UNESCO Cities of Music

Concepción

Since its foundation in 1550, Concepción has played a pivotal role in the economic, social, and cultural development of Chile.

The city boasts a longstanding musical heritage and a sustained commitment to creativity, blending tradition and innovation while fostering musical innovation throughout the community. Throughout its history, Concepción has gained renown as a musical city, rooted in a narrative composed of exceptional talents, music schools, distinguished ensembles, a growing industry, and passionate artists who breathe life into the musical scene.

Known for its universities and colleges hosting over 130,000 students, Concepción combines academic vitality with a popular culture rooted in rural and working-class traditions. As the cultural capital of the southern region, it embraces creativity through cultural facilities and public spaces. Concepción not only attracts established musicians but also nurtures and supports local talent, serving as the birthplace of renown artists throughout its history as Alejandra Urrutia, Claudia Acuña, Los Bunkers, Los Tres, Pablo Ardouin, Enrique Soro, Pablo Vergara, Cristian Senn, Arturo Medina, among others.

Music is at the heart of the city, enhancing the developmental possibilities that the musical sector offers through the strengthening of five key areas:
• City of Festivals • Internationalization of the local music industry • Strengthening of musical formation spaces • Music in the city • Contemporary Song Center of Concepción

Banja Luka

Banja Luka, the second-largest city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, unveils a cultural journey through its past, present, and future, with a focal point on its dynamic music scene. Shaped by the 19th-20th century cultural renaissance, the city boasts a legacy of classical music excellence, nurturing renowned composers, who have contributed significantly to the regional classical landscape. Over the last 60 years, Banja Luka has transformed into a modern European city, strategically embracing culture and creative industries as drivers for sustainable development, with a particular emphasis on music.

The city’s 2018–2028 development strategy positions Banja Luka as a flourishing “City of Music,” balancing the preservation of cultural heritage with a commitment to innovation. Its diverse musical landscape, spanning rock, pop, jazz, and electronic genres, will be actively supported by a dedicated music hub featuring rehearsal spaces and recording studios. The strategic goals encompass preserving and promoting musical heritage, fostering innovation, leveraging cultural and creative industries for economic growth, ensuring inclusive access to music education, cultivating international collaborations, integrating music into urban development, and promoting community engagement. Banja Luka emerges as a dynamic and inclusive cultural epicenter, harmonizing past traditions with a forward-thinking vision, positioning the city as a vibrant hub for music and creativity in the future.

Mission of the Banja Luka UNESCO City of Music is:

Preservation and Promotion of Musical Heritage: Banja Luka aims to safeguard and promote its rich musical heritage, spanning classical, folk, and contemporary genres.
Diversification and Innovation in Music: The city will seek to foster a diverse and innovative music scene by supporting local artists and musicians in exploring and contributing to diverse music genres, ensuring a dynamic and evolving musical landscape.
International Collaboration and Recognition: Banja Luka actively engages in international collaboration through UNESCO Creative Cities Network and beyond fostering cultural exchange.
Integration of Music into Urban Development: Integrating music into urban development plans by creating new spaces for public performances, promoting street music festivals, and incorporating musical elements into public events, enhancing the overall cultural experience of the city.
Cultural and Creative Industries as Economic Drivers: Integration of culture and creative industries, particularly music, is positioned as a key driver for sustainable development. By creating a music hub with rehearsal, singing and song writing spaces and recording studios, Banja Luka aims to stimulate economic growth within the sector, providing support for local and international musicians, fostering creativity, and potentially attracting cultural tourism.

Community Engagement and Participation:
The city administration, mayor, and Assembly closely collaborate with citizens, indicating a commitment to community engagement. Strategic goals may involve initiatives that encourage community participation in cultural events, ensuring that benefits of the City of Music are widely accessible and appreciated by the residents

Bydgoszcz

It is music and the institutions promoting it that have turned Bydgoszcz into a city with exceptionally vibrant cultural life. Therefore, large-scale investments have been undertaken to promote culture. Three multimillion projects are currently underway – notably all of them related to music.

The Opera Nova is going to be extended with the fourth circle holding a new chamber music hall with nearly 500 seats as well as a screening room. Moreover, the Philharmonic Hall is just about to extend its premises. The existing hall will be connected with a new one, housing a small concert hall with 350 seats, a stage for a 30-member orchestra and a 30-singer choir.

Additionally, the F. Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz is to have a new campus constructed on a 3 ha plot featuring 4 concert halls, recital rooms, orchestra pits, a stage for opera and organ rooms as well as classrooms and student dormitories.

The cultural potential of Bydgoszcz remains as yet untapped and constantly evolves. The Philharmonic Hall in Bydgoszcz has risen to fame thanks to its acoustics and is considered to be one of the best in Europe. It is in this hall where one of the most prestigious piano contest in Poland takes place, namely the International I.J. Paderewski Piano Competition. Also, the Opera Nova, located at the bank of the Brda river, has been attracting the best soloist and musicians while the Bydgoszcz Opera Festival has become not only a brand recognized worldwide but also the largest review of diverse music genres ranging from opera, operetta to musical and ballet. Every year the Opera invites the most interesting theatre groups from all over the world.

Annually, Bydgoszcz offers nearly 100 festivals, reviews and cyclical events, many of which revolve around culture.

The most important festivals include:

The Bydgoszcz Opera Festival – an international and also the largest in Poland review of various musical genres ranging from opera, operetta to musical and ballet.

The Bydgoszcz Music Festival – an international festival organized by the I.J. Paderewski Philharmonic Hall. It has been staging classical music, both early and contemporary since 1963.

The International DRUMS FUSION Festival – the largest and the only festival in Poland dedicated entirely to percussion instruments and percussion virtuosos. Thanks to this festival Bydgoszcz has its entry in the Guinness World Record Book – in 2016 during the 10th edition a record was set in playing the world largest drum. There are also two Polish records broken (2022 and 2023) in the category of “the most people playing recycled instruments”. DRUMS FUSION was the first festival in Bydgoszcz to introduce an ecological, reusable festival mug.

The International Contemporary Music and Visual Arts Festival Mózg – a multicultural event for artists interested in all contemporary music genres, performance, audio and video installations, in which music plays an underlying role.

The I.J. Paderewski International Piano Competition and A. Rubinstein International Piano Competition.

There is no shortage of jazz music festivals in Bydgoszcz: the most important are Bydgoszcz Jazz Festival andBydgoszcz Jazz Academy (project by The Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music and Municipal Cultural Center in Bydgoszcz). Since 2013, within the frames of BJA, the academic teachers – well-known and respected masters of instruments – are presented, as well as the effects of their work with talented students, achieving remarkable results under their supervision.

The Chamber Music Festival “Muzyka u Źródeł” as well as the Bydgoszcz Baroque Scene, featuring both more traditional and up-to-date arrangements of baroque music rank among some of the most interesting initiatives. Also, the Fonomo Music & Film Festival devised an original formula combining film, music, image and sound. The Municipal Centre of Culture in Bydgoszcz features every year a several dozen of various music events, among many other, the Folk and Traditional Music Festival Ethniesy.

Mexicali

Mexicali, Baja California is a city located right in the northernmost part of Mexico, bordering the States of California and Arizona in the United States. It is a city that since its founding in 1903, celebrates an important multicultural essence, being greatly influenced by the United States not only due to its geographical location but also from the Canton region of China, from which numerous migrants have made Mexicali their home. Leading this town to become host of one of the most vibrant, unique and economically active Chinese communities in all of Latin America.

The city was first conceived as a macro-agricultural project in the early 1900s, but over the years, it has diversified its economic vocation that today positions it as a thriving city, with great opportunities for investment, enthralling maquiladora companies from all over the world. Population in Mexicali is close to 1,200,000.

During the prohibition era in the United States (from 1919 to 1933), Mexicali grew into a city that dwelled through a golden age and it became a destination visited daily by the Hollywood elite. The result of those glory days unfolded into a beautiful song by the name of Mexicali Rose, composed and written here, recorded in New York (1923) and made famous by Bing Crosby, putting the name of our city on the world map.

Mexicali is a border city that has learned to take advantage of the best of both worlds. We are a mixture of cultures reflected in the innate talent of our people. In recent decades, Mexicali has constantly provided trendsetting musicians and singers both in Latin America’s music industry as well as in the United States.

Our geographical location places us in a situation of constant and evolving change. Large communities of migrants continuously arrive fixated fully on living the American dream, as we are the entry and exit door to the Golden State of California. Whether they come from Central or South America, the Caribbean or even from some regions of Asia and Europe, we embrace everyone while we enrich ourselves with what each migrant contributes culturally to our city.

The State of Baja California to which we belong, is a benchmark of talent and creativity. Proof of this is that two of its cities are already part of the UNESCO Creative Cities network: Ensenada for Gastronomy and Mexicali for Music; forgoing that Tijuana and San Diego, California together have become the first multi-country region that will host the World Design Capital in 2024.

Mexicali merges leadership, strategy and will in order to consolidate the talent of its people and create better economic conditions and quality of life through music. We are currently working together with authorities and non-governmental organizations to recover, reactivate and edify the historical and cultural downtown of our city. Due to the natural growth of the urban area, it had fallen into a certain abandonment and today is re-emerging as a social, cultural and gastronomic showcase with great participation of the entire community.

We are Mexicali, City of Music
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As a Creative City of Music, the following steps will be important:

Coordinate and unify all cultural-musical efforts that different institutions and schools implement, in order to detect talents that can be promoted through training towards professionalization.
Implement an intense professionalization program that helps us to upgrade the talent of the local musicians and singers to a higher level. This plan must consider the parameters of the new digital music and entertainment industry.
Generate economy through constant activations where the entire Musical Ecosystem of Mexicali must be involved, integrating them to a sustainable model in which everyone can have participation and remuneration for their services.
Contribute with our musical activations and happenings for the recovery strategy of Mexicali’s Historic and Cultural Downtown, adding value to visitors’ experience, with high quality shows for all musical genres, aimed to please local community as well as tourists who constantly visit Mexicali.
Provide musical introduction to children from the less favored suburbs and migrant communities through easy-to-involve educational programs in order to awaken interest in art, seeking to distance them from vandalism and crime that surround their communities.
Turn Mexicali into the city with the most favorable legal framework for the presentation of live music and live shows throughout Mexico, through government public positive policies that promote art at all levels and thus be able to consolidate a wide variety of musical offerings in our city, 365 days a year.

Ibagué

With its rich cultural infrastructure represented in over 200 cultural assets, Ibagué has been recognized as the music capital of Colombia. The city is home to over 30 musical and artistic events throughout the year, with its highlights range from music, craftsmanship, popular arts to gastronomy. Over the past five years, the city has further strengthened its organizational expertise with more than five million spectators being welcomed online and in praesentia. The musical sector has flourished in Ibagué. A number of creative businesses in the city are distributed across all the links of the creativity productive chain, from creation to distribution, from exhibition to formation, and beyond. The music sector has significantly contributed to Ibagué’s economy, especially in the creation of jobs in activities related to arts, entertainment, recreation, and other services. One of the city’s priorities, the music sector is also exemplified by the allocation of a budget dedicated to musical education. Between 2015 and 2020, this budget amounted to over USD 13 million, and benefited a total of 332 high schools, 158 bachelors, and 10 specialization degrees.

Added Value:

As a Creative City of Music, the following steps will be important:

Recognizing and enhancing the creative and cultural vocations, seeking economic, social and cultural growth with the inclusion of disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of society, as well as the development of a focus on innovation and creativity;
Increasing welfare for musical sector agents, as well as for the different supporting sectors and other cultural manifestations;
Providing more spaces for spectators, so as to foster the identity and renewal of the city’s cultural values;
Increasing professionalization, creation of decent jobs, circulation and distribution of cultural goods and services at the national and international levels; and
Generating opportunities for strengthening the UCCN in Latin America.

Morelia

Capital city of the state of Michoacán in Mexico, Morelia (pop. 800,000) is a cradle of national classical and folk composers and musicians, and home to the oldest music conservatory in the country, Conservatorio de Las Rosas (Conservatory of the Roses). Morelia boasts a diverse music scene, which showcases ancient, colonial, classical and folk music as, well as electronic music assisted by the latest technologies. In recent years, musical events have been an important mainstay of the local creative economy, highlighted by a large audience of 800,000 during the festivals season, resulting in an economic income of more than US$19,083,969.

It is through its large musical programme that Morelia has built its reputation as a lively city of music. Since 1989, the Morelia Music Festival Miguel Bernal Jiménez has been a flagship event promoting internationally renowned artists, as well as musical education. The International Organ Festival of Morelia Alfonso Vega Nuñez is the oldest festival in the region dedicated to the pipe organ. With more than 50 editions, Jazztival Michoacán is the most important jazz festival in the centre-west region of Mexico and is considered as an important proponent of the country’s jazz culture.

In April 2017, the Secretary of Culture of Morelia was officially established in order to promote and develop further creative industries and cultural life in the city, with musical industry as a key priority. The Secretary particularly focuses on extending the cultural offering through cross-cutting initiatives and events. In addition, the 30 civil associations and private sector are joining forces by engaging in cultural promotion, multidisciplinary events organisation, enhancing the music industry through training activities for artists and cultural professionals.

As a Creative City of Music, Morelia envisages:

introducing the Apoyo a Coros y Orquestas lnfantiles Programme (Support Programme to Children Choirs and Orchestras) in marginalised and rural communities, promoting social inclusion, violence prevention and gender equality;
launching the Morelia Centre for Music Research and Documentation, promoting research and acting as information sharing platform for the music field;
establishing the Mexican Centre for the Creation of Cinematographic Music to link music and film sectors;
organising the Academic Symposium on Contemporary Music and New Technologies, involving other Latin American cities of the Network such as Medellin and Buenos Aires;
holding the First International Summit of Creative Industries of Morelia and engaging with other Creative Cities to share experiences and best practices; and
creating the Interdisciplinary Festival of Creativity, inviting artists and cultural professionals from all creative fields of the UCCN.

Pesaro

Pesaro City of Music vision concerns the concept of “creativity” when referred to a city: the most important impact of Pesaro belonging to the UCCN has been the awareness – both among the citizenship and within the city’s governance institutions – of the key role creativity can play in order to achieve the politics’ most important objective: social happiness.

Pesaro is a city with a strong musical tradition. With its Rossini Opera Festival offer a unique contribution to the history of opera in the world. The figure and the works of Gioachino Rossini and the main musical institutions of the city represent a rich network of material assets, traditions and multi-disciplinary learning, that forms the city’s memory and identity. Also, in the last few decades, the independent rock scene has seen a remarkable expansion, bringing forth artists and projects of international renown.

It is the value placed on creative heritage, innovation and interdisciplinary experimentation that sets apart the city’s 80 musical festivals, the 30 educational programmes and the projects for studying and practicing music as an mean of cultural mediation and social inclusion. Pesaro’s area counts more than 700 musicians, composers and soloists and 40 musical ensembles, including orchestras, bands, choirs and groups. The Conservatory Rossini – one of the oldest and prestigious Italian conservatories – Liceo Musicale “Guglielmo Marconi” and the over thirty formal and informal schools and academies involve around 700 teachers. The city’s rich concert season formally involves around 800 show business professionals. The city is home to 10 entertainment enterprises, 7 businesses involved in manufacturing musical instruments, and 21 involved in offering support for artistic productions, altogether employing around 1000 people. More than 30 associations and co-operatives for social and cultural promotion have initiated programmes for using musical culture as an instrument for overcoming cultural and social inequality.

A new challenge

Building on this crescendo, on March 2022, Pesaro won the bid to become “Pesaro Italian Capital of Culture 2024 – The Nature of the Culture -”

The action plan 2022-2025

The action plan we are proposing for the next years – Crescendo: the Nature of Music (CNM) – arises from the intersection between the two challenges represented by the title of Creative City and Italian Capital of Culture in 2024.
riven by the issues raised by the Anthropocene, which force national and international agendas to pay increasing attention to the environment and the ways in which we interface with it, Pesaro has chosen to dedicate the next four to exploring the relationship between environment, art and technology through music.

The two sections of the action plan, Crescendo in Pesaro (CrePe) and Playing the Planet (PP), directed respectively at the local and international level, explore the creative potential of music in its intertwining of material and immaterial heritage, art and science, poetry and technology. Building on the results achieved since 2017, when music has gradually become the testing ground for creative and participatory models of creation, training, promotion and fruition, CNM faces the more important and crucial challenge for a city, the well-being of the inhabitants, the community and the Earth.

Objectives and expected results

With even greater awareness than in 2017, the program finds its ultimate goal in the social hap- piness. CNM makes music and creativity play the key-role of rewriting the city and fostering a urbanism of proximity, a decentralized, widespread and multi-layered city of music involving the whole urban area and the provincial territory. The major contribution Pesaro aims to give to the UCCN and 2030 Agenda objectives concerns in fact measures, policies, strategies and practices which build on creativity in order to strengthen the community, to address inhabitants’ needs and desires, to foster a sustainable smart economy.

Abu Dhabi

Through its policies and investments, Abu Dhabi seeks to advance its position as a culturally diverse global city, with creativity and culture driving sustainable urban development. The cultural and creative sector has been recognized as a key driver of social cohesion, economic growth and diversification in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi’s music sector has shown consistent growth over the years with over 600 music enterprises, employing more than 4,000 cultural professionals. These numbers increase significantly when taking into account expanding connections between music and other cultural and creative fields including film, digital media, and video games. The city has a rich heritage in traditional music and performance that has contributed to its identity. A milestone for Abu Dhabi was the establishment of the Cultural Foundation in 1971. The establishment of Bait Al Oud, a centre for study and teaching of classical Arabic music is another major addition to Abu Dhabi’s music landscape. The opening of the New York University Arts Centre and Music programme in 2015 was another significant effort of the city. Since 2020, Berklee Abu Dhabi has supported Abu Dhabi’s goal of growing its contemporary music scene and recording industry. The Abu Dhabi Festival and Abu Dhabi-Classics bring internationally acclaimed musicians from Arabic and world music traditions to the city.

As a Creative City of Music, the following steps will be important:

Building effective and resilient institutions at the city level and creating mechanisms that promote inclusion;
Establishing international talent development platforms, setting up exchange networks to share knowledge, initiating cross-sectoral projects as well as global music expositions, all contributing to broadening support for the music sector and wider cultural and creative industries;
Creating policies that support entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation while supporting education at every level and the professionalization of the sector;
Improving access, strengthening the creation and dissemination of music, and increasing participation in cultural life; and
Strengthening cooperation between different institutional stakeholders, such as NGOs, academic institutions and the private sector.

Almaty

Almaty is the largest city of the Republic of Kazakhstan with a population of over 1.7 million inhabitants. Since the 18th century, Kazakh artists have been known for their ability to produce musical and poetical improvisation. A vivid example is the Aitys, an impromptu contest of two singers (akins) performing folk poetry accompanied by stringed instruments. Building upon a rich musical legacy, Almaty was the home of nationally renowned composers Ahmet and Gaziza Zhubanov and Erkegali Rakhmadiev. Music in Almaty has strong local support and citizens are keen to be involved in the sector.

As a key component to Almaty’s urban culture, music spreads through a hundred open-air events held annually, including the AlmaFest. This festival built around the apple symbol of the city, integrates music, folk art and gastronomy through performance. The city also hosted the Colisium International Music Conference; a large-scale forum dedicated to discussing the latest trends of the concert industry as well as to exchanging knowledge between international and local music artists and professionals.

When developing the Almaty 2020 Development Programme, a number of issues in the creative sector were identified, particularly that of insufficient technical equipment within cultural institutions and a lack of qualified specialists in the field of cultural management. As a result, the City has provided these facilities with modern equipment, and in 2016, new musical infrastructure was built, including the Multimedia Traditional Music Centre and the Alatau Theatre of Traditional Art. At the same time, the City has effectively supported young professionals and artists through several grants and scholarships. Almaty is strongly committed to further developing its creative sector as a resource for the city, enabling it to enter a new stage of development, one that would be inclusive and sustainable.

As a Creative City of Music, Almaty envisages:

organising an open-air Music Festival of Orchestras to showcase local and national orchestras;
holding an open-air Music Festival called Gakku Dauysy, aimed at promoting Kazakh pop music and singers, exploring the roots of modern musical practices;
organising the Almaty KokTobe Opera, seeking to familiarise residents and visitors with prominent international opera singers and masterpieces of classical music;
setting up the international programme Spirit of the Great Steppe, aimed at promoting historical and cultural values of the nomadic people; and
launching the Star of Asia programme aiming to raise awareness about little known customs and traditions of Asia countries.