Cairo Jazz Station
Fresh from its success at the 2016 edition, Cairo Jazz Station, a group at the crossroads of jazz and contemporary Middle-Eastern music, is returning to Aix-en-Provence for a new programme enriched by their travels, tours and unexpected encounters.
These four musicians, hailing from Egypt, Italy, Portugal and Turkey, and representing very different aesthetics, got together to share their experiences and build a common musical identity. The virtuoso ensemble of instrumentalists – whose members come from the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra and met during the Medinea Sessions- will open for a concert by Sophie Alour at the Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède and will launch an extraordinary meeting between jazz and Middle Eastern music.
Sophie Alour, one of the most sought-after saxophonists of our day, performs here in sextet, in which they oud adds new and unique color.
Saz: Abdallah Abozekry | Percussions: Ismail Altunbas | Accordion: João Barradas | Doublebass: Loris Lari.
→ Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède | 15 July 2021
Tenores di Bitti
Inscribed on UNESCO’S Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2005, the vocal ensemble Tenores di Bitti “Mialinu Pira” continues and promotes traditional Sardinian polyphonic singing throughout the world. For their sole concert in Aix, the four tenors will perform a poignant compilation of secular and religious songs and beautiful Sardinian polyphonic vocalisations.
→ Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède | 03 July 2021
Mediterranean Youth Orchestra
Medinea session
The Medinea session final concert offers the chance to the participants to perform musical creations transcending local cultures, time and space and to share with the audience their unique and creative collective compositions.
Emulation, meeting and innovation are the keywords for the closing performance of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra’s Medinea session, which includes a dozen young improvising musicians from the four corners of the Mediterranean Basin, performing around the emblematic saxophonist and composer, Fabrizio Cassol, mentor of the Medinea sessions.
The Medinea sessions are an innovative composition residencies, using a creative process of experimentation and improvisation, and based on intercultural collective composition in the specific field of improvised music originating from the Mediterranean tradition.
Conductor: Fabrizio Cassol
→ Hôtel Maynier d’Oppède | 20 July 2021
Symphonic session
A concert by young Mediterranean instrumentalists with a bright future is always a captivating experience! As music director of the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra, Duncan Ward offers a sensitive and engaged programme and above all inspires the musicians and gives them centre stage. Hannah Kendall is an up-and-coming composer of today; and her Tuxedo Vasco ‘de’ Gama, inspired by the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat, is a veritable gem. Louise Farrenc’s work is beginning to receive well-deserved acclaim. And Berio’s Folk Songs are enhanced by the warm timbre of Anna Stephany.
Conductor: Duncan Ward | Concert with the mezzo-soprano: Anna Stephany| Pedagogical coaching: London Symphony Orchestra and Quentin Hindley.
Musical Programme
HANNAH KENDALL — Tuxedo Vasco ‘de’ Gama
MAURICE RAVEL — Le Tombeau de Couperin, version for orchestra
LUCIANO BERIO — Folk Songs, version for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
LOUISE FARRENC — Symphony No.3 in G minor, Op. 36
→ Grand Théâtre de Provence | 21 July 2021