For his Printempo concert, Jared Michaud presents his Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley project. With his friends and guest musicians Melanie Saucier, Christina Koti (resident at Fondation Hellenique), Nicolas Arzimanoglou-Mas, Claire Gravelines and Gillian Bobnak (FEU resident), “join us for a musical journey exploring the relationship between Acadian folk music and French classical music, including Baroque music and art song.”The concert on Tuesday, June 11 in the Grand Salon of the FEU presents the conceptual musical project and showcases some of Gionet’s arrangements of Acadian folk songs, while the concert on Thursday, June 13 at the Maison des étudiants canadiens focuses solely on Acadian music, creating Gionet’s song cycle in France. The final concert of the Printempo series will take place on Tuesday, June 25th.
This recital explores the relationship between two very different styles of French-language music: French classical music and Acadian folk music. Acadia, the former French colony in the Canadian Maritime provinces, was settled at a time when ‘classical’ styles of music were developing in France, and these early forms often incorporated dance tunes and drinking songs; the line between folk and classical music was not so clear. With two Acadian singers accompanied by a Baroque ensemble, this concert aims to highlight the ways in which the Acadian diaspora has upheld some 17th-century French traditions in its folk music. The concert simultaneously focuses on classical art song, particularly voice and piano music (mélodie) of the 20th century, and how it often drew inspiration from folk styles, directly and indirectly. Finally, the ensemble will present authentic Acadian folk songs recently arranged in the style of French classical art song by Canadian pianist and composer C.P. Gionet. Ultimately, this recital brings together not only folk and classical music but also Acadia and France in the hopes of celebrating the strength of our shared culture.
Practical Information
Date Tuesday, June 11 | Time 7:30 PM | Facebook Event
Program
Gabriel Bataille (1575-1630)
Qui veut chasser une migraine
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704)
Sans frayeur dans ce bois
Traditional Acadian, in Baroque style
Dans les Prison de Nantes
Déodat de Séverac (1872-1921)
Dans les Prisons de Nantes
Musette
Le roi a fait battre tambour
Joseph Canteloube (1879-1957)
Airs Tendres (1949)
Petite Abeille
Dans mon berger
Dans ce beau vallon
Vivons heureux
Vous qui donnez de l’amour
Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Folk Songs, Vol. 2 (1942)
Quand j’étais chez mon père
Eho ! Eho !
Le roi s’en va-t’en chasse
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Banalités, FP 107 (1940)
Chanson d’Orkenise
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974)
3 Poèmes de Jean Cocteau, Op.59 (1920)
Fumée
Fête de Bordeaux
Fête de Montmartre
Carl Phillipe Gionet (1979 – )
From 12 Chansons Folkloriques Acadiennes
L’escaouette
Écrivez-moi
La belle Françoise
Le pommier doux
Partons, la mer est belle
Resident Musicians
Franco-American baritone Jared Andrew Michaud is a 2023-2024 Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley Scholar in Paris, where he serves as a musician-in-residence at the Fondation des États-Unis, receives coaching and mentorship from Susan Manoff, and studies with François Le Roux and Pascal Rogé on a song duo course at the École Normale de Musique de Paris. With his duo partner pianist Christina Koti, Jared has won first prize in the 2022 Federation of Art Song Fellowship Competition (NYC), the 4th International SGSM Singing Competition (Slovenia), and the 2022 Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Duo Competition (London). Previously a SongEasel Young Artist, the duo recently studied and performed in lied duo courses with Anna-Lucia Richter and Ammiel Bushakevitz in Nürnberg with Heidelberger Frühling Liedzentrum and with Wolfram Rieger in Barcelona with Schubertiada, and they are currently representing France as one of the few lied duo emerging artists in the Young Europe Sings programme, co-funded by the EU. The duo has appeared in recitals in the UK, US, France, and Greece, performing in venues such as St. James Piccadilly in London, DiMenna Center for Classical Music in Manhattan, Petit Palais in Paris, Salle Cortot in Paris, Yale University, the Rhodes International Music Festival, and the Theocharakis Foundation in Athens. The duo has a particular interest in exploring various musical styles and cultures and its relation with art song, currently touring programs about Greek art song, French-Candian folk song, and French cabaret music. Beyond song and recital, Jared has performed as a soloist in numerous operas and concerts, most notably in the Nostos Festival at the Stavros Niarchos Center in Athens. In 2022, he made his premiere at the Welsh National Opera as Barabashkin in their Young Company production of Cheryomushki, and in 2023, Jared sang in the chorus at the renowned Grange Park Opera festival. Jared also has a passion for incorporating activism into his music, currently finding artistic ways to encourage voting as a Changemaker representing France with Culture Action Europe and previously serving as an assistant conductor and dialogue facilitator of the Israeli- Palestinian Jerusalem Youth Chorus. Jared received his MA from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, graduating with Distinction as a Kathleen Roberts Vocal Scholar, and his BA from Yale University, graduating with Distinction and cum laude.
Gillian Bobnak is an American oboist who specializes in historical and modern oboes. She is newly based in France, where she is studying with Antoine Torunczyk at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, where she was a student of Mark McEwen, and the Juilliard School, where she studied with Gonzalo Ruiz. At Juilliard, she worked with a wide array of esteemed faculty and guest artists, including William Christie, Paul Agnew, Jakob Lehmann, Lionel Meunier, Rachel Podger, Laurence Cummings, Peter Whelan, Laurence Equilbey, and Masaaki Suzuki. She has performed throughout the United States with groups such as the Oregon Bach Festival, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the San Francisco Early Music Festival with Vox Luminis, and Symphony in C. In the summer of 2023, she received a grant from the Netherlands-America Foundation to pursue a brief period of study with oboist Frank de Bruine at Koninklijk Conservatorium den Haag, and received a full scholarship for a week of study at the Vielklang Festival in Tübingen, Germany. Her interests include the performance of 17th and 18th century sacred German music, especially the vocal works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his predecessors; historical woodwind improvisation; early recordings and their relation to performance practice research; and France’s influence on the modern American oboe sound.
Guest Musicians
Melanie Saucier is a multifaceted Canadian-American soprano whose passion for music from the early Baroque to the modern era, combined with her breathtaking musicality, truly set her apart. She has most recently appeared as Damigella in Opera McGill’s production of Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Rosina in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with the New England Conservatory Undergraduate Opera Scenes Program. Additional appearances include in the chorus of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Opera Mcgill, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the New England Conservatory. Ms. Saucier has been featured in programs on various international radio and television stations including Radio Canada Télé, Radio Canada’s Tout un samedi, as well as the Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN), and France’s TV5 Monde. She has performed on multiple occasions as the invited guest of the Government of Canada, le Gouvernement du Québec, and the State of Maine in celebration of Franco-American heritage. She has received no less than three Legislative Sentiments from the State of Maine in recognition of her work as a Franco-American artist. She performed at the centennial celebration of the Great Lakes Naval Base in Chicago, Illinois, as well as the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Orlando, Florida. Ms. Saucier has participated in concerts with the Ochestre du Haut-Saint-Jean in celebration of the World Acadian Congress, with the Montreal-based Stewart Hall Singers as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah and Haydn’s Mass in D Minor, as well as in conjunction with the Amis de l’Orgue de la Cathédrale as a soloist in Bach’s Magnificat. Equally passionate about works from the early Baroque era to modern day, she has collaborated in recitals at McGill University with the Early Music Ensemble, and the Vocal Chamber Ensemble. She was also a featured performer in the Liederabend Concert Series at the New England Conservatory. She has performed recitals internationally in the United States, Canada and Cyprus including the world premiere of Three Bashu Haiku by Boston-based composer Angel Joshi Carmen. She has appeared in masterclasses with Andrew Garland, Randall Scarlata, Tracy Dahl, and Amanda Forsythe. Originally from Fort Kent, Maine and currently based in Montréal, Québec, Ms. Saucier obtained her bachelor’s degree at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Lisa Saffer and MaryAnn McCormick. She obtained two Master’s degrees in Vocal Performance and Early Music Performance at McGill University studying with Annamaria Popescu.
Greek pianist Christina Maria Koti is a 2023-2024 musician-in-residence at the Fondation Hellénique in Paris, where she studies privately with Susan Manoff as well as pursuing an artist diploma on the voice/piano duo course at École Normale de Musique de Paris with Pascal Rogé and François Le Roux. She holds an MMus in Piano Performance under Professor Deniz Gelenbe-Arman from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance with the Trinity College of Music scholarship and has previously graduated from the University of Glasgow with a first class honors Bachelor of Music degree. Together with her duo partner, baritone Jared Andrew Michaud, she has won first prize in the 2022 Federation of Art Song Fellowship Competition (New York City), the 2022 Elisabeth Schumann Lieder Duo Competition (London), and the 4th International SGSM Singing Competition, Lieder Duo category (Slovenia). The duo has also been selected as one of the few duos to represent France in the 2023-2024 Young Europe Sings Academy (YES). Recently, Christina Maria has participated in the following masterclasses and festivals with Jared: the Heidelberger Frühling Liedzentrum masterclass with Anna-Lucia Richter and Ammiel Bushakevitz, the Schubertiada International Lied Duo with Wolfram Rieger, the Colla Voce Workshop/Horto Festival, and the London Song Festival. Christina Maria has also taken part in festivals and competitions for solo piano such as the Gnessin Academy Summer Festival, the Concorso Internazionale Pianistico citta Villafranca di Verona, the Glasgow Music Festival, and the Dinu Lipatti International Piano Competition. She won the Founders Prize in Piano Accompaniment (London 2022) and has been selected as one of the Young Artists of the Toronto Music Festival (summer 2023) in the Art of Song Programme.
Of Spanish, Greek and French origin, Nicolas Arzimanoglou-Mas began his musical career with classical piano studies in Madrid. He then set his sights on jazz electric guitar. At the same time, he took an interest in classical guitar and trained at the Madrid Conservatory, where he obtained his diploma in classical guitar. He then travelled to Paris, where he studied theorbo, baroque guitar and lute with Benjamin Perrot at the Conservatoire de Versailles, graduating with a diploma in early music. At the same time, he completed a degree in musicology at the Université Paris 8. Nicolas performs regularly with various baroque music ensembles, including Amici Miei, Pulcinella and Barbaroco. He has performed at festivals such as Les riches heures de la Réole, the Bordeaux Festival of Sacred Music, Embaroquement Inmédiat, the Marin Marais Festival, ECOS in Spain, the Nyon Festival of Sacred Music in Switzerland, Festival Inventio and others. In addition to his concert work, Nicolas is interested in various forms of musical sharing, notably through interventions in health centers and schools, as well as accompanying plays and theatrical readings.
Introduced to Baroque music as a child, Claire Gravelines began playing the viola da gamba at the Conservatoire of Nantes in 2007, in Marion Middenway’s class. During her time in Nantes, she also benefited from the teaching of Julia Griffin and Salomé Gasselin. After her baccalaureate, alongside her studies in literature and philosophy, she embarked on a professional viola da gamba training course at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional of Versailles in 2020, in the class of Emmanuelle Gigues. This career path has enabled her to take part in numerous musical projects, notably in partnership with the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, with whom she participates in concerts organized and performed at the Chapelle Royale. She has also recently attended several masterclasses, notably with the ensemble La Rêveuse, harpsichordist Béatrice Martin, Alexis Kosssenko and Sébastien Daucé. She is currently pursuing her musical studies with Natalia Timofeeva at the Conservatoire of Versailles.
Featured Composer
Carl Philippe Gionet is a pianist and multidisciplinary artist. Whether as a soloist, collaborative pianist, or pedagogue, Carl is in high demand, mainly in Europe and Canada. He completed his doctorate in piano performance at the Université de Montréal under the direction of Paul Stewart. He has received specialized training in collaborative piano in Austria and England, and participated in numerous prestigious international summer programs. In 2013, he founded Musique sur mer en Acadie, an organization dedicated to the education and diffusion of classical music in francophone minority communities, and since 2014 he has been the collaborative piano professor and vocal coach at Breno Italy International Music Academy (BIIMA). He is also a visual artist, primarily painting and video installations, working almost exclusively in black and white. He is represented by Galerie ART-ARTISTE. Inspired by the contrasts observed in nature, his work is both introspective and contemplative, allowing the work to express itself, therefore offering countless avenues of interpretation. Carl is also a writer, published by Éditions Prise de parole since 2021. With his first book, Icare, he was finalist for the Prix Antonine-Maillet-Acadie Vie. Leaf Music has released his latest album, Tu me voyais, featuring his Douze chansons folkloriques acadiennes with soprano Christina Raphaëlle Haldane in 2022. The score for his arrangements are published and distributed by Éditions Doberman-Yppan.