Archives

• Open Day at the workshops in Venelles: After being cancelled for two years running due to the health crisis, the Festival’s Open Day at the costume and set construction workshops, held in Venelles on 17 March 2022, welcomed nearly 400 secondary and vocational school students, young persons, and adults participating in on-the-job training programmes, for a day of discovery of the professions in the performing arts.
• Two educational productions:
  - Tout Neuf ! created by the Compagnie Minute Papillon, is a musical and sensorial journey for young audiences ages 2 and up.
  - Cabaret Dionysiaque performed by opera singer Marion Gomar, pianist Benjamin Laurent and stage director Julie Timmerman, was specially adapted to go on tour among Passerelles audiences in the Sud-Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region
• Three projects based on group creation, conducted all year long, and to be performed before audiences on 2 July as part of the Hors les Murs concert-event:
  - Nausicaa XXI: a project that examines notions of hospitality and the vestiges of exile in the Mediterranean region, led by seven young men staying at the MECS SAME home for minors in Marseille, and created in collaboration with the singers and percussionists Sylvie Paz and Maura Guerrera from the association Sublimes Portes.
  - Rituels / Célébration: a group celebration initiated by the participants (young persons who have recently immigrated to France, members of the MODAC class at Lycée Gambetta, the MECS ACTE 13 in Aix-en-Provence, the École de la Deuxième Chance in Marseille, and the amateur chorus Afrimayé) in partnership with the Compagnie du Bayou and the Rara Woulib company.
  - Dieu Poulet: an unbridled concert performed by The Very Big Experimental Toubifri Orchestra and three orchestra classes from secondary schools in the region (Collège Versailles in Marseille, Collège Charloun Rieu in Saint-Martin-de-Crau, and Leï Garrus in Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Beaume).
• Au Grand Air — created by Passerelles for its audiences, in partnership with the Bureau des Guides GR2013 — is a musical journey in a periurban environment. This walking tour, which is punctuated by musical creations inspired by the environment and performed by young artists from the Mediterranean region, was programmed for the first time this year and took place four times on 23–24 May 2022.

• Création de nouvelles ressources en ligne accessibles gratuitement dans l’espace professionnel Passerelles sur le site du Festival : une trentaine de vidéos de sensibilisation aux opéras 2021 et d’ateliers de pratique artistique, aux côtés de l’équipe technique du Festival d’Aix et de 12 intervenants Passerelles.
• Plusieurs rencontres en ligne proposées aux publics et partenaires en raison du contexte sanitaire dont une visite virtuelle en temps réel des ateliers de construction des décors et des costumes à Venelles.
• Deux projets de création impliquant des amateurs avec des restitutions en mai et juin 2021 :
• Accents Balkans : un voyage musical initié en 2021 en deux étapes avec d’une part, la transmission de chants traditionnels de la région des Balkans et d’autre part, une création du compositeur serbe Jug Marković (membre du réseau enoa) pour voix et orchestre. Dirigé par Philippe Franceschi et Sébastien Boin, avec les musiciens du groupe Aksak et de l'Orchestre Symphonique d'Aix-Marseille Université, rejoints par un chœur amateur d'élèves, étudiants et enseignants de la région, ce projet a fait l’objet d’une captation en deux volets accessibles en streaming sur #LaScèneNumérique et sur la chaîne YouTube du Festival.
• Banjo ! : Porté par le service socio-artistique du Festival d’Aix, Banjo ! a permis d’interroger l’identité de Marseille. Ce projet a eu pour source d’inspiration le roman éponyme de l’auteur afro-américain Claude McKay, qui brossa un portrait hors du commun de Marseille dans les années 1920. Au fil d’ateliers bimensuels, une quinzaine de stagiaires de l’École de la 2e Chance de Marseille se sont réunis pour faire groupe, au-delà des différences et des origines diverses, avec le chant, la danse et le théâtre comme dénominateurs communs. Banjo ! a donné lieu à deux restitutions publiques : le 28 mai à l’École de la 2e Chance et le 19 juin à l’Après-M à Marseille.
• Deux tournées du spectacle musical VIBRATIONS initié en 2020 dans des écoles, collèges, en pied d’immeuble dans des quartiers d’habitat social, ou encore au sein de foyers d’accueil de personnes en situation de handicap. Soit 19 représentations dans 4 départements (13, 83, 84, 06).

• Third edition of the Open days in the workshops at Venelles on the subject of professions in the live entertainment sector for targeted audiences: 400 participants - young apprentices, youth and adults in vocational integration – were able to discover on 12 and 13 March 2020 a range of professions related to the performing arts.
• The Covid-19 health crisis occurred at the very moment various outreach programmes were being launched. Several events involving the participation of Passerelles audiences had to be cancelled or postponed, such as the creation of Moun fou in Marseille by the Rara Woulib company (postponed until October 2020). This was also true for the Accents Balkans project (postponed until 2021): a concert paying homage to the music of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Despite the difficult situation we are living through, and in order to prolong the experience of rebroadcasting Festival d’Aix operas, the entire Passerelles team and its “goodwill ambassadors” came together, from April to July, to offer their audiences weekly educational resources, creative virtual workshops based on the programme’s works, and games to download from home.
• “Aix Radio” outreach programme: creation of a series of radio programmes for the general public in link with the Outreach Skills Workshops of the Académie du Festival. Despite constraints due to Covid-19, a
  hundred secondary-school students, residents in medical care units, patients, volunteers, and caregivers took part in these conferences with young artists and in the creation of outreach programmes, such as “Aix Radio”.
• "Rencontres en musique": eight musical group-events, were organized in June with artists who were in Aix to record recitals for #TheDigitalStage, as well as musicians of the MYO in a residency at the Camargo Foundation.These events offered a musical break to over 500 people of all ages and all backgrounds throughout the region.
• VIBRATIONS: an educationnal show has been created by two artists of the Académie du Festival d'Aix, Sarah Théry and Etienne Fauré. The performance has been held at the Amphithéâtre de la Verrière (Cité du livre) in the frame of Festival Mômaix in Aix-en-Provence. 

• Opera trail to discover the works and explore the themes of the 2019 programme through different creative workshops, thematic days, meetings with artists before assisting to an opera’s rehearsal.
• Second edition of the Open days on the subject of professions in the live entertainment sector for targeted audiences: 400 participants - young apprentices, youth and adults in vocational integration – were able to discover on 7 and 8 February 2019 a range of professions related to the performing arts.
• Voice Journey with associations and schools for participative workshops around the voice in Opera, on 9 and 10 May 2019.
• Amateur participants from the Passerelles’ public were involved in several artistic projects: Opéra de-ci de-là, Corps & Voix workshops in partnership with the Pavillon Noir, Work Songs, Conférence des Oiseaux).
• La Conférence des Oiseaux: musical spectacle on 25 June 2019 during Aix en juin. A creation initiated in the frame of the socio-artistic activities, composed by Moneim Adwan and which gathered amateur singers from Antequiem chorus and Ibn Zaydoun chorus.
• Work Songs: several performances of the amateur multicultural choir - in connection with the Rara Woulib Company - exploring New-Orlans Jazz Funerals repertoire took place in Marseille, Aix-en-Provence and La Roque d'Anthéron between April and June 2019. 

Throughout the year, Passerelles was deeply involved at the heart of the Orfeo & Majnun project and its participative dimension. This major European artistic and participatory project was composed of a great festive urban procession on the 24 June followed by a free outdoor opera on 8 July. Here are some kind of actions developed by Passerelles for this project:

• Regular awareness and artistic practice workshops near a large audience from each social-background
• More than 1,500 amateur participants from the Passerelles’ public were involved in this project of which more than 1,200 people for the urban procession and almost 200 amateur choristers to make up the opera chorus. The Ibn Zaydoun Chorus, conducted by Moneim Adwan (the composer of the Arabian part of the libretto of Orfeo & Majnun) also joined the chorus of the opera.
• A training session by the artist Roger Titley to accompany twenty students and social mediators in the creation and the actioning of the creatures in preparation for the urban procession. 
• A musical itinerary on the 14^th February in order to participate in the Opening of MP 2018 – Quel Amour! (Orfeo & Majnun has been part of MP2018). An afternoon with many surprises – as the arrival of the Work Songs Chorus directed by the Company Rara Woulib – followed by the concert of the Ibn Zaydoun Chorus. This event has been closed with Lettres Intimes, a concert with the Béla quartet bringing together nearly 150 young amateur musicians from the musical conservatories of Aubagne, Pertuis and Vitrolles around an intercultural musical repertoire between the east and the west.
• The participation of the Grande Fanfare directed by Raphaël Imbert and the Work Songs into the urban procession in Arles on Sunday 8 April in the frame of MP2018 on the theme of Orfeo & Majnun.

To go back over the extraordinary odyssey of this creation at the Festival d’Aix in association with the European coproducers, go to orfeoandmajnun.eu.

LIVE AGAIN THE URBAN PROCESSION IN VIDEO!

• Opera trail to discover the works and explore the themes of the 2018 programme through different creative workshops, thematic days, meetings with artists before assisting to an opera’s rehearsal.
• Open days on the subject of professions in the live entertainment sector for targeted audiences: more than 300 participants - young apprentices, youth and adults in vocational integration – were able to discover a range of professions related to the performing arts.
• Voice Journey with associations and schools for participative workshops around the voice in Opera, on 23 May 2018.
• Awareness workshop dedicated to the musical creation around Seven Stones led by the composer Loïc Guénin with the class of 3ème from the Collège-Saint-Europe in Aix-en-Provence, a professional highshool from Salon de Provence, the Centre de Peines Aménagées, Centre de Peines Aménagées de Luynes and the Centre Communal d’Actions Sociales in Aix-en-Provence, on 18 May.
• Private viewing Des regards et des mots sur les murs de ma ville at the multimedia library of Gardanne on the theme Didon et Énée, on 3 July 2018. A project led by Vincent Beaume with the classes of 4^e from the highschool Gabriel Péri in Gardanne.
• Les Nouvelles Antigones: musical creation components based on music, writing and blogging workshops and meetings with artists from several Mediterranean countries. The project has risen to a creative performance, la Nuit d’Antigone, within the framework of Aix en Juin on 9th June 2018 at the Aix-en-Provence Conservatory, in which the Ibn Zaydoun Choir has also participated. This project, which was initiated in 2015 and involved the Sublimes Portes collective, was the subject of a partnership in 2017 with IEP Aix and Seconde Nature.

• Festival Choral Académique 2017: within the framework of a partnership with the Rectorate which began in 2015, a choir made up of secondary school and college choirs from the Aix-Marseille Academy, directed by Philippe Franceschi, joined the artistic project of cello player Sonia Wieder-Atherton, titled Les Odyssées. To rediscover the 2015 edition of Festival Choral Académique, read this article on our blog.
• Work Songs: multi-cultural choir project in connection with the Rara Woulib Company, under the musical direction of Alexandra Satger and the stage direction of Julien Marchaisseau, involving 90 amateurs exploring a repertoire of Work Songs via 16 workshops. Two cinema-concert nights took place in partnership with Alhambra cinema; one on 5th May in their projection room, and one on 11th July in the open air at Cité de la Savine with the Sound Musical School association.
• It’s our turn!: during this event, organised by the Rara Woulib Company for CD13 during the Dimanche de la Canebière event on 25th June 2017, the Work Song Choir put on a festive parade on the Canebière,  and around 150 young amateur musicians from school orchestras and the Bouches-du-Rhône Conservatories performed a festive Jam session led by saxophonist and jazzman Raphaël Imbert.
• Concerts by the Ibn Zaydoun multi-cultural choir in different cultural venues and charity events in the Aix-Marseille basin.
• Making Op' educational show (created by baritone Guillaume Paire and vocal coach Nicolas Royez) and the lecture concert of  the 2017 programme created by soprano Blerta Zhegu and pianist Frédéric Isoletta were presented in schools and cultural structures and associations in the Aix-Marseille region.
• Music in the city: three events organised in social housing neighbourhoods, offering festive and musical events in Roque d'Anthéron and the north of Marseille.
• Opera Discovery Days with Maison de Quartier la Mareschale and the social and  cultural centre of Château de l'Horloge in the Encagnane and Jas-de-Bouffan districts in Aix-en-Provence.

• 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

• 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.
  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".