Brahim EL MAZNED

The entrepreneur

Brahim El Mazned is a cultural entrepreneur, associate of the ANYA Cultural Agency. He is also the Founding Director of Visa For Music, as well as the Artistic Director of the Timitar Festival of World Music.

Selected in the Guide of Cultural Diversity “Les Aventuriers de la culture” among the 100 leading actors of sustainable cultural development around the world, Brahim El Mazned has also been selected by the Moroccan weekly “Tel Quel” as one of the 100 personalities who make Morocco move. After more than twenty years of activity in the Moroccan cultural world, he has become an essential reference in the organization of major artistic events.

Finally, Brahim El Mazned has just been appointed member of the EU/UNESCO Bank of Expertise 2019-2022, designed to support initiatives aimed at implementing and promoting the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

The company

Anya is a company active in the music industry through event organization, consulting and artistic management services as well as publishing. Since 2014, Anya organizes every year the Visa For Music exhibition-festival which gathers and federates music professionals and artists from Africa and the Middle East but also from elsewhere. It is the first event of its kind in Africa. In five editions, Visa for Music has made its place in the landscape of the major meetings of music professionals with 7,200 professionals attending the 232 showcases given by some 1,461 artists from 2014 to 2018.

Anya is also in charge of the cultural program, especially the musical programming of various cultural events. Finally, Anya produces anthologies on several Moroccan musical genres in order to highlight those who participate in the preservation of the country’s intangible heritage. These projects include the anthology of Aita and those of Rways, which is currently in progress.

The development project

With Afrique Créative, Anya is pursuing acceleration objectives. Among these, the company wants to

Structure its business model
Improve its management tools
Boost its social impact

Some activities have already been carried out:

The launch of the creation of an anthology of the Rwayes…
The call for applications for the 2020 edition of Visa For Music
Preparing the content for Visa For Music 2020
Consulting for several public and private institutions: Expo Dubai 2020, City of Tangier, Rabat African Capital of Culture…

The Impact

1846
artists participated in Visa For Music

8400
professionneals attended in Visa For Music

200
musicians in the Aita anthology

80
musicians in the Rwayes anthology

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