The DIMI, Department for the Italian Musical Innovation is an Association, born in 1996 out of a project whose aim was to merge together the formative and the professional of musicians. The steering axis between formation and profession is to work by using its own methodologies and contents from the economic and entrepreneurial areas, but it will always keep a right balance between tradition and innovation, as well as a close relationship with public institutions. We have decided to found DIMI legally, after we have spotted the most suitable people who were able to carry out this project and we have made them the founders and members of the directing council. The council includes: musicians performing "classical" music, who have also developed an ability to organize and direct human resources; "public relations" representatives linked with the EEC and entrepreneurial consultants, specialized in "high-quality-systems".

The project is based on the mergence, between the formative and the productive aspect in the music field. Its aim is to promote, through the its formation, a new professional image of the musician, and to accomplish, as to what concerns the productive aspect, a coordination and organization of the musical profession, which is to be broad and efficient. Furthermore, it would like to suggest to reconsider music as an activity which, though having a "handicraft" nature, should become better adapted to the present methodologies and rhythms and above all to the future ones.

The plan of the project-idea is made up of the axis that is concerned with both the traditional and the innovative formation, of the axis that is concerned with the organization and the coordination of the work and the facilities and between them there is the steering axis of the whole project. This represents an important qualifying aspect, as it introduces new criteria for management and functionality borrowed from the entrepreneurial areas. Here solidity is a major element, and is to act within the field of those activities which we have already defined as "handicraft", not only because of their nature but also because of their inefficient management. The role of this axis is to accomplish and solidify all the applications and activities within the project. Particularly, in Italy we believe it is necessary to start a mechanism that allows "classical" music to evade the one- way route of "subvention". In fact the government and the state institutions in general, cannot afford to be the only source of grants for artistic and cultural activities anymore. They should begin to place themselves as a " fly-wheel" for the enterprising in this field and to engage Sponsors and potential supporters interested to bind their own image with that of an appealing "testimonial" such as "classical".

We will now analyze the development of our suggestion.

 

THE REASON FOR THE PROJECT
The present situation of music in Italy is verging to rather serious conditions: it is a well-known fact that it has been the object of broad and thorough analyses for several years now, even though researchers have not always been able to group into an organic system the various deficiencies related to the numerous segments which make up "the musical universe". Another notorious and real fact which can nowadays appear to be quite rhetorical, is that Italy has produced Schools, musicians, singers and instrumentalists of exceptionally high standard, not to mention the ones who have actually gone down in history, and has dominated with its opera, royal courts and theatres all over Europe for centuries. Furthermore, until the ‘60s and ‘70s many Italian musicians were achieving success on an international scale and they were mostly flourishing within the fields of opera-singing and conducting, particularly within the area of operas. Whereas nowadays, due to the swarming masses of students in Music Schools, not only are there much fewer Italians present on an the international scene, but above all the pride and dignity of musical professions, appear to be more and more meagre and precarious.

The Department for the Italian Musical Innovation wishes to propose itself as an organic and operative structure which aims at removing some of the causes of disorder. Being strongly convinced that there still exists the so-called "Italian musical talent" and that, by following suitable guidance principles in the organization of the learning, working and motivation, this talent can prove to possess the necessary qualities of sacrifice and discipline which are needed to heighten it. It is nevertheless clear, that in Italy, even the music institutes, as well as the other numerous educational areas such as high-schools and Universities, feel the lack of a delivery link between formation and work. DIMI’s immediate objective is to place itself as an organizational corner stone of both these aspects, not only in order to improve the quality, the quantity and the specialization of the performances with regard to the market requirements, but also to stimulate new requests and increase their number. Our project is born because we felt the need to move all the possible idealistic, intellectual, operative and economic energies, to start are-qualification of the formation and of the musical professions, and to reply to the need of work of those individuals who, after years of study, still have precarious or non-existent wages, or wages which depend upon activities for which they do not have any kind of qualification. We are not expecting to be a substitute for other Institutions which are set out to do this work, but we would like wherever possible to support them and help them to integrate their routes. We are not expecting to compose or even to fully understand the whole mosaic of "the music universe", but nevertheless we do not want to surrender to the sole use of words, to the acquiescence or to the mere complaints. Therefore, for this reason and because of our belief the musical heritage has always been and will be always a sign and an investment for the growth of civilization. We would like to conclude by borrowing one of A.Schönberg:

"Art is the alarm of those who live within themselves the destiny of humankind: of those who are not content with it , but who try their strength against it ; of those who do not obtusely serve the motor called "obscure powers", but who throw themselves in the moving mechanism, in order to understand its structure……..".

THE MERGENCES
The idea of Global quality, which is DIMI’ s password, envisages a co-operation with other National and European organizations in order to co-ordinate an efficient and widespread system which is to monitor the evolution of the formation and the work which our whole project aims. For this reason, taking as our starting point the concept of development and that of bringing the strength idea into other musical associations, DIMI wishes to propose itself as a structure to unite all the operators who believe, as we do, in the necessity of having active, rather than theoretical changes, but maintaining absolutely the quality and the prerogatives of the project. We are certain to be moving in the right direction, being convinced that Italy is still a musical focus point, just as in past centuries, it has been the home-land of the musical talent which has dominated Royal Courts all over Europe. DIMI’s staff is always available to all structures which would like further information on the name of the Artistic Director, on High Committee and on anything regarding DIMI and its meaning.