Paris In New York

Saturday, June 21st : la Fete de la Musique like in France

For the second time in its history, New York will be celebrating the beginning of summer, Saturday June 21, with Make Music New York (MMNY), a city-wide festival of music held as part of the worldwide Fête de la Musique!

 

First launched in France in 1982, la Fête de la Musique takes place on June 21, the day of the summer solstice, every year. During this one day, public spaces become informal musical stages for all alike, turning cities into festivals of live music-making.

 

Close to 800 concerts are scheduled this year, with performers ranging from schoolchildren to marquee names such as Roy Hargrove, the principal brass of the New York Philharmonic, and singers from the New York City Opera. Make Music New York 2008 will also include more than a dozen block parties —all-day music events on closed-off streets. 

One of the highlights :

Louise Bourgeois – Songs Remembered at the Guggenheim Museum

 

In anticipation of the Guggenheim Museum’s full-career retrospective of Paris native and artist, Louise Bourgeois, Works & Process has scoured the streets of Paris to find the most talented performer to play some of her favorite songs. Paris Metro accordionist Francois Parisi will perform French children's songs, operettas and symphonies by composers such as Claude Debussy and Aaron Copland, jazz classics by Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday and French classics. The performance will take place on the Guggenheim Museum Sidewalk, Fifth Avenue at 88th Street – 5:30pm.

 

Baroque Music: William Christie and Les Arts Florissants at Carnegie Hall on Thursday, April 3rd

Carnegie Hall today announced that it will present acclaimed conductor William Christie and the early-music ensemble Les Arts Florissants on Thursday, April 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall. The performance features Charpentier’s Te Deum à 4 voix; Le reniement de St. Pierre; Magnificat, H. 73; Litanies de la vierge à 6 voix et 2 dessus de violes; and Lully’s Salve regina and Regina coeli. Singers and instrumentalists include sopranos Claire Debono and Ana Quintans, mezzo-soprano Isabelle Druet, haute-contre Paul Agnew, bass Jonathan Sells, violinists Ada Pesch and Florence Malgoire, and cellist David Simpson. This performance marks the Carnegie Hall debut of both William Christie and Les Arts Florissants.

William Christie is a harpsichordist, conductor, musicologist, and teacher. His pioneering work has led to a renewed appreciation of Baroque music in France, most notably of 17th and 18th-century French repertoire, which he has introduced to a very wide audience. Born in Buffalo, NY, Mr. Christie studied at Harvard and Yale Universities, and has lived in France since 1971. A major turning point in his career came in 1979 when he founded Les Arts Florissants. As Director of this vocal and instrumental ensemble, Mr. Christie soon made his mark as a musician and man of the theatre, in both the concert hall and the opera house, with new interpretations of largely neglected or forgotten early music repertoire.

Tickets, priced at $56 and $62, are available at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, 154 West 57th Street. Tickets may also be charged to major credit cards by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 or online by visiting www.carnegiehall.org .

French Events in Manhattan, this summer

Eventhough, most of the French people living in NYC flee back to France for summer, you can still enjoy some very interesting French Events in town.

. La Comedie Francaise at the Lincoln Center : July 10 to 15th

Lincoln Center Festival 2007 will present La Comédie-Française, one of the world’s greatest theater companies, in the U.S. premiere of Les Fables de La Fontaine, directed by Robert Wilson. In Wilson’s visually striking interpretation, 19 of La Fontaine’s allegorical tales are brought to life by some of France’s finest actors. Wilson originally staged Les Fables de La Fontaine for performances at the Comédie-Française in 2004. When it was greeted with wide critical and public acclaim, the production was repeated in 2005. Featuring a company of 15 actors, Les Fables de La Fontaine revolves around the animal characters of the tales—lions, birds, foxes, and crows—with their parables of human behavior seen through the eyes of a 21st-century theatrical visionary. Performances: July 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15, Gerald W. Lynch Theater.
www.lincolncenter.org

. Bastille Day : sunday, July 15th. Noon to 6pm

On July 14, France celebrates Bastille Day and commemorates the 1789 storming of the Bastille prison, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution. New York is joining in the celebration with some fun events for the whole family: petanque, pastis, accordeon, waiter's race, French Cancan...a Street Fair with French Flair organized by The Alliance Francaise and French Tuesdays.

On 60th street from Fifth to Lexington Avenue, everyone is invited to be French for a day...

http://www.bastilledayusa.com/

. Citroen Automobiles and Velosolex motorized Bicycles Tour around Manhattan on July 15th

Have fun to look as the famous "2CV" driving down the city. Meeting point at Riverside Drive south and 122th (Grants Tomb). The route

Don't miss on TV:

. Le Tour de France : July 7th to 29th

. "France Will Never Forget"
On June 30th at Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, more than 3000 people will form a chain on the beach and write together on the sand "France will never forget. Thank you America"

Broadcast on TV on July 4th.

Julien Clerc, an icon of the French Music in Concert in New York - April 15th

For the first time after 8 years, Julien Clerc will perform in New York and will interpret his famous songs such as "Ma preference", "Femmes, je vous aime" and more recently "Double Enfance" and "Si j'etais elle".

Since the 1960s, Julien Clerc has been one of the most popular singer-songwriters in the Francophone world. After 30 years years, he still enjoys immense popularity in France, his concerts attracting hundreds of his original fans as well as their children.

Alternating between sad, sentimental songs and upbeat rhythmics numbers, Julien Clerc has always appeared to strike the perfect balance between finely-honed lyrics and populist melodies.

To Book your tickets, click on www.julienclercusa.com

or call at 1.800.230.0418

NEW YORK
Town Hall Theater
123 West 43rd Street
April 15th at 8pm

Sensual...Carla Bruni is back

Everybody remembers Carla Bruni as top-model in the nineties. But she has been singing for the last five years. And her music is worth discovering.

After the success of "Quelqu'un m'a dit" in 2003, she just launched a new Album called "No Promises", sweet melodies pop folk, inspired by poems of William Buttler Yeats, Wystan Hugh Auden, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare and Dorothy Parker. The album just got imported in the US.

Grand-daughter of a specialist of Wagner, daugher of the pianist Marysa Borini and of a rich industrial, director of the Teatro Reggio di Torino and compositor Alberto Bruni Tedeshi, Carla Bruni is born among the notes of music. Along the years, she developped her own way of composing her songs. She observes the printed form of the text, read the first sentence, try to find her own personnal resonance to it and start playing the guitar. "I am convinced that writing must let its place to the notes and vice-versa. One sentence, trois notes and I know if a song is there..."she says.

Carla Bruni is whispering "les choses de la Vie" (things of life) in a deep, sensual, sensuous voice. It is like spending a very intimate moment with Carla Bruni.

You can find her new Album "No Promises" at www.amazon.com

To know more about her :
www.carlabruni.com
or
www.myspace.com/carlabruni