Charles Guyard // Photo credit: Nicolas Guyonnet / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 1:05 p.m., January 20, 2024
To allow as many people as possible to enjoy culture, a group of three musicians had fun buying... a semi-trailer.
After setting it up, the three artists travel the roads of Pays de la Loire, meeting French people living in the villages.
A semi-trailer transformed into a concert hall: this is the crazy idea that three baroque musicians had.
These last routes at the start of the year, the entire Pays de la Loire region.
Because the motto is simple: if you don't go to classical music, it will come directly to you.
And it is in a truck that Ensemble Masque - a trio composed of a violin, a viola da gamba and a harpsichord led by Olivier Fortin - performs from town to town, or rather from village to village.
“We get there, we plug in, we turn on the power and that’s it, off we go, we can give a concert,” explains Olivier at the microphone of Europe 1. “With this truck, it was the idea to "to meet people in rural areas where they do not have easy access to culture. The acoustics are not bad, everything is made of wood and it is not a sound that has any resonance. "Plus, it's heated, it's well lit and the stage is raised. What's nice is being close to the audience," he adds.
“It’s very good to bring great music”
Facing the musicians.
There are 38 of the 3,200 inhabitants of Château Thébaud who came to attend the recital a few steps from their homes.
“For us, living a little far away, it’s not easy, whereas here, it’s very good to bring great music to the villages,” confides a local resident.
“I came on foot. And to be able to have classical music coming to us is great,” adds her neighbor.
And by January 28, the truck will have stopped in 20 towns in Pays de la Loire as part of the Ma Région Virtuose festival.