BENJAMIN MELIA

In this solo, Benjamin Melia, a musician from the Provençal tradition, wants us to hear ‘the tunes of which he is made; those that have always accompanied

him; those that blossom again when the winds are favourable’ Between traditional instruments and repertoires both familiar and unexpected, he has happily carved out a path for himself to lay down his artistic sensibility.Benjamin Melia deploys his entire instrumentarium. (Galoubets-Tambourin, Fifres, Chalamelle etc …) in this ode to the emblematic music of Provence.

Benjamin Melia, a traditional Provençal musician, began his artistic career playing in the streets at village festivals in Provence. He rounded o  his training with studies at the conservatoire, seminal encounters (with Yves Rousguisto, for example) and a love of reading. He sees himself as the bearer of a musical gesture that shifts the imagination of Provence towards a wider cartography. Avoiding any kind of identity-based withdrawal, he claims an open and dialectic tradition, an antidote to the ‘postcard’.

An activist for cultural rights and a renowned soloist, he gives more than 40 concerts a year, as well as lectures and master classes in France and abroad.

Benjamin Melia teaches at the IESM in Aix-en-Provence, is a professor at the IIMM (Institut International de Musique du Monde) and artistic director of the ‘Festival-Provence/-Saint-Pierre’ in Saint-Raphaël, his home town.

L’ESPRIT DU LIEU (Spirit of place)- concert solo

Instruments : Fifes, Galoubets-Tambourine with strings (or renaissance), Pirulas doubles (polyphonic  utes made of canes), Chalamelle (single reed instrument), ‘Boite à bourdon’,Percussions végétales, Crotales, Grelots’.

« I want you to hear the tunes I’m made of; the tunes that have always been with me; the ones that bloom again when the winds are favourable. Between respect for the styles of the repertoire and my idea of tradition, I’ve happily carved out a path for my artistic sensibility.

The intimacy of the solo took me back to the family bakery of my childhood, whose back room was my birthplace. A place where,  ltered through the noise of the shop and the hustle and bustle of the street, the sound of the  fe and tambourine will pick me up, probably on a ‘Bravado day’…»

EMISSION RADIO FRANCE

DIFFUSION

• Saint-Raphaël
• Les Suds à Arles
• Festival de Chaillol
• Les Allées Chantent
• Cité de la Musique de Marseille
• Bar-sur-Loup pour France Musique
• Festival Occit’amo
• Ville de Roquebrune
• Tousco Festival
• Mandopolis
• Festival Tchitchoubal

ACTION CULTURELLE

• WORKSHOPS, MASTERCLASSES, CONFERENCES and EXHIBITIONS– Music-conference : Introduction to the flute-playing traditions of the northern Mediterranean’, halfway between a concert and a lecture.- Exhibition of traditional instruments from Provence and the Nice region (fifes, tambourines, galoubets, chalumeaux, bagpipes, Nice carnival instruments in cougourdons, etc.).- Fife and flute master classes.

  – Instrumental ensemble music course based on the music of Provence and Occitania.

autre projet : TRAMUNTANA