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CEO
Frank Klaffs
CEO
Michael von Petrykowski
Director of Communications
Paul Bräuer
Piranha Arts turned 30 in 2017, read below about the full story from the first concert we put on in Berlin in January 27 1987 with Memphis Soul legend Rufus Thomas, the original "Funky Chicken", and from founding the label Piranha Records, all the way through three decades of coining the term “World Music”, founding and producing WOMEX as well as – recently – Classical:NEXT, to our research and consulting activities of today – as well as our newest endeavor: being the organizer of Berlin’s million strong street carnival and fest. Find out about our latest activities in our newsletter and have a look at just the last one of 30 exciting years in our multimedia album.
Piranha Arts is an independent creative company made in Berlin since 1987. From the very start, music has been our driving force. Our aim is to increase the value of crossing borders – be they cultural, political or commercial. Drawing from 30 years of experience as cultural innovators, technical developers, curators, partners and multipliers, the Piranha Arts tree now has six dynamic branches.
It all started with the Piranha Records, introducing new sounds & artists from the world to the world; and Piranha Events, staging cutting-edge festivals and providing programming and production services for events worldwide. International music networking events such as WOMEX and Classical:NEXT came next. Latest additions are Piranha Research, re-thinking and re-searching the relationship between music & IT; and Piranha Arts Consultancy, providing international expertise for a diverse range of partnerships, such as Atlantic Music Expo [Cabo Verde], Sound of the Xity [China], Primera Linea [Cuba], Circulart [Colombia], Porto Musical [Brazil], and more. In 2016 Karneval der Kulturen joined the Piranha branches as a new action field of Piranha Arts.
The independent shareholder company is legally represented by CEOs Frank Klaffs and Michael von Petrykowski, and supervised by a board consisting of "first generation" Piranhas Christoph Borkowsky (President), Brigitte Bieg and Ben Mandelson.
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Director of Communications
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Director
Anna Mechelhoff
Piranha Events specialise in the conception and production of cultural events with a focus on music and international cultural exchange. We have developed a strong expertise in the areas of programme consultation for small- to large-scale events as well as developing our own cutting-edge festivals such as HeimatKlänge, The Nights of Ramadan and Club Contemporary Classical C3.
Be it in Berlin or elsewhere, we know both the local and global players – not least through our activities across the Piranha Arts network – and can guarantee professional all-round services with a high standard of programme competence, flexibility and budget responsibility.
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Director
Project Manager
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Director
Christoph Borkowsky
Piranha Records is an independent Berlin-based label and publishing house with more than 150 album releases and 1,200 copyrights to date, introducing new sounds and artists from the world to the world under the triad of globalisation, tradition & subcultural understanding.
Physically and digitally, the Piranha label is distributed internationally as part of the !K7 network while SMV Schacht Musikverlage and its set-up of companies and sub-publishing partners administers and protects the Piranha publishing rights worldwide.
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Director
Label Manager
Label Communications
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Director
Alexander Walter
"The most important international professional market of world music
of every kind. This international fair brings together professionals from
the worlds of folk, roots, ethnic and traditional music and also includes
concerts, conferences and documentary films. It contributes to
networking as an effective means of promoting music and culture of all
kinds across frontiers."
UNESCO Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity
Since 1994, WOMEX has been travelling all across Europe, affirming the value of networking across borders, be they musical, political, cultural or commercial. Growing out of the 80s world music movement, it is now the most international music conference around. Recent stop-overs included Thessaloniki (2012), Cardiff (2013), Santiago de Compostela (2014 and 2016), Budapest (2015) and Katowice (2017). The 2017 edition saw 2,600 professionals (including 303 performing artists) from 90 countries representing 1,400 companies and 700 exhibitors.
From 24–28 October 2018, WOMEX will hold its 24nd edition in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain.
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Director
Head of Production
Showcases
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Director
Jennifer Dautermann
"This is not just a conference that happens once a year. This is now a movement" Anthony Sargent CBE, CEO, Luminato Festival, Toronto Chair, International Society for the Performing Arts
Classical:NEXT is the annual, international professionals’ forum for all sectors and all approaches in the world of classical and art music. A unique platform for networking across all sectors, for exploring new artistic ideas and for developing pioneering solutions – for the love, and the future, of classical music.
The 2018 edition in Rotterdam saw 1,300 art music professionals representing 750 companies from 48 countries from all over the world, growing within just a few years into the world`s most important classical and art music meeting.
In 2019 Classical:NEXT will continue its partnership with the leading Classical Dutch player De Doelen for another edition held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 15 - 18 May 2019.
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Director
General Manager
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Director
Christine Semba
We provide our international expertise for a diverse range of partnerships worldwide. Piranha Arts Consultancy is about the internationalisation of your local creative initiatives, cultural export, know-how transfer, mobility of artists, makers & shakers across borders, promoting cultural diversity and more.
We produce and consult on events of different shapes on four continents. The record ranges from entire showcase festivals, conferences, and cultural markets to other forms of networking platforms and capacity building workshops as well as education and IT projects. Partners include cities, national governments and the European Union as well as NGOS, government development agencies and private operators such as event producers, networks, festivals, universities, arts councils, foundations and the UNESCO.
With our WOMEX World Tour we consult and co-produce a network of partner events, which presents leading music platforms to meet local players in Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, China and Latin America: Atlantic Music Expo AME [Cabo Verde], Sound of the Xity SOTX [China], Primera Linea [Cuba], Circulart [Colombia] and Porto Musical [Brazil].
LusAfro, another project of Piranha Arts Consultancy, triggers musical exchanges between lusophone Africa and Germany, featuring workshops, studio sessions and live presentations of international artists and professionals in Praia, Cabo Verde and Germany.
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Director
Sebastian Bürg (project coordinator, LusAfro project)
Anna Rees (Atlantic Music Expo)
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Director Karneval der Kulturen
Nadja Mau
Piranha Arts is the operator of Berlin’s Karneval der Kulturen since 2016 – four days full of music, dance and enjoyment. Karneval der Kulturen brings out the diversity of Berlin every year and stands for an open and intercultural society. Culture can be many things in this festival: from culinary adventures to colourful costumes and masks from all over the world to dance, music and street theatre. Karneval der Kulturen attracts over a million visitors and has become a key event in the cultural calendar of Berlin.
Karneval der Kulturen 2018 took place from 18-21 May. The next edition will take place from 7-10 June 2019.
Karneval der Kulturen in numbers:
Karneval der Kulturen 2018 was realised through the commitment of the Karneval groups, an experienced team of staff, the operator Piranha Arts AG, the Berlin partners Berliner Sparkasse, Berliner Wasserbetriebe and GSG Berlin and the support of the senate department for Culture and Europe.
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It was January 27, 1987, when Memphis Soul legend Rufus Thomas, the original "Funky Chicken", entered the stage for his concert at Berlin's Metropol at Nollendorfplatz - the first production under the Piranha company name, the first of many more to come. Had it been even the slightest bit more successful, Piranha might be a soul label only today.
Some months after the funky ignition the company was formally founded and the first Piranha record, PIR 1 "Beat! Apartheid" was released, the first pressing - oops! - still without blank grooves between the tracks.
"HeimatKlänge" world music festival - drawing up to 100.000 visitors a year during its heyday - was founded in 1988. 1990 saw the first edition of the World Wide Music Days that evolved into the travelling expo WOMEX in 1994 - the single common fixed date in the schedule of all people involved in global music worldwide today.
We programmed Jüdische Kulturtage Berlin's "Ballroom" for years - Allen Ginsberg backed by The Klezmatics in 1993! With Clubs United from 1994 we organized the mother of all "Lange Nächte" ( Long Nights ). We had a physical shop, took part in Karneval der Kulturen from 2000 on, in Fete de la Musique from 2001. We made Pope Benedict and his altar girls and boys sing and dance at Weltjugendtag 2005 in Köln, co-founded Porto Musical in Recife, took up business with China, had a research joint venture with Fraunhofer Institut.
In 2009 we widened our horizens to the world of classical music with C3 festival, founded Classical:NEXT in 2011 (5 editions to date with more than 1,200 having attended the last one in Rotterdam), established Piranha Consult in 2012 - and in 2016 as last edition to our activities to date took on the entire production of Karneval der Kulturen, Berlin’s million strong street carnival and fest.
And here we are, have a look at just the last one of 30 crazy years in our multimedia album - and move on into the next 30 years. Here's to you - our fellow travellers on the global music trail. It's always a pleasure!
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