Our upcoming concert Across the Channel features the screening of silent film À propos de Nice by French New Wave pioneer Jean Vigo. Composer Francois Paris recreates this cinematic poem in his featured piece of the same name, a composition of musical dialogue accompanying the visions of life and social inequalities in 1930s Nice seen in the film.

Book your tickets below and join us on 14 June for a performance of works by composers with pan-European roots including the UK premiere of one of mexico's leading contemporary artists Hilda Paredes' piece Siphonophorae.

Book your tickets

 

The debut film of the twenty five year old Jean Vigo, À propos de nice is a cinematic poem of ironic montages that reveal the economic reality hidden behind the facade of resort town Nice. Vigo described the film in an address to the Groupement des Spectateurs d'Avant-Garde: "In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial... the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution."

  

Composer Francois Paris recreates the cinematic poem into musical dialogue with simultaneous construction. Paris describes the process as "an imaginary dialogue with Vigo through the years that I feel invited. Dialogue in which the filmmaker will of course always have the last word".

In parallel, Paris-based ensemble Court-circuit led by Jean Deroyer has created several ciné-concerts such as Paris qui dort (a René Clair film, with music by Yan Maresz) and Les hommes le dimanche (a Robert Siodmak film, with music by Alexandros Markeas). Join us on 14 June where we and Ensemble Court-circuit will be performing the Francois composition of the same name alongside BCMG Musicians at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

     

Book your tickets