Accents Balkans

Presentation

ACCENTS BALKANS is a project carried by PASSERELLES, the Educational Department of the Festival created 12 years ago.

PASSERELLES addresses all kind of audiences — from preschool to higher education, or from the social, special needs, to health sectors, with various programs involving an important part of artistic activities.

The climax of ACCENTS BALKANS will be a 1h festive performance which will open AIX EN JUIN, our June and entirely free pre-Festival featuring musical events throughout Aix-en-Provence. It will be entirely performed by choirs of around 200 young amateurs from middle schools to university.

Paying tribute to Eastern Europe & Balkan musical heritage, ACCENTS BALKANS will reveal the complex musical world of the Balkan region with 3 perspectives: 1) an approach through popular traditional songs (Bulgarian, Greek and Romanian) and compositions from this popular traditions, 2) a selection of works from XXth century Balkan music, 3) a specially commissioned contemporary work for voice and orchestra inspired by the traditional music of the Balkans by the young Serbian composer Jug Marković (former participant of the Académie du Festival d’Aix through the enoa network).

Coordinated by the Festival d’Aix, involving 2 Artistic Directors, Philippe Franceschi & Sébastien Boin, ACCENTS BALKANS builds on an in depth relationship with local actors of Musical & general education:

Local bodies of the Ministère de l’Education Nationale (Rectorat / Académies d’Aix-Marseille & Nice)
Aix-Marseille University (AMU): including the "OSAMU" student orchestra and EV’AMU the brand new student vocal ensemble co curated by the Festival and AMU
Local Conservatories of Music and music schools
The musical quintet “Aksak”.

With the support of Ministère de l’Éducation nationale et de la Jeunesse, Copie privée, SACEM and réseau Canopé.

PASSERELLES has a track record in designing and conducting participation projects. Because they imply working together in an artistic act, in close relationship with the artists and institutions coaching the project, or focusing energy on a common target, the final public performance, participation projects can be a life changing experience for the participants.

Artistic Team

Philippe FRANCESCHI
Philippe Franceschi teaches choir directing and choral singing in several organisations (CFMI, Conservatoire des Alpes de Haute Provence, etc.). Since 1989, he is the choir director of “Antequiem”, a vocal group mainly dedicates to baroque music. He is also the founder of 2 choirs: the vocal ensemble for young people from Luberon “Accrovoix” and the vocal group “Cor D-Lus” dedicated to occitanes polyphonies. In parallel, Philippe Franceschi is a professional clarinetist for Aksak, a band specialized in Balkan music. Since 2015, Philippe Franceschi works closely with the Festival d’Aix in their Educational and Socio-Artistic projects: Festival chorales académiques, participative opera with amateurs choir of 200-250 people The Monster in the Maze with the London Symphony Opera (2015) and Orfeo & Majnun (2018), La Conférence des Oiseaux (2019), etc.

Sébastien BOIN
Certificated graduate in Musicology at the Sorbonne while completing his training at ARIAM, Sébastien Boin collaborates simultaneously with several choirs and orchestras: Chœur de Radio France, Chœur Contemporain, Orchestre de Chambre Européen AME, etc. In 2006, he founds “C Barré”, an instrumental ensemble dedicated to musical creation in which he is both musical and artistic director. The year 2009 is a turning point in his carrier as Choirmaster: he is invited by Matthias Brauer to prepare the Chœur de Radio France for the production of Requiem by Thierry Lancino. From this point on, he is regularly hired to work on productions such as Ariane et Barbe-Bleue by Paul Dukas (2011), Le Mandarin Merveilleux by Bartók (2012), etc. These projects lead him to work with Jean Deroyer, Susanna Mälkki, Tito Ceccherini, Eliahu Inbal, etc. Sébastien Boin is presently Roland Hayrabedian’s assistant for the vocal ensemble “Musicatreize” and teaches « music direction » at the CFMI of Aix-en-Provence.

Jug MARKOVIĆ
Jug Marković (1987) is a young Serbian composer of contemporary classical music that believes in non-cerebral, impulsive and passion driven composing. Graduated in both Archaeology and Composition in Belgrade, his training includes several renowned tutors: Vlastimir Trajković, Zoran Erić, Michael Finnissy, etc. Composer in residence at Snape Maltings and then at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, his music was performed within relevant music festivals in Europe: Donaueschinger Musiktage, Festival d'Aix, ISCM World Music Days, etc. He won ISCM Young Composers Award 2019 with choir piece Nirvana and is the winner of the TENSO Young Composers Award 2017 and winner of the 3rd Anton Matasovsky Composers Competition in Vienna, for his piece Egon (Austria, 2017). He collaborated with ensembles and orchestras such as: Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Divertimento Ensemble, Latvian Radio Choir, Chamber Choir Ireland, Ensemble Metamorphosis, RTS Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra.