The choir Les Rugissants, which seeks to take classical music out of its traditional settings, will present for the first time on October 30 at the Casa d’Italia, in front of a traveling audience, its project Arches combining music and architecture, a creation that has not yet revealed its full potential.
“Music serves to magnify the experience of architecture, and architecture serves to provide a richer framework for music. By creating in 2017, in the Sud-Ouest borough, and with the support of this one, the chamber choir Les Rugissants, Xavier Brossard-Ménard wanted to leave the beaten track.
It’s done with Arches, project of “ambulatory” during which a public, in the company of a guide, is brought to discover a place through its history, but also its architectural and acoustic characteristics. A choir positioned at different places in the building gives rhythm to the visit thanks to music chosen according to the place and its history.
” Arches was born before COVID. I was looking to meet different audiences in the city [ou les villes] and find a way to add some more traditional repertoire to my ensemble. We always make music in a space, and I wanted on the one hand to magnify the relationship between space and music and, on the other hand, to offer a musical performance that is more in the movement ”, summarizes Xavier. Brossard-Ménard, clarinetist and fan of contemporary music, whose choral mentor is the Norwegian Grete Pedersen, founder of the Oslo Chamber Choir. Brossard-Ménard is also passionate about architecture, a subject he studied at university. “Music always exists in an acoustic framework, and changing the acoustic frameworks around music gives different insights. “
Capsule series
Xavier Brossard-Ménard, who worked at Cirque du Soleil as an “artistic scout” before COVID, rebounded according to the new constraints. “During COVID, when I lost my job at Cirque, I thought it was the perfect time to launch Arches, and the virtual portion therefore began before the ambulatory portion. Judging from two capsules already broadcast, the project combining heritage history, architecture and music can be endlessly declined for decades.
“I see it over at least five years, as a parallel series to our season. In fact, yes, it is inexhaustible, and it is available: it can be done in other countries, in many formats. My long-term goal, with architectural partners like Heritage Montreal, would be an interactive map of Montreal where there would be visits and music, where, for example, someone with reduced mobility could enjoy their city. We can even make a TV series out of it. “
Four or five other capsules supported by the Canada Council for the Arts will be launched in mid-November. “It is parallel to our season, but ultimately, it occupies us a lot”, laughs Xavier Brossard-Ménard, who is delighted with the first ambulatory materialization ofArches at the Casa d’Italia on October 30 at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., then at the Church of Notre-Dame-de-la-Défense on November 21, 2021 at 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., as part of the series Presenza italiana.
“I have always tried to renew the proposal in classical music, not really with the aim of democratizing, but to update the format so that people can connect to it. My proposals seek to work around the framework of music. I assume that classical music is accessible, and that people can enjoy it without having gone to the conservatory. We sing the Messiah de Häendel like the others, but let’s look for different projects, a bit like The Knights in New York, ”summarizes Mr. Brossard-Ménard.
The Roarants are working for the month of May on a show “on intimacy, sexuality, with a strong contemporary anchor and projections”. For this, Xavier Brossard-Ménard, who will also offer this year a show with guitar and flamenco dancer, the first conceived by Les Rugissants, is already looking for outlets abroad: “Our productions are expensive, and so on. is difficult to sell them only in Montreal. “