CISAC Elects Jean Michel Jarre as New President,
Expands Vice Presidency to Four Positions with
Javed Akhtar, Angélique Kidjo, Marcelo Piñeyro, and
Ousmane Sow
Appointments announced today by CISAC following conclusion of
2013 World Creators Summit
WASHINGTON, DC and PARIS, France (June 6, 2013) – In its annual
meeting today, held in Washington DC, CISAC (the International
Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) has officially
elected electronic music pioneer
Jean Michel Jarre to serve as its new president. Jarre will succeed the late
Robin Gibb,
who passed away in May 2012, and Hervé Di Rosa, French visual artist
and painter who served as CISAC’s acting president for the past year.
The organization also expanded its Vice President role to four
positions, enabling more territories and repertoire to be represented.
These positions will go to
Javed Akhtar, one of the most successful multi-platform creators from India;
Angélique Kidjo, a Grammy Award-winning artist and activist from the West African nation of the Republic of Benin;
Marcelo Piñeyro, an Academy Award-winning producer and director of Spanish-language films; and
Ousmane Sow, a revered sculptor from the African city of Dakar in Senegal.
The appointments were announced today by the CISAC’s General Assembly following the organization’s fourth biennial
World Creators Summit, the leading international and cross-industry forum addressing the future of copyright and creators’ interests.
The new President and Vice Presidents will act as the voice of the
authors’ community worldwide, defending and championing the interests of
CISAC, its 231 member societies and the 3 million creators it
represents.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jean Michel Jarre and our new four Vice
Presidents as we continue striving to create a world where creators can
practice their art without fear of being short-changed,” said
Kenth Muldin,
Chairman of the CISAC Board of Directors. “As creators themselves, all
five new appointees are well aware of the issues faced by the creative
community, making them ideal candidates to carry on the legacy of our
previous President Robin Gibb, who fought tirelessly for creators’
rights throughout his life. We look forward to working with them to
continue the work of making his vision a reality.”
“When I first started making music, I never thought my path would
lead me to become the head of an organization with such an important
mission, and it is a true honor to accept the responsibility of the
CISAC Presidency,” said
Jarre. “Creators’ rights are up for
debate all over the world, and it is our duty to ensure that they are
able to maintain their control of and right to be compensated for their
own art. I am excited to begin this journey with the rest of the CISAC
Board, our new Vice Presidents, and all of our talented members.”
“Jean Michel Jarre is already demonstrating his strong leadership for
the international community of creators, and I know he, Javed Akhtar,
Angélique Kidjo, Marcelo Piñeyro, and Ousmane Sow will serve us all very
well to ensure the voice of the artist is heard in the debate around
the policies that most affect our lives. I look forward to working with
them closely,” said
Hervé Di Rosa. Di Rosa will now serve as the
chair of CISAC’s International Council of Creators of Graphic, Plastic
and Photographic Arts, CIAGP.
Jarre was one of the first electronic musicians, coming to international fame in 1977 with his smash #1 album
Oxygene.
The record has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, and Jarre
has gone on to sell over 80 million albums total, including subsequent
hits
Equinoxe,
Magnetic Fields,
Zoolook, and
Rendezvous.
He is also a true innovator in the live-performance space, bringing his
music and vision outdoors to the masses. He was the first western
musician invited to perform in Post-Mao China, and he has played at the
Great Pyramids of Egypt, collaborated with NASA on a Houston City
concert in memory of the Challenger space crew, performed for Pope John
Paul II, played in front of France’s Eiffel Tower in celebration of the
country World Cup victory, and more. Jarre recently embarked on his
first-ever world tour, which will took him to more than 30 countries and
feature over 220 performances.
Dubbed “Africa’s premier diva” by Time Magazine, Kidjo
is a Grammy-winning musical performer with 12 albums to her name. She
has been featured in the BBC’s list of Africa’s 50 most iconic figures,
been listed as one of the Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World by
The Guardian, and was ranked #1 on Forbes’ Most Powerful Celebrities in
Africa list. Kidjo’s music cross-pollinates the West African traditions
of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk and
jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America, leading to
collaborations with a variety of international artists including Bono,
Carlos Santana, Peter Gabriel, Alicia Keys and Gilberto Gil. She is a
Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and OXFAM, and created her own charitable
foundation, Batonga, to support the education of young girls in Africa.
|
Angélique Kidjo |
Akhtar is a respected Urdu scriptwriter, poet, and
lyricist who has won over 30 awards for his films, including five
National Awards for Best Lyricist and 16 Film Fare Awards for Best
Script/Best Lyricist; been recognized by the Government of India, the
Government of Uttar Pradesh, the All India Anti-Terrorist Association,
and more for his activism; and delivered keynote speeches at Harvard
University, Columbia University, and the University of Maryland, among
others. Akhtar’s films introduced the concept of the “angry young man”
to Indian cinema through massive hits such as
Zanjeer,
Deewar,
Sholay,
Sagar,
Mr. India,
Betaab, and more. He is also an accomplished poet, with his first collection,
TARKASH,
receiving rave reviews and becoming India’s first audio book. He is a
founding member of the Muslim Intelligentsia, a group that fights
against fundamentalism of all hues and seeks to lead Muslims to
concentrate on education and women’s rights.
|
Javed Akhtar |
Piñeyro received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language movie in 1985 for the film La Oficial History, Which he executive produced. Since then, he has won a variety of international awards for his filmography, Which also includes Tango Feroz, Caballos Salvajes, Cenizas del Paraíso, and the upcoming Ishmael. He has Participated in major film festivals dry as San Sebastian, Sundance, and Rome, and was honored with the Emerging Masters Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, as well as three prizes from the Goya Spain Cinema Academy. He was also acknowledged with the "Sur" award by the Argentine Academy.
|
Marcelo Piñeyro |
Sow is a world-renowned sculptor whose works have been displayed
at the French Cultural Center of Dakar, the Dokumenta of Kassel in
Germany, the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the Pont des Arts in Paris, and
the Whitney Museum in New York City. Deeply rooted in his home country,
he uses a unique technique on a structure made of iron, straw, and jute
to create monumental works inspired by African peoples (the
Nuba, the
Masaï, the
Zulu, the
Peulh) and major events in history.
|
Ousmane Sow |
Click here for
French version. Click here for
Spanish version.
About CISAC www.cisac.org
CISAC – the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers – is the leading worldwide network of collective management organisations and a unique international NGO uniting
231 authors’ societies and guilds in 121 countries,
thus representing more than 3 million creators and publishers from all
creative genres (music, film, visual arts, and literary). In 2011,
worldwide royalties collected by CISAC members on behalf of creators
reached
$10.3 billion (€7.6 billion).
CISAC aims to increase both the protection and the promotion of
creators’ rights worldwide. CISAC enables collective management
organisations to seamlessly represent creators across the globe and
ensure that royalties flow to authors for the use of their works
anywhere in the world. To this end, CISAC provides the highest business,
legal, and IT standards to protect creators’ rights and to support the
development of the international network of collective management
societies.
Founded in 1926, CISAC is a non-governmental, not-for-profit
organisation with worldwide headquarters in France and regional offices
in Chile, Hungary, Singapore, and Burkina Faso. Olivier Hinnewinkel is
the organization’s Director General; the President is Jean Michel Jarre,
and the four Vice Presidents, representing CISAC’s represented
creative repertoires, are Javed Akhtar, Angélique Kidjo, Marcelo
Piñeyro, and Ousmane Sow.
Source:
jaybirdcom