Children’s workshop / Round table / Miksi concert

Musical instrument making (children) – 16h30   

(Workshop from 7 years old)

Wild violin making consists of making instruments with what we find (or what we look for) in our bins. It is part of a zero waste approach that goes against the consumer society and its numerous environmental impacts.

Inspired by the low-tech movement and artists such as Staff Benda Bilili, Konono N°1 or Kokoko, the musicians of the collective teach participants of all ages and levels to transform waste into string, wind and percussion instruments. These workshops allow participants to discover creative recycling and the use of tools.

Round Table “Instruments and musicians: an intimate vibration” – 18h

With Akira Mizubayashi (writer, author of Âme brisée), Amaury Coeytaux (Quatuor Modigliani), Yamen Al Yamani (Miksi), Pascale Bernheim (historian, specialist in instruments stolen by the Nazis during the Shoah)
Moderated by Tristan Labouret (Editor in chief of Bachtrack)

At the start of this round table, 3 instruments that we want to present to you, 3 stories that we want to tell. Our ambition is to explore the intimate link between musicians and their instruments. A universal link, which goes beyond Western classical music, which speaks of violin making, of men and women and which mixes intimate history with great history.

In 2022, Vibre ! installed a temporary violin making workshop in the hall of the Bordeaux Opera Auditorium for the duration of the International String Quartet Competition. The viola, made in one week by 4 young violin makers from CLAC, was made available for one year to a young musician from Bordeaux. Amaury Coeytaux, violinist of the Modigliani Quartet, has been playing a 1715 Stradivarius violin since 2022, made available by a group of patrons.

Yamen Al Yamani, cellist with the group Miksi, has just had a gheychak, a string instrument from Persia, made in Iran. This human as well as musical project questions the relationship to identity and heritage.

The Japanese writer Akira Mizubayashi, author of, among other things, the novel Âme brisée (Broken Soul), winner of the Prix des libraires 2020, which tells the story of a destroyed violin and poignantly intertwines music and literature, will shed valuable light on the link between instrument and musician. Pascale Bernheim, historian, travels through Europe in search of musical instruments stolen by the Nazis during the Shoah. She is linking these stolen objects to their lost owners, but also to the history of the world.

Since 2003, the Garage Moderne, historically an industrial centre in Bacalan, has been a space for vehicle repairs, but also for artistic exchanges, shows and exhibitions. It has become an essential meeting place in Bacalan. It is undoubtedly an appropriate place to talk about craftsmanship, manufacturing, and the intimate ties that weave, break and rebuild.

Concert : Miksi – 20h30

Artur Zeqiri, Albanais – Violin, singing
Nicolas Lescombe, Bordelais – Clarinet, Arrangement and Coordination
Ebrahim Ahmadi, Kurde – Daf and vocals
Thomas Mazellier, Bordelais – Beat maker and violin
Yamen Al Yamani, Syrien – Cello

Without speaking the same language, but finding in music an ideal means of communication, the five musicians of Miksi got to know each other during a first residence at the Rocher de Palmer in 2020. Brought together by the European project Migrants Music Manifesto, they have drawn up a first repertoire inspired by traditional Albanian, Kurdish or Syrian pieces and now form a solid, luminous, virtuoso group that transports us into a world where borders are collapsing, where dialogue between peoples is finally possible.

The aim of the project was to bring together refugee musicians (who had left their country and their profession as musicians) and professional musicians who were involved in the local cultural life.
From the very first meeting, the 5 members of the group communicated a lot: “We didn’t speak the same language but we were so eager to exchange and learn about our histories, our cultures and our music. We met before each rehearsal to share a moment over a meal and get to know each other. “Miksi” (to translate “mix” in Esperanto) seemed to us to be the right word to represent us.

Miksi and her cellist Yamen Al Yamani, have set up a project to make a gheychak, an Iranian stringed instrument, in order to preserve their cultural and musical heritage.
This gheychak has just been completed and handed over to Yamen a few weeks ago. The luthier, who travelled from Iran, will be present at the Garage Moderne during this concert.

From classical music to traditional or world music, the link between a musician and his instrument tells an intimate story that knows no boundaries.