The Camac Festival, Nice: October 8 – 10, 2021

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September 27, 2021

 

Good things come to those who wait: after a pandemic-related postponement, it is with joy that we are putting the final touches to our preparations for the LIVE Camac Festival in Nice! 

There are now two weeks to go, and we are looking forward to an exceptional weekend.

On Friday, October 8, our exhibition will open at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Nice Pierre Cochereau. This is your chance to discover the biggest touring exhibition of our season, the latest models to exit the Camac ateliers, and particularly our new Égérie and Odyssey harps. Take your time to explore and try them, and exchange with the Camac team.

At 7PM in the Conservatoire’s Auditorium, we are delighted to welcome the Alexandra Bidi, winner of the Martine Géliot International Competition 2019, to open the festival with a classical recital. Alexandra will perform works by Debussy, Handel, Cras, Attahir and Tournier. We were blown away by her performance on Les Jeudis Classiques – don’t miss your opportunity to hear her live!

Alexandra will be followed by something completely different: pop and jazz from Pia Salvia on blue harp and vocals, and Noam Israeli on drums. This concert will begin at 9PM, and it is neither necessary to buy tickets, nor reserve them: the Conservatoire is open to everybody on presentation of the Covid “pass sanitaire”.

On Saturday, October 9th, the Camac exhibition will open bright and early at 9AM. At 10AM, Pia Salvia will give a pop and jazz workshop, including exploring loopers. If you would like to take part in this as a participant, please bring your harp (it doesn’t have to be an electric one!), stool and music stand, and register using the Camac agenda’s online booking form. You can also sign up via the same form to listen.

After lunch, Isabelle Moretti will give a masterclass, and you can also sign up as an auditor via the Camac agenda.

At 7PM, we present Concerto!, an evening in the company of soloists Agnès Bérard, Mélanie Laurent, and Sibel Pensel, performing with the Orchestre des enseignants et étudiants du Conservatoire de Nice under the baton of Thierry Muller. Agnès will give the world premier of Oceano Nox, Muller’s Concerto for Harp; Mélanie will perform Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, and we will also hear Muller’s Toscane, 3 images pour flûte, cordes, harpe et timbales. This promises to be an unforgettable evening, full of discovery and delight in the harp as a concerto solo instrument.

At 9PM, Saturday’s late-night concert will feature Duo Single Room: Rafaëlle Rinaudo, electric harp, and Emilie Lesbros, vocals. Jazz, rock, electronic, composition, improvisation, English, French…Duo Single Room’s music is a delicate mixture of colours, which will transport you to another world.

On Sunday, October 10th, you will also have the opportunity to work with Rafaëlle on the amplified and sound-processed harp. There is no need to bring a harp to this workshop – we will supply all the equipment needed – but you do need to register to take part, via the form on the Camac agenda.

At 3PM on Sunday, we reach our festival’s grand finale. This will be an absolutely exceptional event, which would never have been possible without the precious collaboration of Agnès Bérard and Nathalie Lebrun and their students at the Nice Conservatoire, and Nora Lamoureux and her class in Aix-en-Provence.

The subject of the concert is the unpublished works of Marcel Tournier, to which Agnès has access because she is the great-niece of Jacqueline Borot. Borot succeeded Tournier at the Paris Conservatoire, and he bequeathed her his harp and all his music. Agnès, in turn, inherited these from her great-aunt.

Happily, Lemoine is currently in the process of re-editing these works, so harpists can look forward to their renewed accessibility. We are honoured to be able to offer you their auditory preview in Nice.

For more information about the festival, you can download our flyer here, or please do not hesitate to contact the Camac team on +33 (0)2 40 97 24 97; [email protected].