A three choirs meeting!
Saturday, October 8, 19:30
Horto Theatre
- South Pelion Community Choir
Nikos Adraskelas, director - Kalamaria Mixed Choir
Yiannis Koukas, director - Cantabile Swiss Choir
Renaud Bouvier, director
With more than 50 years of activity, the Cantabile Choir is the Symphonic Choir of the city of Neuchâtel. Founded in 1970 by Georges-Henri Pantillon, pianist, organist and music teacher at the Ecole Normale Cantonale, it has performed many works with professional orchestras and soloists, in its canton and abroad (Paris, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Olomouc, Olomouc, Hradec Kralové (Czech Republic)). As an independent organization, the Cantabile Choir began a fruitful musical collaboration with professional ensembles in 1999 (the Chamber Orchestra of Neuchâtel and then in 2008 with the Ensemble Symphonique Neuchâtel) under the direction of conductor Jean-Claude Fasel. In 2010, the current conductor, Renaud Bouvier, took over, assisted by pianist Marc Golta, continuing an important work of musical development, while respecting the friendship and enthusiastic atmosphere among the choristers.
The Mixed Choir of the Municipality of Kalamaria was founded in 1983. Based on their contribution and love for culture and choral singing, the philanthropic Kalamarrians, with the support of the Municipality, have developed a numerous, qualitative and active ensemble, with a repertoire covering a wide range of eras and styles. Among the highlights of its numerous performances are: its two appearances at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, in which it collaborated with the Municipal Orchestra of Kalamaria and the Thessaloniki State Orchestra respectively, its collaboration with the Symphony Orchestra of the Thessaloniki State Conservatory, its concerts, tributes to Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Kougioumtzis and Yannis Spanos, which were performed in their presence. The choir has also participated in numerous festivals in Greece and abroad and has been awarded numerous distinctions. Since September ’97 the choir has been conducted by conductor Yannis Koukas.
The chorTodia (as the choir was named after its first performance in Horto in the summer of 2012) is composed of residents of the region of South Pelion. It is an amateur choir, a mixture of nationalities, people with an appetite and love for singing, who share the joy of music and artistic creation. With the encouragement and support of the Angelini-Hatzinikou Foundation, the embrace of the active Development Association of Chortos, the fervent participation of the Friends of Calderimia Association and the guidance of the conductor and pianist Nikos Adraskelas, ChorTodia has already counted many dynamic performances in its course in Greece and abroad.
CANTABILE, BETWEEN MUSICAL EVOLUTION AND FRIENDSHIP
In 1970, Georges-Henri Pantillon, pianist, organist and music teacher at the Ecole normale cantonale, founded the Chorale du corps enseignant in Neuchâtel. It became Cantabile, the Neuchâtel Teachers’ Choir in 1988, and then Cantabile, the Neuchâtel Symphony Choir in 1996. The association has performed many works with professional orchestras and soloists in the canton and even abroad on several occasions. The 1981 tours to France and Scotland, Czechoslovakia in 1988 and the Czech Republic in 1995 allowed the choir members to strengthen their cohesion, maintain an excellent mental state and share their love of music across borders.
With the departure of its founder in 1996, Cantabile became an independent company registered in the Commercial Register and created a structure with a voluntary committee of seven to nine members and a membership of between 110 and 140 choristers. The choir recruited Jean-Claude Fasel, a talented choir and orchestra conductor from Fribourg. The latter has made musical progress with his choir members from year to year, respecting the values of friendship created by his predecessor. Cantabile, the Neuchâtel Symphony Choir, also began a fruitful collaboration with the Neuchâtel Chamber Orchestra in 1999, and the links established with its professional musicians were renewed in 2008 with the creation of the Ensemble Symphonique Neuchâtel. This orchestra also makes sure to collaborate with the choirs of its region, and in particular with Cantabile.
To replace Jean-Claude Fasel, Cantabile, Neuchâtel’s symphony choir, invited Adriana Boczkowska in 2009 and then Renaud Bouvier in 2010. With the help of Marine Le Mouël until 2014 and then Christelle Evard, the current director of Cantabile continues to work for musical progress, while respecting the friendship and enthusiastic atmosphere among his choirs.
RENAUD BOUVIER
Renaud Bouvier took over the direction of Cantabile, a symphonic choir from Neuchâtel, in January 2010 and has since been exploring with it the repertoire for large choir and orchestra.
Renaud Bouvier completed his training in conducting in 2002 with Hervé Klopfenstein at the Lausanne Conservatoire, after studying bassoon, singing, musical analysis and orchestration. He also holds a degree in literature from the University of Lausanne and was an assistant in French literature.
He currently directs the Hostias oratorio choir in Lausanne, which he founded in 2003, and the choir Les Vocalistes Romands, with which he devotes himself to the demanding repertoire of chamber choirs, from the 17th to the 21st century, mostly a capella. In 2012, Renaud Bouvier performed Fabrizio Di Donato’s Stabat Mater with these two ensembles and Valentin Villard’s Messe à six voix with Les Vocalistes Romands.
In 2009 Renaud Bouvier founded the Académie vocale de Suisse romande, a professional chamber choir, of which he conducted the first recording. This first recording was awarded the 2012 Hector Berlioz Prize for the best recording of church music by the Académie du disque lyrique in Paris.
In December 2012 he conducted the Académie vocale de Suisse romande and the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne in J.S. Bach’s Magnificat and, in May 2013, in Frank Martin’s Vin herbé with the Quatuor Sine Nomine at the Opéra de Lausanne as part of the Sine Nomine Festival for the quartet’s 30th anniversary.
With Cantabile, Renaud Bouvier has performed Poulenc’s Gloria and Brahms’ Schicksalslied (2010), Mendelssohn’s huge Paulus (2011), Mozart’s Mass in C minor (2012), A Child of Our Time by Michael Tippett (2013), Ein deutsches Requiem by Brahms (2014), chants by Stravinsky, Bernstein, Pärt and Gorecki (2015), Mozart’s Requiem (2016), G. F. Haendel’s Israel in Egypt (2017) and three composers – Benjamin Britten, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lili Boulanger – on the theme of the Truce Centenary (2018).
