The PAN M 360 team is very present at the Virée classique, presented by the OSM. Alain Brunet, Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud and Alexandre Villemaire report on what they saw and heard at the concerts presented in Montreal until August 18.
Montreal’s Mezghena Orchestra features over fifty instrumentalists, the majority of whom are female soloists.
Astonishing? For the mother of one of the instrumentalists, it seems to be a widespread practice. Wow! One thing’s for sure: the Montreal version of the idea of an Algerian-style Arabo-Andalusian music orchestra, a sub-genre of a genre developed at a time when North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula were linked politically and culturally, involves more than equal participation by women in the orchestra – oudists, bouzoukists, violinists, percussionists, singers, etc. – and the fact that the musicians are not all professionals, the level of training is very low. Friday at Complexe Desjardins, we could tell that the performers were not all professionals, but the level of execution was nonetheless acceptable, if not surprisingly good. Singers took turns expressing themselves with this large-scale orchestra, no less. Under the direction of Sid Ali Mohand Arab, musically educated in Algiers and thus a specialist in classical Arab and Arab-Andalusian music, the Mezghena Orchestra of Montreal is a jewel of North African immigration to Quebec. At first glance, it attracts the local Maghrebi population, but also all music lovers who come to explore the OSM 2024 Classical Tour free of charge. This is how an inclusive city is enriched by its local culture from elsewhere. What a discovery!
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