Charles Amoah And Goethe Institute To Create International Market For Ghanaian Music

Ghanaian burger highlife music legend, Charles Amoah is collaborating with the Goethe Institute to provide Ghanaian music industry players with tools that would help push Ghanaian music into the international market.

With sponsorship for the Goethe Institute, Charles Amoah is bringing down his long time German publisher, Armin Wenzl from Germany to hold a day’s workshop for stakeholders of the Ghanaian music industry this month.

The workshop, slated for March 26 and 27, 2013 at the Kumasi Cultural Centre, is under the theme: Ghanaian Music Stakeholders: Transition into Foreign Markets, and it is intended, provide concrete guidelines to marketing Ghanaian music internationally.

Charles Amoah told Adom News the two-day workshop would trace the history of Ghana music, the various genres, types and styles, and their originators.

It would also seek to familiarizing participants with the technical and scientific aspects of writing, structuring and producing Ghanaian music, and streamline steps to producing a standard product, strengthen and encourage the need to seek available resources that will help meet the required and acceptable Industry standards.

The Burger Highlife King said participants would also be introduced to foreign expertise, like Germany and its benefits to Ghana’s style of music, adding participants would also be pointed to the available market trends and alternatives necessary to the global market.

“We will also be reviewing established market standards and their Influences – identify both local and foreign industry constraints and how best to work around and with them and educate participants on worldwide Industry policies and structures,” he said.

He said beside Amin Wenzl, highly qualified resource persons are also being drawn from Ghana, and they include Max Morris Twumasi (aka Morris Baby Face), Paa Kwesi Holdbrook-Smith, Eric Sunu Doe of the University of Ghana Music School, and Charles Amoah himself.

Charles Amoah noted that no better expert that Armin Wenzl could have been more apt as a lead resource person for the workshop because apart from being an all-round musician, composer, producer, and publisher for years, Wenzl also has decades of experience in mainstream copyright, performing rights and neighboring rights.

“I have been trying for decades to bring Wenzl down to speak with our industry players on these issues and he has finally agreed to come this month,” Amoah said.

Wenzl is Founder of Omni-Media Sound Music Production, way back in 1985. Omni manages, and controls and licenses different copyrights, performing rights and neighboring rights on behalf of GEMA Free Film and Music Production across Europe for decades. He is also founder of Vermont Music Production in 1999.

He is also a faculty member, lecturer and guest professor at the University of Stuttgart, Germany and an expert on copyrights, performing rights, publishing rights and on worldwide collecting societies.

Wenzl, himself a great flutist, guitarist and bass guitarist has managed, worked with, managed and published several world great musicians; and generated over US$25 million in his career.

Since 2011, Wenzl has been concentrating on film, TV and cinema music.

Charles Amoah said Wenzl has been his publisher since the 1992 and he believes he has the quality, clout, expertise and the skill to help Ghanaian music make waves on the international market.

peacemonline.com