A French Perspective in New York...
Join me as I search New York for everything that reminds me of Paris but of course is still New York. Follow me as I figure out what it means to be Paris in New York.
Every Friday and Saturday night 9.30-11.30pm, Jacques and Marie will be singing French classic hits by Trenet, Piaf, Montand, Dassin, Aznavour as well as New Orleans swing standards and originals at Gaby, the restaurant of the Sofitel.
Jacques & Marie have performed extensively in Europe and the United States in concert and on national radio and television. Their twelve-year partnership has grown substantially since its inception, from cabaret duo to 12-piece orchestra, performing for tots, teens and adults.
New York, NY (May 15, 2012) – Patricia Kaas announced today that she will bring her tribute performance for Edith Piaf to New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall on November 20th. Tickets go on sale this Friday,May 18 at 11:00 AM ET at www.carnegiehall.org.
Although designed primarily as a live show, "Kaas chante Piaf" meaning "Kaas Sings Piaf" will also be released as an album. Revisiting the greatest hits of Edith Piaf, this album is central to Patricia Kaas' tribute to the great French singer. This major album, which will commemorate 50 years since the death of Edith Piaf, will be released on the 5th November 2012, just in time for the Christmas holidays. Some of the most evocative titles will be remixed by young French electro artists under the direction of Fabrice Brovelli and Christophe Caurret producers of Woodkid, The Shoes and Yuksek.
"Kaas chante Piaf" is Patricia Kaas' new project, focusing on 21 of the great Edith Piaf's iconic titles, arranged by Abel Korzeniowski. The new wonder-boy of the Hollywood music scene, ever since his Golden Globe nomination for his work on Tom Ford's "A Single Man", Abel also composed the music for Madonna's W.E.
This show, commemorating 50 years since the death of Piaf, will open at some of the world's most prestigious venues the Carnegie Hall in New-York, Royal Albert Hall in London, Olympia in Paris, Operetta Theatre in Moscow, Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul, etc. With innovative stage design, this unique show aims to be above all contemporary and urban. It will include a video installation with lighting that is different from anything on the stage today. Unedited, extraordinary, never seen images of Piaf will be the centerpiece of this unique event.
French rock star Johnny Hallyday will continue his world concert tour with a performance in New York City at The Beacon Theatre on Sunday, October 7th. The Beacon Theatre show marks the first concert hall performance in New York City of Hallyday’s impressive 50-year career.
The New York stop is one among an international whirlwind itinerary performing in stadiums and arenas to thousands of fans in such cities as Moscow, London, Geneva, Brussels, and Tel Aviv. The final leg of his triumphant tour resumes in Montreal on October 4 for two nights just before the French star’s big debut in the Big Apple on October 7 – a show that promises to be worthy of his career as L’idole des Jeunes (The Teen Idol).
Although recently treated for bronchitis, Hallyday is stronger then ever and busy recording songs for a new album that features guest vocalist Celine Dion and set for worldwide release on November 12.
“Johnny feels very good,” said Hallyday’s manager, Sebastien Farran. “He sounds great and is already back in the studio recording his new album at The Village in Los Angeles.”
“I’m very pleased and excited to come and perform in New York,” said Mr. Hallyday in a previous statement. “I’ve never given an entire show in New York City, but I have an unforgettable memory in 1962, when I sang on the celebrated ship, The France, docked at the New York Harbor, for a charity concert in the presence of Jacqueline Kennedy. A beautiful memory of my career!”
Influenced by Elvis Presley and American rock ‘n’ roll, Hallyday (born Jean-Philippe Smet) began his career as teenager and is widely known as L’idole des Jeunes. His musical career now spans over fifty years, having sold more than 100 million records, garnered 21 Platinum albums, 8 French music Awards (Victoire de la Musique), appeared in 36 movies and performed to more than 28 million fans. Among his numerous collaborations include Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Peter Frampton, Taj Mahal and Bono.
With a variety of musical influences (rock, twist , yéyé , soul, pop), and a repertoire of more than a 1,000 songs, the iconic French rocker delivers a spectacular show with an undeniably strong stage presence. Famous for his trademark deep and rasping voice, Hallyday fills arenas and stadiums across France with fans of all ages.
Don’t miss the legendary French icon Johnny Hallyday in concert for one night only – October 7th at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Tickets are currently on sale at Ticketmaster.
TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets: $65, $95, $125 & Golden Circle (Price inclusive of $5.00 facility fee) and available online atTicketmaster.com or by calling 866-858-0008. Tickets are also available in person at Beacon Theatre, Radio City Music Hall and MSG Box Offices. Part of the Coca-Cola Concert Series.
FRENCH ROCK STAR JOHNNY HALLYDAY RESUMES WORLD TOUR
FIRST NEW YORK CITY CONCERT PERFORMANCE SINCE 1962
Nicole Renaud blends her classical training and accordeon skills to create an "otherworldly" universe. She sings, writes, sets poems to music, designs her own costumes, composes film soundtrack, all in one for her own very original music.
"modern take on cabaret inspired by blade runner and fifth element..." NY Times
on sundays
@ la lunchonette, chelsea
corner of 18th street and 10th avenue
7-10pm, no cover, drinks or dinner
this french intimate bistro hideway is a vignette of the artsy "old chelsea". great food & warm hospitality.
every other tuesday (next shows in nov 15th & 29th)
Not only Charlotte just launched her new album IRM last week here in New York, but she will be the hero of the month at the French Institute Alliance Francaise where some of her most famous movies will be shown every Tuesdays night in February.
The daughter of France's mythical couple, pop sensation and provocateur Serge Gainsbourg, and British actress and singer Jane Birkin, Charlotte Gainsbourg has shown both daring and creativity in her rise to the vanguard of France's cultural scene. A natural virtuoso by the age of twelve, her breakout role in Claude Miller'sL'Effrontéeearned her a first César award for "Most Promising Actress" in 1985. Since then, Gainsbourg has starred in over thirty critically-acclaimed films and has worked with prominent directors such as Agnès Varda, Franco Zeffirelli, Eric Rochant, Michel Gondry, and Todd Haynes, to name a few. Her film work has earned her countless César nominations, including Best Supporting Actress for La Bûche(1999), one of the films to be shown during the FIAF series. The fearless Gainsbourg's most provocative work yet as the grieving mother character in Lars von Trier's Antichrist (2009) won her the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival this past May.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Clothilde Baudon, Bernadette Laffont, Jean-Claude Brialy
Note: No English subtitles
Winner of the Prix Louis-Delluc, L'Effrontée earned Gainsbourg the "Most Promising Actress" César for this, her first starring role. As a teenager in rural France, Charlotte (Gainsbourg) is frustrated and bored with home life. But a young pianist upends her world with talk of opportunity elsewhere, far from her family.
Charlotte for Ever
February 16 at 12:30 & 7:30pm
Directed by Serge Gainsbourg, 1986. Color. 94 min.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Serge Gainsbourg, Roland Bertin, Roland Dubillard
Note: This film contains R-rated material
A rare, not-to-be-missed screening of this notorious and misunderstood film. Serge Gainsbourg wrote, directed, and starred in this dark and fascinating tale of a screenwriter grieving over his wife's unexpected death. Suicidal, he turns for affection to the only remaining link to his wife-his daughter.
Kung-fu master!
February 23 at 12:30, 4 & 7:30pm
Agnès Varda, 1988. Color. 80 min.
With Jane Birkin, Mathieu Demy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lou Doillon
Mary-Jane (Birkin), a divorced mother of two, grows close to a teenage boy she met at her daughter's party. Through conversations, vacations, and video games, the pair's relationship evolves in a way that confuses their families and even themselves. Varda's empathetic direction anchors this delicate, but often powerful story.
Muriel Vergnaud, flutist and composer from France, is also the founder of LiveYourSong -Multi Arts French program for children.For years, she taught her unique concept of learning French through singing and movement in numerous NYC schools.
"J’ai dans mon panier un petit caillou, deux, trois petits cailloux blancs, j’ai dans mon panier un petit caillou, petit caillou de rien du tout. Entre les petits caillous, je marche à petits pas. J’ai dans mon chapeau un petit caillou, deux, trois petits cailloux blancs, j’ai dans mon chapeau un petit caillou, petit caillou de rien du tout. Entre les petits caillous, je marche à petits pas. J’ai dans mon foulard un petit caillou, deux, trois petits cailloux blancs, j’ai dans mon foulard un petit caillou, petit caillou de rien du tout. Entre les petits caillous, je marche à petits pas."
Acclaimed Neo-soprano Nicole Renaud makes her Galapagos Art Space debut with Couleurs - a love story seen through colors, where each song is a color. Monday, November 23. 8pm at Galapagos Arts Space.
The "captivating Parisian songbird" (TONY) with an "ethereal soprano voice" (NYT) will perform songs off her new album Couleurs. Her multimedia concert will involve projections of colors and translations onto a transparent screen above the stage and the playing of her new one-of-a-kind lincordian: a transparent luminous accordion designed by British internationally renown artist engineer Paul Etienne Lincoln.
About Gay Marshall Singer, actress, Playbill Top 10 Diva and unabashed Francophile, Gay Marshall, reprises her enchanting Piaf concert at the Metropolitan Room. The show, PIAF: Queen of Heart, is based on Marshall’s 2008 recording, Gay Marshall Sings Piaf, La Vie l’Amour.
Marshall, a Piaf historian, presents a unique view of her subject at odds with the popular perception of Piaf as an overwhelmingly tragic figure; Marshall portrays the joy and mischief of her subject as well. Marshall translated many of the show’s songs herself, and she has woven the repertoire in a way that makes it as accessible and meaningful for non-French speakers as others.
Carla Bruni Sarkozy will be in concert in "live" on the stage for a duo with Dave Stewart (ex Eurythmics), for the 91st birthday of Nelson Mandela and for the first edition of the annual "Mandela Day". Aretha Franklin, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper, the Soweto Gospel Choir, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, T-Pain, Jesse Clegg, Gloria Gaynor...will participate to the show, in the benefit of aids care.
SummerStage joins the global Francophone community in celebrating chanson française (French song) with a line up representing the diversity of French contemporary music. Presented in association with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.
Yannick Noah is one of France's most beloved celebrities, because of his many upbeat pop hits, including "Saga Africa" (1991) and "Donne-moi une vie" (2006), but also because of his tennis exploits.
Coralie Clément uses her velvety voice to bring together familiar sounds of chanson and bossa nova music with the rythm and flair of French pop. Her first album, "Salles des Pas Perdus" was released in 2002, and she wrote a song for the movie Something's Gotta Give starring Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson
Mayra Andrade's ascension has been swift: at the tender age of 16, the Cape Verdean singer won the Gold Medal in a singing contest at the 2001 Francophone Games. Her deep and warm voice switches with remarkable ease from Morna to Funana and Coladeira to Batuque, all with a unique jazzy touch.
Charles Aznavour is without a doubt the most famous French singer that has ever lived. The singer-songwriter, 84-years-old parisian, is credited with reinventing the French chanson, a musical language that embodies the essence of French popular song; and for penning more than 800 songs that have been covered by artist such as Edith Piaf, Bing Crosby, Ray Charles, Elvis Costello, Bobby Darin, Shirley Bassey and Sting.
New York City Center performances are one of a number of stops on an extensive North American tour, a natural extension of a farewell tour that began in 2006. This “BEST OF” tour will include timeless performances of titles such as She, Yesterday When I Was Young, For Me Formidable, Take Me Along, You and Me, God Bless The Child, What Makes A Man, La Mamma, The Sound Of Your Name, and Ave Maria.
April 29, May 1, May 2 at 8pm
May 3 at 3pm
At the City Center, 130 West 56th street, nr Seventh Av.
The Lycee Francais de New York gathered music and lyrics of 65 favorite French children's songs in a book and CD.
Jacques Letalon, music teacher at the nursery level, sings with his students some of the classic songs that every student knows and loves : Freres Jacques, le Pont d'Avignon, Au feu les Pompiers, La Barbichette, Pomme de Reinette, Une Souris Verte, Promenons-nous dans les Bois, Jean Petit qui Danse, Gentil Coquelicot and many more !
Amazing illustrations by Otto Steininger
Vive la Musique !
$20 (without shipping)
Contact the Development Office at LFNY : 212-369-1400 or PNY at [email protected]
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, laFête 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 scheduledthis 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 Museums 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.
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 .
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...
. "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"
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.
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
