IN ACTION: The Alma Chamber Orchestra in action at Festival Tons Voisins Albi, last June.
By Anand Holla
While the dazzling Francophonie Week in Qatar brought in a series of superb concerts from March 21 to 27, the last day of the eventful month was meant to win Doha’s hearts one more time with last night’s concert.
On the back of winning over audiences at Maghreb and Europe, the French classical music orchestra Alma Chamber Orchestra, conducted by the young maestro Lionel Bringuier, continued its stellar international tour, by performing at the Katara Opera House on Monday night.
The orchestra, which believes “in supporting music and peace from one continent to another,” was helmed by the genius of conductor Lionel Bringuier and the bow of artistic director Anne Gravoin. Along with its band of 50 accomplished musicians, the Alma Chamber Orchestra featured French flautist Vincent Lucas as soloist.
In fact, the main aim of the Alma Chamber Orchestra is to highlight the talent of each of the 23 soloists in the orchestra with Strauss’s Metamorphoses.
It also aims at sharing with the public the newly composed concerto for pianos by the young and talented Karol Beffa. Finally, there is an urge “to include the century’s most beautiful pieces, such as the ones by Bach, Mendelssohn and Sibelius.”
“It is a matter of immense pride for me to be able to introduce my compositions to Qatar, especially those bearing a message of hope, with an orchestra as renowned as the Alma Chamber Orchestra,” said Qatari composer Wael Binali.
With music open to the world, to each and every culture, repertoire and generation, the Alma Chamber Orchestra played for the first time in Qatar the work of the Qatari musical talent Wael Binali, titled Earth.
Conductor Bringuier welcomed the Qatar tour, saying, “Classical music inspires to a New World and brings to the front stage a message of peace and brotherhood.” For Anne Gravoin, “the unique goal, for the Alma Chamber Orchestra, is to bring a message of peace with the excellence of the orchestra.”
Monday night’s programme saw the Orchestra perform Beethoven’s Egmont Ouverture, Mozart’s Flute Concerto No 1 in G Major (K.313) with flute soloist Vincent Lucas, Wael Binali’s Earth, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No 4, to a rousing audience response.
The Alma Chamber Orchestra was created in May 2013 at the initiative of the Alma Nostra Foundation and its president, Zouhir Boudemagh. The Orchestra has already performed in Paris, Abu Dhabi, Tunis, and Algiers. After Qatar, it will perform in South Africa. The orchestra will begin 2016 with a concert for peace on January 8, 2016, at the Philharmonie de Paris.
Dedicated to performing on stages worldwide, the Alma Chamber Orchestra’s concerts are supported and organised by the Alma Nostra Foundation, “which bring to life and support music by performing innovative and international programmes full of emotions to promote dialogue between the people through art and culture.”
Through the last week, the Francophonie Week in Qatar hosted concerts by French groups Mario Stasi, L’Orchestre National De Barbes, Senegal’s Iso Lo, Canada’s Ayrad, Belgium’s Olivier De Spiegeleir, Lebanon’s George Martinos, Switzerland’s Celina Ramsauer, among others.
