Latin Notas: Sivam Scholarships Keep Mexico Musical

As part of its ongoing outreach throughout Latin America, the Latin Grammy Awards and Latin Recording Academy president Gabriel Abaroa traveled to Mexico City on March 24 to give out its first President's Award. (Notas was there as part of an outreach committee.)

The recipient was Pepita Serrano, a philanthropist who founded Sivam (International Society of Mexican Arts Value), a privately funded nonprofit dedicated to promoting music education for children and the development of opera and zarzuela (Spanish operetta popular in Spain and Mexico).

Serrano announced a 2006 initiative she calls For a Musical Mexico, which seeks to offer musical education in schools. The program's "godfather" is classical tenor Rolando Villazón, who studied voice thanks to one of Sivam's scholarships. During the past 10 years, Sivam has doled out 42 scholarships to Mexican singers seeking to study abroad.

The foundation also created zarzuela company Domingo Embil and hosts annual galas and master classes with international acts.

"It isn't just about classical music," Serrano says. "It is about making music available to everyone, at every level. We dared to dream of a Mexico with music."

In other Latin Grammys news, this year's awards will take place Nov. 2. Sources say possible host cities are New York and Las Vegas.



ALO? We have long known that in Latin America, ringtone preferences are often local in content, we just never knew how local. According to Christian León Trueba, director of mobile licensing for wireless content provider Cyclelogic, traditional song "La Cucaracha" accounts for 32% of all ringtones downloaded in Mexico.

"It's a category all on its own," says León Trueba, who spoke at the Contenido Movil Americas 2006 conference held March15-17 in Miami Beach.

Local, however, does not always reign. In Colombia, the most desirable downloads are related to "The Simpsons," according to Cyclelogic data.

In the United States, the Hispanic market for ringtones is ripe for activity, but not as much as many may think.

According to a mobile benchmark report put together by Billboard's sister company Nielsen Interactive Entertainment, 69% of Hispanics, compared with 90% with African-Americans, have either downloaded a ringtone or are interested in custom ringtones, MP3 players, streaming multimedia or FM radio.

Among those who have not downloaded a ringtone, 30% of Hispanics say they are interested, but 55% say they are not because they find ringtones too expensive.

When asked about using their mobile phone as an MP3 player, 28% of Hispanics expressed interest, and 75% of those interested said they would listen to music on their cell phones if the phones had more storage capacity for songs.



IN BRIEF: After heading the entertainment law division at Greenberg Traurig's Miami office, on April 3 attorney Leslie Zigel will open his boutique law firm on Lincoln Road, Miami's hub for the Latin music industry. The practice will focus on music, TV, film and new media as well as consulting for touring, endorsements and branding. Clients include UBO, DirecTV Latin America, Beto Cuevas and Chayanne . . . Mexican management company Westwood Management (Sin Bandera, Natalia LaFourcarde) plans to open U.S. offices this year. A Los Angeles division of Westwood should be running before the end of 2006. ••••