PASSERELLES

2016 - 2017 Projects

Each year, hundreds of amateurs take part in projects where they can discover or develop an artistic practice and ending with a public performance. These include choral singing, orchestral practice, musical improvisation workshops in a public space, musical creation and traditionnal songs.

• Festival Choral Académique 2017 : The Festival d'Aix has been a partner in this cultural initiative,promoted by the Aix-Marseille educational authorities, since 2015. The Festival d'Aix includes to this cultural initiative the Cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton and her artistic project Odyssey. She has invited a choir drawn from school choirs in the Aix-Marseille region to accompany her on this imaginary musical journey, accompanied by choirmaster Philippe Franceschi. With the participation of schools in Marseille (Collège Versailes), Manosque (Ecole Internationale, Lycée Esclangon, Collège Jean Giono) and Aix-en-Provence (Collège Sophie Germain), and in partnership with the Darius Milhaud Conservatory in Aix-en-Provence and the Manosque Conservatory of Music.Performances scheduled on 17 June 2017 in Manosque and on 24 June 2017 in Aix-en-Provence.
• Creative residencies runned by Jazz musician Raphaël Imbert and the artists involved in the Passerelles for school orchestras, traditional gruops, young people and families, bringing festive music to the city's outdoor spaces when the sun is shining.
• The Ibn Zaydoun Multicultural Choir is enhancing its repertoire with songs based on the texts of Bayram Al-Tounsi, composed by their very own choirmaster  Moneim Adwan. The choir will give concerts regularly in the region.

Development of creative projects and opera pathway to discover the works and the several 2017 thematics of the Festival programme (freedom, desire, accomplishment, interpersonal relationships...)

• Lively and participative presentations regarding the works and lyric art, led by a team from the Passerelles team.
• Creative workshops allowing each participant to have a sensitive and personal work approach: vocal and musical practice, plastic worshops, visual arts, marionnettes, writing, etc.

Our programme

2016

• Outreach programmes tailored around each specific opera performed in the Festival d’Aix 2016, including:
  
  • Fleeting image and self-image, a photographic approach to Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno
  • Graphic storytelling workshops and musical events around Kalîla wa Dimna 
  • Workshops on narrative, voice and audiovisual creation around Così fan tutte
• New educational performance about opera
• Jas de Bouffan music walk: a major musical and festive event on 4 June 2016 in the Jas-de-Bouffan quarter (Fondation Vasarely, Gilbert Vilers park, Bois de l'Aune Theater) gathering school orchestras and adult amateurs chorus
• Cover of Arscénic, an educational and participative performance created by Sybille Wilson
• Concerts by the Ibn Zaydoun Choir
• Concert and creative residency with OJM and Medinea musicians : Musique à la Savine, ephemeral Chorus

2015

The Monster in the Maze

In 2014-2015, these workshops were more particularly structured around a landmark project: the French creation of The Monster in the Maze, performed at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence on July 8 and 9, 2015.

The opera brang into play more than 300 singers (primary and secondary school children and adults) from local amateur choirs, who had been rehearsing since the beginning of the year to prepare for the performances given on the 8th and 9th of July at the Grand Théâtre de Provence. Thanks to its roots in the region, the close relations forged over the years with local education and social stakeholders and its experience in mediation with varied communities, the Passerelles (Bridges) programme has played an active role in this initiative, which success was consequential.

Born from the common desire of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and the Berliner Philharmoniker, this project has lead to the creation of an online interactive platform, with support from the Creative Europe program of the European Union. Focussed on the creative process of the show, this platform offers to go behind the scenes ofThe Monster in the Maze, over the rehearsals and the performances in Aix, London and Berlin.

Discover the platform The Monster in the Maze

Visit the digital exhibition dedicated to the project (in French)

The European Culture and Education Symposium also focused on this uncommon experience, to tackle the theme: "Associating professional and amateur artists in European creative project".

2014

• The Dove, the Fox and the Heron – music theatre work composed by Moneim Adwan and directed by Olivier Letellier, with the Ibn Zaydoun multicultural choir
• Investigation into The Magic Flute – a participatory show imagined by director Sybille Wilson
• Orchestra Workshops 
• "Relaying musicians"
• “Musiques en cité” – improvisation in the public space
• Discovering contemporary music with the Quatuor Béla
• The Golden Vanity and Other Tales – education opera production with schoolchildren directed by Sybille Wilson, after Benjamin Britten
• Culture and Education Symposium: "Emergence".
• Creation of Opéra ON - the Festival d'Aix youth scheme

2013

• LSO Discovery Residency – the Orchestra in school
• Orchestra for a Day, with LSO Discovery
• Romeo and Juliet (2010-13), contemporary ballet by choreographer Josette Baïz on a music by Prokofiev
• Brundibár (2012-2013), opera for children in two acts by Hans Krása, given on the memorial site of the Camp des Milles
• Concerts of the Ibn Zaydoun Choir and recording of a CD featuring a selection of its repertoire and providing a record of its work since its foundation in 2008
• Sound installations inspired by The House Taken Over by Vasco Mendonça
• Boras on tour in London at St Luke’s, LSO’s Education Centre.
• Culture and Education Symposium: "Reciprocity as a pillar of culture, creation and democracy", as part of the European year of citizens

2012

• Second year of the Junior orchestra at the JEO (Journées Européennes de l'Opéra)
• Creation of an intercultural project Boras around traditional songs of the Comoros under the artistic direction of Mark Withers and of the choregrapher Thierry Thieû Niang
• Radio fantasia
• Opera Professions path
• Concert with Troubadour and Arabo-Andalusian songs, by the Ibn Zaydoun Choir
• Culture and Education Symposium: "Creation(s) for young audiences and intergenerational projects", as part of the European Year for active ageing

2011

• First year of the Junior orchestra at the JEO (Journées Européennes de l'Opéra)
• Show Arsenic with stage director Sybille Wilson
• Con Fuoco
• Opera discovery path at the Parons medico-educational institute 
• Culture and Education Symposium: "Evaluation of artistic initiatives with educational structures and non-profit organisations: the stakes and the challenges", as part of the European year of volunteering

2010

• Concert PARADE[S] at the Grand Saint-Jean, with the presentation of various projects on the Domaine in late June
• Firs year of residency of the LSO, and first projects with LSO Discovery (including the Junior Orchestra)
• Creative film music
• En retour, radio broadcasting about exile
• Culture and Education Symposium: "Artistic creation and social exclusion", as part of the European year for combating poverty and social exclusion

2009

• educational, associative and creative projects. First collaboration withJosette Baïz and the Compagnie Grenade
• First session of the European meeting for Culture and Education, on the theme: "Orchestras & Operas: Innovating in creative activities for young people", as part of the European year of creativity and innovation

2008

• Pursuit of the collaboration with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and production of a second creation out of the Wagnerian Tetralogy entitled « Celui qui n’a pas peur » (the one who is not afraid), inspired by Siegfried and performed at the Bois de L’Aune in June 2008
• 600 children choir (27 June 2013) on the Cours Mirabeau, with Fabrizio Cassol and his jazz band Aka Moon, composed of Oumou Sangaré, Baba Sissoko and Clarion McFadden, along with the Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône

2007

• June 2007 : First partnership with the educational service of the Berliner Philharmoniker, under the direction of Cathy Milliken, on the occasion of their coming for the production of Wagner's Tetralogy at theAix-en-Provence Festival. This partnership gave birth to a production and a movie inspired by Die Walküre, entirely carried by secondary-school and high-school pupils, in partnership with the Ballet Preljocaj and its educational service
• Creation of the educational service of the Aix-en-Provence Festival

With the support of