In Provence, a classical music festival links East and West

The Vauvenargues Classical Music Festival in Provence brings together Syrian, French, German and Egyptian musicians and composers as well as the Cuban pianist Jorge Gonzalez Buajasan.

“Ignoring borders” to create bridges between East and West: drawing on his history between France and Syria, the virtuoso violinist Bilal Alnemr, 28, will host the Vauvenargues Classical Music Festival in Provence from Saturday. Member of the West-Eastern Divan, an orchestra founded in 1999 by the great Israeli-Argentinian musician Daniel Barenboïm and the Palestinian intellectual Edward Saïd as a messenger of peace, Bilal Alnemr invited musicians and composers to Provence, from June 15 to 23 Syrian, French, German or Egyptian as well as the Cuban pianist Jorge Gonzalez Buajasan. On Saturday, the opening concert will bring together Polish cellist Maciej Kulakowski, American pianist Jonathan Ware, French guitarist Marie Sans and Bilal Alnemr at the Granet Museum in Aix-en-Provence.

The philosophy of the festival, “it’s a sharing between civilizations, Syrian civilization and French culture, I want to share, it’s something stronger than thank you”, explains Bilal Alnemr, who arrived in France at the age of 13, to continue his studies in Aix-en-Provence, then in Paris and Berlin, before beginning his career as an international soloist. Fleeing the war ravaging Syria, his parents joined him in France in 2016 and were welcomed in Vauvenargues, a picturesque village in the south of France, at the foot of the Sainte-Victoire mountain painted by Cézanne, thanks in particular to the commitment from Mayor Philippe Charrin, for whom this festival “is the continuation of a beautiful story”.

Always grateful for this welcome, Bilal Alnemr decided to organize part of the concerts in Vauvenargues to share his musical passions. On June 21, the evening of the Music Festival, he will perform sonatas by the German Beethoven (1770-1827) or the French Debussy (1862-1918) with Jorge Gonzalez Buajasan, a regular with major international orchestras and who also left young person from his country.

In the village will resonate on June 22 the compositions of the German Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) but also a tribute to the composer Ligeti (1923-2006) created by Nadim Husni, Syrian composer and conductor exiled in Poland and first teacher violin by Bilal Alnemr. Songs from the Druze mountain, in the south of Syria, and Arab-Andalusian ones will also be performed by Waed Bouhassoun, composer, singer and oud player (the oriental lute, editor’s note) and Rusan Filiztek, among the youngest and eminent representatives traditional Kurdish music.

The festival is organized by the Ugarit association, named after an ancient port city in Syria discovered by a French archaeologist, where the oldest example of musical notation in the world was found, a score engraved on clay tablets today. ‘now on display at the Louvre.