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ASMARA
CHAMBER CHOIR

Brought together and created by Samuel Coquard in 2004, this chamber choir made up of 12 professional lyrical singers has the primary vocation of interpreting the repertoire for chamber choir a cappella or with accompaniment by solo instruments.

The objective of this choir is to explore the works as they were thought and written and to give the closest interpretation to the original. Thus, Asmarã aims to make the public discover the rich a cappella repertoire of sacred and secular music from the Renaissance to the present day and to encourage the creation of new works, thus creating a new dynamic in the vocal art. French.

Promoted for the first time at the International Organ Festival of Roquevaire in October 2004 around a French program of sacred music with organ in honor of Pierre Cochereau, he will then be invited by many festivals.

Thus, the Asmarã choir was quickly noticed by producers and festival organizers and it was in July 2005 that we find it in a German romantic program, "Le voyage initiatique" from Schubert to Brahms during the festival of Aix en Provence Summer Nights and the Music in the Vineyards Festival supported by France Telecom.

 

The chamber choir will take this same year the name of Asmarã in memory of the last work for mixed choir composed by Jean Louis Florentz but also to the symbol of the song of the soul and its openness to the Mediterranean and to Africa.

Asmarã was invited for the first time in September 2006 to the Avignon Opera alongside the children of the Bouches-du-Rhône Masters to perform Mozart's Requiem with the Avignon-Alpes-Provence orchestra under the direction by Michel Picmal. Invited by the General Council of Bouches-du-Rhône, the chamber choir is on a tour in December 2006 for Christmas carols where they will perform works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Barber, Taverner and Britten. The press will highlight the qualities of accuracy and great musical sensitivity that make the essential marks of this choir.

 

The choir was invited for the first time in July 2008 to the Chorégies d'Orange to perform alongside the children of the Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône, the famous Requiem by Fauré, which was a great success hailed by the press. In 2008, he performed the Journey of Initiation devoted to Schubert and Brahms at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence, Montpellier and Marseille.

In 2009, the men's choir sang alongside the children of the Maîtrise and Barbara Hendricks for the big Christmas concert at the Grand Théâtre de Provence in Aix-en-Provence. Asmarâ creates Rossini's Petite messe solennelle for the Vendée festival on June 12.

2010. On New Year's Day 2011, Marseille Concerts is relaunching New Year's concerts at the Gymnase, a tradition in Marseille, and is offering the Asmara Choir the chance to perform Strauss' Viennese Waltzes. 2012, Marseille Concerts invites Asmara for the second time, at the Gymnase, in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle , after the success achieved with Strauss. They are performing it again this summer at the 41st Chorégies d'Orange on July 20 and 21, 2012 to perform it in its original version.

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