 2007. Since then, there have been three people in the Director General role - Naima Lahbil, Fatima Sadiqi and the present incumbent, Abdelhak Azzouzi. North American Director Zeyba Rahman's resignation in 2007 was followed by Financial Director Agnes Amrani, Sponsorship Director Amina Fassi Fehri, Production Director Ali Diouri, Communications Director Laila Sebbane and several other festival workers including Nicolas Guillou, Fabrice Villain, Hicham Ait Mbarak and Mary Finnigan.
Comment on the original post at The View from Fez
The article above originally appeared on The View from Fez; we selected it for our BlogSherpa program. We sign up the best travel bloggers we can find and publish their articles on lonelyplanet.com. Good for us, good for them – our bloggers gain new readers and make a bit of cash. Want to know more or be a part of BlogSherpa? Visit the BlogSherpa page on lplabs.com
