With an amount of $20,000 to $30,000, many people would be tempted to buy a new vehicle, a new swimming pool, a state-of-the-art spa or jewelry. Instead, composer and instrument designer Sylvain Grenier decided to rent the Théâtre Plaza for four days on the sidelines of COP15 in order to present his own environmental show…at his own expense!
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When Mr. Grenier learned last June that the conference on biodiversity (COP15) was going to be held in Montreal, he jumped on the phone.
“I couldn’t be sure that I could perform directly on the convention site at the Palais des Congrès, but I could put on and organize my own show for the cause. »
The musician, passionate about ecology, does not give an exact figure, but the total of his personal expenses for his show Biodiversity in Music fluctuates between $20,000 and $30,000.
You have to pay for the room, the technicians, the musicians, etc.
“I dug into my woolen stocking! »
“It’s the show of my life, it’s now or never for humanity to take charge of biodiversity,” said the 59-year-old percussionist I met on the Plaza stage, during a ‘a repetition.
Photo Louis-Philippe Messier
Cans of maple syrup serve as resonators under the sound blades.
Opportunity not to be missed
Wink of fate: Mr. Grenier had just received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to compose songs about biodiversity when he learned that the international high mass of biodiversity would take place here.
“If COP15 for biodiversity had invited me to China, I wouldn’t have hesitated to spend a lot of money to go there with my instruments… And there, luckily, it’s happening here . It’s in Montreal that it’s happening. I wasn’t going to miss this. »
“Xylhockey”
It probably jumped out at you when you saw the photo: the Star Instruments of Mr. Grenier’s show, created by him, are “xylhockeys”: giant xylophones made from hockey sticks and cans of maple syrup , some welded end to end, as resonators.
It’s hard to do symbolically more “Quebec” than that!
Sylvain Grenier’s group is called SCRAP, an acronym for Show Concept for Recovery and the Art of Percussion.
“I bought dozens of broken-blade Koho sticks from an arena and trimmed and planed them to make them thinner. »
The fiberglass that solidifies these sticks conducts sound and adds a crystal clear tone.
The result is surprisingly… perfect. This Frankenstein instrument turns out to be harmonious. Blindfolded, you would never know that the mallet hits “Koho sticks” as musical blades.
“It’s hundreds of hours of fun to tune the instrument, but then it’s professional quality: you can play with any orchestral instrument. »
In addition to his xylhockey, Sylvain Grenier has designed a “xylhockey-bass”, with much lower notes.
Photo Louis-Philippe Messier
The percussionist Léo Guiollot in front of the “bass xylhockey”.
65 gallon metal barrels were converted into sound boxes. Silver spoons tied to a bar make a chime. A squash racket whose strings run through old keys is a tambourine.
- The show Biodiversity in music will be presented at 8 p.m. on Saturday, December 10 at the Théâtre Plaza. A portion of the funds will go to the David Suzuki Foundation, Greenpeace and Équiterre.