Nino Díaz: “Canarias is one of the most talented places in the world of music”
The Berlin cold in December is not the most painful, but it is still a direct dagger to the marrow of an islander. Nino Díaz (Tías, 1963), musician and businessman, has lived in the German capital for almost 7 years, a place he moved to after a long stay in Barcelona. There he reached the higher degrees of Clarinet, Composition and Orchestra Direction by the Conservatory of Barcelona. And also the degree of Cultural Management by the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona. A total of 33 years outside Lanzarote, 30 of them dedicated to cultural management, which have validated him to be an academic of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
The roots of Nino Díaz are set by three variables around Culture. His time is divided into three blocks: “The first, a musical publishing house that I started 12 years ago and has more than 700 edited works by authors from 52 countries; the second block is my musical work, divided between orchestra conducting and composition; and the third is the Nino Díaz Foundation. ”
THE FOUNDATION
The germ of the Nino Díaz Foundation comes from old. “It’s an idea that came to me 15 years ago, but that for various reasons I could not carry out. But during all this time the idea was still there, and even the statutes were drafted in Barcelona more than ten years ago, “he explains.
“I saw that now was the time and that Lanzarote was the place, and it was also the way to return to the island on a regular basis.” After just one year in operation, the Foundation has earned Nino Díaz “not to lose contact with Lanzarote and continue to help as much as possible to transform it”.
The work of the Foundation is totally disinterested. He currently has three projects underway. One of them is the ‘Class_ik Lanzarote Cycle’, which brings to the island a monthly concert “to offer people the chance to enjoy this type of music, which on the island is not very common”. The idea was to make a stable cycle throughout the year, and confirms that “it is working quite well, with an average increase of 4% per month.”
The second one is the magazine ‘Kratz’, which in German means “scratch”. During the year 2018, two numbers have been edited, directed by the musicologist Marina Hervás, and in its pages you can read famous contemporary signatures of music and philosophy.
FALLA ENSEMBLE
The third of the Foundation’s projects is the one that brought Nino Díaz to Lanzarote for the last time at the beginning of December. “The idea of the Falla Ensemble had been hanging around my head for a long time.” The official presentation of the project was on December 1 at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium. 151 people attended the event, on a day when four important musical events coincided in Lanzarote. “The result was better than we had thought, we left very happy and eager to continue working.”
Of the seven musicians of Falla Ensemble, four are from Lanzarote. “The idea is to leave Lanzarote to the world, and continue to transform society little by little, putting our two cents, but from the freedom to work independently,” summarizes Diaz the declaration of intentions of the project.
From now Falla Ensemble will begin to spin around the world: Europe, Japan, China, Korea …
MUSICAL LEVEL OF CANARY ISLANDS
“In all sincerity: Canarias is one of the most talented musical sites in the world, and certainly in other artistic fields as well,” says Díaz bluntly, adding: “Yes, it is true that we have that small inferiority complex, but what true is that, despite the difficulties of our land, we canary musicians working in five continents.
Going out to develop professional work outside the Canary Islands is becoming more common, even necessary. “Canarias is a small place, and this should not be seen as anything bad,” explains Nino Díaz. In his case he went to study in Barcelona and, after years of working in that city, he realized that to keep growing “Barcelona also had its limitations”.
His editorial was born with a global vocation, and for this Berlin is a good place. “I was not wrong, because it’s a very free and good place to think and work, without the pressure of small sites, where it seems that everyone always gets what you do.”
CREATIVE CORSET IN SMALL PLACES
“Culture in the Canary Islands and in Spain, in general, is very controlled by public institutions, and that is very negative”, believes Nino Díaz. “The commitment to Culture and the idea of subsidizing it must be precisely so that artists and creators are free and also say what you do not want to hear.”
In the comparisons you can find the keys. The Canary Islands and Euskadi are two territories of similar population. The islands invest 0.52% of their annual budgets in Culture. Euskadi invests 4.17% (258 million euros)
