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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHer outstanding career has been recognized by the\nUnited Graduate College and Seminary International (Washington DC), College of\nArt and Entertainment Department, by awarding her a doctorate in Art, Career in\nMusic, Art and Culture, as well as the distinguished award, Golden Star Awards,\nfrom the Diplomatic VIP Magazine from Peru in 2019. Idania Dowman speaks\nexclusively to us about our musical history, culture and tourism in Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does\nmusic mean as an identity of a country and how does it impact people in other\ncountries?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe music that is the\nidentity of a country is what differentiates a country from others. If we talk\nabout Colombia, Vallenato jumps out at once, if it’s Argentina, Tango, from\nSpain, El Flamenco. When talking about Panama, its cheerful music, and the\nbeautiful and luxurious folklore, which is increasingly popular in countries of\nthe region. All this influences the Visitors thanks to the anecdotes that they\nmay have, an example was listening to some tourists who came to Panama for\ncarnivals, because they saw some music groups that sang very beautiful songs,\nmotivating them to come to our country to live in person these cultural\nexpressions. All this influences that a\nforeigner comes to visit us and for that reason we have to work more and more\non the products we offer abroad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\nrelevance does Jazz has as a musical genre and cultural movement in our\ncountry, and what else can we do so that Jazz becomes a magnet for tourists?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJazz has been part of our\nculture since the beginning of the musical revolution in Panama, which began\nwith the American presence here in Panama. In that Golden Age where the musical\ncenters were Colon, and later downtown Panama City, all the night spots had\nmusical groups performing Jazz. This marked an era that created roots, and the\nbest example is the Panama Jazz Festival, which was not born out of thin air,\nour Panamanian musicians already have that knowledge in their musical heritage.\nSince that time jazz has been present in Panama, and for that reason Danilo Perez\nalong with his wife Patricia Zarate broke stereotypes, showing that it is part\nof our culture, no matter where you are from or what the person looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In order for it to continue to grow, we must continue\nto support it, continue offering opportunities and exposure to the different\njazz groups and performers. To make Panama the Latin American center of Jazz.\nThe best example of our great potential is Luis Carl Russel, a pianist and\nmusical prodigy from Bocas del Toro who introduced nuances of Panamanian\nCaribbean music into the swing, and was musical director of the Louis Armstrong\norchestra, one of the most great musicians in the history of Jazz and made\niconic songs worldwide such as “What a Wonderful World.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n I would include within the studies of the schools the\nmusical current of Jazz so that they know the history, but also encourage the\nlearning of musical instruments such as the banjo, the ukulele, the saxophone,\nclarinet, so that they know that Panama made important contributions to this\ngenre worldwide. Have jazz groups performing in the parks on Sundays so that\npeople can have access to this genre throughout the year and not have to wait\nonly once a year for the Panama Jazz Festival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you\nfeel our country needs to be in a better musical position to improve the\nperception of tourism in Panama?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo be specific and direct:\nInvestment, support and publications are needed. In Panama we have a very good\nmusical product but they end up being forced to go to other places so that they\ncan be valued and listened, I am not saying that this is the case for all but\nfor the majority. If support was given properly, Panama would be a strong venue\nfor music throughout the region. Proof of this enormous potential is that all\nthe great artists come to Panama to measure the thermometer of their\npopularity, if they are successful here, they will also be successful in the\nrest of the region.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How can\nPanama use music to carry our history and raise the country brand?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is identity, it is part\nof folklore in first instance, however, we also have ballads, salsa and why\nnot, new musical trends can be created to frame our culture and history. Music\nis a transmitter of information and audiences are receivers. The lyrics of the\nsongs must carry a message, but one that leads to something positive, even if\nit is a social complaint, do it in a way that projects solutions, all within\nthe framework of good wording and from the positive side. History is important,\nit is part of the culture. It should be a trend for all artists to have musical\ncomposition alluding to how beautiful Panama is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n You have\ninteracted with great international musicians, how do you feel that they\ncontribute to creating a country brand internationally?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDefinitely sharing with\ninternational musicians elevates you professionally. When they take that\nsatisfaction, that taste, that joy, that show that was made and was successful along\nwith the magic of music being shared, they will say I went to Panama, those who\naccompanied me were professionals, interesting and the Panamanian public was\nthe best. This attracts other artists to come to our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a woman\nyou have had to make your way in an industry dominated by men, what can you\nsuggest for women to have a leading role in tourism?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe truth, it has not been\neasy, I have worked hard, learning, reconditioning myself, pointing to new directions\nmore and more. You should always be highlighting where you are and where you\nhave to go now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have to renegotiate the image of woman who have been\nvery misused and the woman in her eagerness to be taken into account perhaps has\nkept silence but that is because we have lacked that internal value of knowing\nthat we are worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Panamanian women have so many good attributes that\nthey can offer to tourism, we have our carnival queens, music performers of all\ngenres, there is something here for everyone, you just have to be willing to\nposition women in the best way in the music, art, crafts, customer service,\nsales, in all professions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which song of\nyours would you use as an international promotional campaign for our country?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFrom my discography it would\ndefinitely be the song Lipso Jazz, a fusion of Calypso with Jazz, Soca and\nCaribbean polka, the latter is a ballroom dance, this would be my contribution\nas an Afro-Panamanian and Afro-Caribbean that I have thanks to my father, who\nwas a great Calypso singer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our Special Guest is a prodigious Panamanian singer and songwriter, baptized as “The Lady of Jazz” by the famous Panamanian singer-songwriter Danilo Perez. Coming from a musical home, where her father, the renowned singer Lord Byron and mother Erenia Mendez de Dowman, instilled in her the value of music. Idania Dowman begins her musical steps […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4806"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4813,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4806\/revisions\/4813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thevisitorpanama.info\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Idania-en-Azul.jpeg\")
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