2023: AN ANNIVERSARY, MANY ANNIVERSARIES

In 2023, the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence celebrates its 75th anniversary: three-quarters of a century of operatic history, concerts and musical innovation. But this anniversary brings together others that are just as important: the 25th anniversary of the founding of its Académie Européenne de Musique (1998), a formidable laboratory for the musical creation of tomorrow; the 15th anniversary of the creation of its Passerelles educational and socio-artistic service (2007), which aims to renew the audiences for opera. We should also mention the 25th anniversary of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which performed for the first time at the 1998 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, shortly after its creation, with its first international success, a Festival d'Aix production (Don Giovanni directed by Peter Brook and conducted by Claudio Abbado and the very young Daniel Harding, 1998) and which returns this year for the premiere of George Benjamin's new opera ; or the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the passing of Patrice Chéreau, who, a few months before his death, mounted a memorable production of Elektra at the Grand Théâtre de Provence (2013). Each of these anniversaries will provide an opportunity to pull together the threads that make up the Festival’s history and identity.

WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF : Sylvie Pébrier (former inspector of music at the Ministry of Culture and teacher at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris), Paul Briottet (Académie and concert programme deputy director), Sophie Ragot (secretary general of the Festival d’Aix), Philipp von Steinaecker (cellist, founding member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra – Picture a day like this) and Dominique Bruguière (lighting designer, collaborator of Patrice Chéreau).