The 20th edition of Traiettorie review, internationally recognized as one of the main Italian initiatives in contemporary music, will be realized with no contribution from the Ministry for Arts and Culture.

According to the official communication the Ministry sent us on 17/09/2010 (Application for grant 2010), the Music Commission gave the following reason: "Regarding this application for grant, notice is hereby given that, in the session of the 7th and 8th July 2010, the Music Commission, having examined the project as a whole, has judged that it didn't meet the quality standards required by the article 5 of the Ministerial Decree of the 9th November 2007."

The members of the Music Committee appointed by the Minister - Michele Gasbarro, Antonino Marcellino, Antonio Frigè, Valerio Toniolo, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Piero Rattalino, Stefano Giavazzi and Filippo Bianchi - deemed this initiative as unsuitable and therefore excluded it from the list of recipients of the contribution for 2010

Among the 348 state-funded institutions, for a total amount of € 54.694.690, the main contributions given to organizations working in the field of contemporary music have been assigned to Associazione Nuova Consonanza (€ 84.000), Associazione Divertimento Ensemble (€ 10.000), Milano Musica (€ 40.000), Antidogma Musica (€ 10.000) and Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia (€ 551.690)..

Less than 1,3% of the total amount has been destined to contemporary music.

The Ministerial Decree of 9-11-2007, regulating the assignment of contributions, orders to "favour the artistic quality and the constant renewal of the national musical offer, promoting innovation in planning, also through the employment of new technologies and upholding the various musical languages that belong to different settings and cultures, with special attention to the contemporary"; to "promote quality, innovation, research, experimentation of new techniques and new styles in musical production, also favouring generational turnover"; and to "facilitate the commission of new works and the increase in value of contemporary Italian and European repertoire". This considered, it is clear that the objectives of the decree have been utterly disregarded.

The vast majority of the initiatives that the Musical Committee has chosen to patronize - unrelated to whatsoever contemporary language, often selected without any objective, meritocratic evaluation, or void of any European-level planning - are the tangible reflection of the inadequacy and lack of compliance of the Committee itself with the Ministerial guidelines.

The Traiettorie review, which has always been pursuing high-profile and European-level cultural objectives with consistency and intellectual rigour, will not receive a right and proper contribution from the State. This ostracism takes on an even more serious meaning, considering that the review celebrates in 2010 its 20th anniversary: an outstanding recurrence in contemporary music that shouldn't have been neglected in a competent and objective evaluation.

The choice of the Music Committee proves that, outside of any propaganda and letters of intent, there is no political will to finance and support contemporary music, innovation and research. This is also due to the work of the Committee itself, which bears the responsibility to have widened the chasm between Italy and the rest of Europe.

The list provided hereunder shows the initiatives funded in 2010. By browsing through it, anyone will get a precise idea about the work of the Music Committee of the Directorate-General for the Performing Arts of the Ministry for Arts and Culture.