Additional Information
The Concerts aux Îles du Bic have been around since 2002. For a year now, it has been Thibault Bertin-Maghit who has been at the helm of the Artistic Direction. Thibault, we already know him well here for having met him several times as the Director of the Collectif9 ensemble, whose audacity and originality we greatly admire. In anticipation of the 2026 edition of the festival anchored near the shores of Bas-du-fleuve (a region in the eastern part of Quebec Province), we spoke with him about the programming, his first.
PanM360: Hello Thibault. How was your first year as Artistic Director?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: I observed a lot, I took the pulse of the community and the organization. There were many discoveries for me. It took me a bit of time to get a clear idea of what I wanted to do. Moreover, we are in a special anniversary edition, as it is the 25th. So, we had to do things right.
PanM360: The beautiful discoveries and the challenges observed?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: On the positive side, there are all the wonderful encounters with new people, artists, volunteers, community members. For the challenges, I would say that the main one is trying things out and being in the uncertainty of whether it will work or not. Also, understanding the habits of the people who come. Why do they come, what attracts them, what do they expect, why do they go to one activity and not the other? It’s quite a task, it’s not easy.
PanM360: And what about this 2026 edition?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: We built the programming with a spirit of celebration. A celebration that belongs to the community. Because the Festival has taken root here for 25 years. It was a family adventure at the beginning. And it has remained somewhat like that, in a very intimate closeness. This anchoring is in the DNA of the event.
This year, we are offering a lot of free activities. More than before. We are taking advantage of the fact that the space around the church has been redeveloped by the city over the past few years. It was a parking lot for a long time, now it has become a park. It’s called the Place du Festival.
PanM360: A nod to the bigger one in Montreal… Who says free concerts, says sponsors, otherwise it’s impossible. Is it easy to find them?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: There has always been a lot of support from the community for the activities. As I said, the Festival is well-established. But I won’t hide the fact that adding activities remains a funding challenge. That is why we launched a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe to support this expanded offering.
LINK TO THE CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
PanM360: Let’s talk about this edition, which will take place from August 1st to 8th. A theme, a guiding principle?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: I wanted to create encounters between musicians and the public, while allowing artists to showcase different facets of their art. The same artist will perform a traditional music concert, but also an experimental music concert, for example. When there is only one concert associated with one style, you don’t get to see the full versatility of the performer. Within the same event, one can vary the approaches.
PanM360: For example?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: Let’s take the opening concert. It is about the 24 preludes by Chopin. Everyone knows Chopin. But here, they are presented in various instrumentations. There will be some played on the piano, of course (by Chloé Dumoulin), but others will be played by strings, and still others by a synthesizer/ondes martenot duo!
INFO AND TICKETS FOR THE OPENING CONCERT
On the other hand, the closing concert will immerse us in traditional music from all sorts of origins. The interdisciplinary storyteller Samaqani Cocahq will be at the center of the event. She is from the Neqotkuk First Nation in New Brunswick. She will present songs from our territory, from the Bas-du-Fleuve region here, ancestral songs. There will also be arrangements of Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs in a very refined, very rich instrumentation. This will even include the Salicorne Trio, a traditional music ensemble from Rimouski. An opportunity for truly unique encounters.
INFO AND TICKETS FOR THE CLOSING CONCERT
PanM360: I also see a concert merging the world of Collectif9 (of which you are a part!) with that of Ronny Désinor, a drummer associated with jazz, soul, and groove. I also see another beautiful event: the famous In C by Terry Riley, a masterpiece of repetitive Minimalism, with the Modulaire ensemble (the synthesizer/Ondes martenot duo). A lot of boldness, indeed…
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: Yes, we really enjoy offering music lovers amazing encounters.
PanM360: Can you tell me about the concert dedicated to the composer Charlotte Sohy? An artist who is increasingly being performed.
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: Charlotte Sohy was rediscovered a few years ago, maybe 4-5-6 years ago. We came across her music and it was a love at first sight. She composed her music at the beginning of the 20th century. She studied with Vincent D’indy. You can hear sounds in the style of Ravel, Debussy. It’s really familiar to our ears, but it remains very personal. She is a composer to discover. I think she is going to become one of the must-haves of the coming years.
INFO AND TICKETS FOR THE CONCERT IN HONOUR OF CHARLOTTE SOHY
PanM360: A bit like Florence Price for the past few years as well.
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: Yes. The cellist Andrea Stewart will host the concert, sharing anecdotes and information related to the life story of Charlotte Sohy and the historical context. There will also be a screening of a documentary about this composer on another day. But it really complements the discovery experience.
I would also like to mention the Grand Cabaret of the Festival. A very friendly event in the church. The festival musicians present a series of performances and reveal lesser-known aspects of their musical practice. For the only time during the Festival, a bar will be present and spectators will be able to buy drinks.
INFO AND TICKETS FOR THE GRAND CABARET
PanM360: And the free activities?
Thibault Bertin-Maghit: The clarinettist Charlotte Layec and her trio Malvenn will perform several concerts at the Festival Square. There will also be an event called Échos du Vivant, which is an installation and performance path, taking place just behind the church. It is a musical journey of 45 minutes to an hour, in which four performers plus a mediator will present a creation show, rooted in the biology of the place. We developed the show in collaboration with a biologist and professor at UQAR (University of Quebec in Rimouski), Ludovic Jolicoeur, who lives in Bic. New music, created for the event, with visuals based on the microbiology of the place, etc.
We are going to refocus quite a bit of our activities near the new Square, and there will be an outdoor bar and dining service. We want to make it a vibrant center throughout the week.
