At first glance, this may seem a little paradoxical since there is no echo in the forests. But now, the forest is the number one source of inspiration for cellist Olivia Gay, and she has decided to pay homage to it. First by making her the main subject of his latest album released in September, Whisper me a tree (“Whisper to me a tree”), in which all the pieces performed have a connection to the woodwinds. But last year, seeing the fires multiply all over the world, she wanted to do more. “I live on the edge of the forest, I walk there every day, and after finishing the recording of the album, I asked myself the question: what could I do to go further? How can I act?“, explains the young woman.
She therefore contacted the National Forestry Office (ONF) and, over the course of the discussions, a partnership was born: Olivia Gay is committed to playing in the woods and thus raising funds to maintain sites damaged by climate change. , fires, pests. The operation is called “The silence of the forest”, a nod to the work of the same name composed by Antonin Dvorak. The earnings are used to finance the rehabilitation of the forest of Echarcon, in Essonne, where the trees are seriously affected by the ink disease, a fungus that kills chestnut trees and oaks.
Report on my citizen initiative “The Silence of the Forest” for the Culture F section of the@NFB_Official .
Happy to humbly contribute to the preservation of what we hold most dear!Full video https://t.co/5rQnwWkc3A pic.twitter.com/545xKfGYBM
— Olivia Gay (@oliviagaycello) September 12, 2022
The first concert took place on June 19, in Fontainebleau and, since then, between two concert halls, Olivia Gay plays regularly in the heart of the woods, accompanied by the pianist Celia Oneto Bensaid, on a small stage specially designed for the exercise, mobile, foldable, can accommodate a grand piano. In total, they are at half a dozen concerts, including the one planned for Belfort on the weekend of October 1 and 2 in the Mont forest. “If the weather is rightshe says, otherwise, we will find a fallback solution in a room, but it will have nothing to do.”
Indeed, she explains that in the forest, the acoustics are totally different, more raw, authentic, far from that “more flattering” of the Philharmonie de Paris, but where we hear the instruments as they are. Instruments which, moreover, are made of wood: the cello on which Olivia Gay plays is made of spruce and maple, shaped in 1733 and therefore 289 years old. This may seem like a lot on a human scale, but for some trees, it’s a perfectly achievable age, if we let the forests grow, if we protect them, if we preserve them. And if we bring just enough beauty to accompany them.