RÉSISTANCES
Grand Ensemble Koa
CREATION 2025–2027:
Résistances… resistance to oppression, resistance to hatred, resistance to ideological drift that pushes our societies toward the denial of empathy, the absence of solidarity, and even the refusal of the other.
This aspect of human behavior—our capacity to create Résistances—is nourished both by our life experiences and by our need for art, music, concerts, poetry, words, and sounds that touch us deeply and bring us closer together.
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Socially engaged texts:
After BEAT, a creation dedicated to the writers of the Beat Generation and the rebellious spirit of William Burroughs, the Grand Ensemble Koa continues its exploration of the power of words and dissenting voices. With Résistances, the collective turns to three major 20th-century figures from very different contexts, all united by the same desire for freedom: Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwich, American writer Allen Ginsberg, and Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
These choices reflect a desire to explore the diversity of forms of resistance: Darwich’s intimate and universal poetry, blending memory, exile, and identity; Ginsberg’s fiery verve, inherited from counterculture and civil rights struggles; and Suu Kyi’s complex trajectory, a symbol of democratic struggle yet now a controversial figure.
Through this confrontation of voices and visions, Résistances interrogates our relationship to today’s world: how can we continue to stand up against injustice? What place should ideals have when they clash with the contradictions of reality? What remains of utopia when it becomes power?
This creation takes the form of several tableaux that set to music and prose the texts of these authors:
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Song by Allen Ginsberg
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État de Siège and Identité by Mahmoud Darwich
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Freedom from Fear by Aung San Suu Kyi …
The musical language of the Grand Ensemble Koa exists within this fertile tension: contemporary, energetic, and open writing, nourished by jazz, rock, and collective improvisation. The musicians seek to convey the urgency of the texts, giving a sonic resonance to the echoes of revolt, as well as to silences, vulnerabilities, and doubts.
Résistances is driven by the subtle compositions of Alfred Vilayleck and the luminous vocals of Caroline Sentis—a collective energy with relentless groove that creates a truly exhilarating sonic universe.
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