Passerelles
Founded in 2007, Passerelles brings together the actions carried out by the educational and socio-artistic department of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in the fields of mediation, awareness-raising and amateur artistic practice.
With the objective of including a wide range of audiences in the life of the Festival and to propose cultural actions in with its territory, Passerelles’ projects are based on reciprocity and exchange with its partners. Passerelles thus intervenes throughout the regional territory (44 municipalities in the Sud-PACA region), with more than 170 educational, health and social structures, and reaches nearly 3,500 children, teenagers and adults, in an invitation to musical discovery and sharing. The basis of these actions is the certainty that opera is only a gateway, that these productions question our time and our contemporary societies, and that everyone can find their place in these stories.
15TH ANNIVERSARY OF PASSERELLES
On June 9 and 10, 2023, Passerelles will kick off Aix en Juin with an anniversary weekend offering artistic practice workshops, the premiere of the educational show La Cuisine Musicale as well as performances of the participative projects carried out during the season, bringing together amateurs and professionals.
— OPERA AWARENESS
Passerelles offers several hundred free workshops, adapted to all audiences, developed with its local partners and led by artists and educators. These awareness-raising programmes include artistic and creative workshops (choral singing, writing, visual arts, theatre, dance, etc.), meetings with technical teams in our workshops and backstage, musical events and meetings with the Festival artists. At the end of these courses, the participants are invited to an encounter with opera voices and the performing arts, by attending a rehearsal of a Festival production, meetings with artists, or an educational performance.
— EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCES
For several years, Passerelles has supported the emergence of small interactive and educational artistic forms. With their adaptable scenography and dramaturgy, these small forms can travel throughout the territory in order to meet the public where they live, on the whole of the South-PACA Region.
— AMATEUR ARTISTIC PRACTICE
Through creative participatory projects, Passerelles creates opportunities for professional artists and amateurs of all levels and ages, in multicultural and intergenerational projects that emphasize collective co-creation and which are part of the life of the Festival.
—The chorus of the production of The Threepenny Opera being performed at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché in July 2023 will be composed of amateur singers recruited by the Passerelles department.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE THREEPENNY OPERA
— OUTREACH SKILLS TRAINING FOR TOMORROW’S ARTISTS
Every year, Passerelles and the MYO collaborate in order to provide young musicians and singers from Europe and the Mediterranean Basin with training sessions in outreach skills within the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Thanks to the mentorship of Mark Withers or Violaine Fournier (Minute Papillon Company), the aim is to develop the skills and enrich the professional experience of artists, to enable them to reach out to a wider range of audiences.
— In 2023, the Au Grand Air residency will offer artists the opportunity to compose new works in connection with a natural space. These artistic interventions will punctuate the walks of the small groups targeted by Passerelles, and will be directly inspired by the place where the walk takes place.
MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE MEDITERRANEAN YOUTH ORCHESTRA
— DIGITAL RESOURCES
On the Festival’s website, you’ll find a series of videos coordinated by the Passerelles department: certain aim to raise public awareness of opera, while others are devoted to workshops for artistic practice. Exclusively reserved for its partners, these online resources produced by the audiovisual service of the Festival d’Aix are available free of charge in the Passerelles professional area on the Festival’s website.
If you would like to become a Passerelles partner and gain access to these resources, please contact any of the department managers.
Manager of Socio-artistic service — Marie-Laure Stephan — marie-laure.stephan@festival-aix.com
Manager of Educational service — Frédérique Tessier — frederique.tessier@festival-aix.com
Educational manager — Frédérique Moullet — frederique.moullet@festival-aix.com
— RESEO
The Festival d’Aix is a member of RESEO, a European network of opera houses, orchestras, opera companies and artists committed to ensuring that culture is accessible to as many people as possible, that it is inclusive, and that it aims for the participation of all audiences.
With the support of
