51st Academy Classical Music Festival of Les Arcs

The 51st edition, "Mademoiselle: at the school of Nadia Boulanger
What a wonderful festival! What emotions! So many reunions and shared memories!

It was an extraordinary anniversary for this young 50-year-old Festival... Thank you to all the artists, teachers and trainees, and thank you to the public who turned out in force to witness this kaleidoscopic firework display that took us over 5 decades of music at its best!

As soon as this special edition was over, we turned our attention to organising the 51st edition. It will be held from 14 to 26 July, with the theme "Mademoiselle: at the school of Nadia Boulanger".

An immense teacher who spanned most of the 20th century, Mademoiselle, as she was known, had as teachers Gabriel Fauré, Louis Vierne, Maurice Ravel and George Enesco, and as friends Igor Stravinsky - who said of her: "she who hears everything! - and Paul Valéry, and more than 1,000 students, including Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, Astor Piazzolla, Jean Françaix, George Gershwin and Lalo Shiffrin... Great moments in store, then, as the horizons are so diverse and varied, from her music to that of her sister Lili, from tango to American minimalism, via jazz or film music.

Our composer in residence will be Raphaël Merlin. A trainee at the Académie in the late 90s, before playing cello with the famous Ébène quartet for twenty years, Raphaël now devotes his time to conducting and composing. We will have the pleasure of performing several of his chamber music works, including 2 world premieres, as well as hearing him perform on both cello and piano... This year we will be celebrating Gabriel Fauré, a friend of the Boulanger family and whose death we are commemorating 100 years ago. We'll be celebrating the timeless genius of Bach on his traditional day. We'll also be offering dance with Benjamin Millepied in residence, cinema, conferences, workshops, challenges, debates... And don't forget that 9 Festival artists will be performing in Bourg Saint Maurice over the course of the year in 3 concerts organised at the music school. Open-air concerts, concerts for young audiences, concerts in the beautiful baroque churches of the neighbouring villages, candlelit concerts, wine concerts, presented concerts, Mozart or Schumann monographic concerts, all free of charge - it's worth remembering! - We look forward to seeing many of you at this first edition of the second half-century of the Académie-Festival des Arcs! Eric Crambes - Artistic Director

Find the 2024 programme at: https://festivaldesarcs.com/programme/