Full presentation - Ensemble Gilles Binchois

SACRED CHANTS OF ISLAM
AND OF MEDIAEVAL CHRISTENDOM
PRODUCTION
A S SO CI ATION
GILLES BINCHOIS
Gregorian chants,
devotional chants of the Middle Ages,
Sufi chants,
and chants of the Arabo-Andalusien repertoire
This concert is a presentation of the dialogue
which can take place when two cultures and
two musical traditions are brought together. In
this encounter the fundamental elements
which lend chant its universality are gradually
revealed to us - in the interplay of sonorities
and timbres; in the colours of the vowels which
are lengthened in the melismas; in the joy of
virtuosity and in purity of text; and in the
delicate balance between medium and
message.
Whilst these sources may seem remote from
one another, their streams flow towards the
same objective - namely a chant which is, in
both traditions, conceived as a vehicle of
communication between the human and the
divine. This shared objective is readily
apparent and pervades the music and all that
it communicates, intimate and sublime. It
offers a building-block towards a structure of
dialogue and of respect which is yet to be built,
and whose message is one of harmony and of
peace.
Noureddine TAHIRI, chant
Dominique VELLARD, chant, oud
Sofia LABROPOULOU, kanun
CONTRAT DE CESSION : 4 100 Euros
+ 2 nights hotel + travels Greece - Morocco
Biographies
Educated since his childhood in the rules of the Koran reciting, Noureddine Tahiri pursued his
musical apprenticeship nearby the great master Hadj Abdelkrim Raïs, who takes after the Andalusian
- Moroccan tradition.
At the age of 20 he obtains the first musical prize at the Moroccan National Singing Competition.
Since 1994, he takes part in the safeguarding and the diffusion of the Arab-Andalusian repertory,
of the Sufi songs, without rhythm (Taraktu Bab Raja) and rhythmic (Fiyachyia). He is as well a
master in the very specific art of the Koran recites. He regularly participates, under the direction
of Mohamed Briouel, at the work and concerts of the Arab-Andalousian orchestra from Fès.
---------------------------------------------------------The major areas explored by Dominique Vellard in his musical career are rooted in his childhood
experiences as a choirboy at Notre-Dame de Versailles where he developed a passionate love of
Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony. Soon after completing his studies at the Versailles
conservatory, Dominique Vellard concentrated his work on medieval and Renaissance repertoires.
Alongside his career, he has kept up his involvement in other repertoires, exploring the fruitful
possibilities of encounters with other musical traditions. Dominique Vellard has made more than fifty
recordings, whether as soloist, conductor, or at the head of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois, which he
has directed since 1979.
He's teaching early music performance at the Schola Cantorum in Basel since 1982. He is also
the Artistic director of the festival “Les Rencontres Internationales de Musique Médiévale in Le
Thoronet abbey, since 1991.
----------------------------------------------------------Sofia Labropoulou has been playing Kanun since 1997.
Graduated from Pallini music school, she was awarded a diploma in Byzantine music. She
studied piano, classical and traditional percussions in Greece. In 2003 she moved to Istanbul to
study the Kanun with leading exponents of the instrument such as Ahmet Meter and Hakan
Gungor (as for the technique of the instrument) and Omer Erdogdular and Necati Celik (Eastern
theory-maqams).
As a soloist she has collaborated with some of the most prominent traditional and alternative
musicians, actors, directors and ensembles in Greece and abroad.
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