Classics and a bit of Bollywood too

Ahead of their first performance in Chennai, members of the French band Arties talk about their music and their special bond with India

March 25, 2014 07:05 pm | Updated May 19, 2016 11:23 am IST - chennai

The Fench music band Arties in Chennai Photo: R. Ravindran

The Fench music band Arties in Chennai Photo: R. Ravindran

A French classical music band that stems from an artist collaborative that started in India but is based in Paris. Arties is, as cellist and founder Gautier Herrmann puts it, ‘çomplicated’. In the city to perform at The Raintree, Anna Salai, the band talks about the collaborative, their trips to India and everything else, except the Bollywood songs they plan to present. “We won’t tell you those,” grins Gautier.

Started in 2008, the Arties Festival takes places in collaboration with the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), every March and November but the band is on their first official visit to Chennai. “I have come earlier for private parties or to meet people but this is our first public performance here,” says Gautier. “We know the crowd in Mumbai and Pune because we have performed there before. In fact, the crowd there is more specialised than in France. We have people telling us that they have heard the pieces we performed in London or elsewhere.” What about Chennai? “I don’t know yet. There is a lot of difference between cities. Pune has a lot of youngsters but we’ll have to see how it goes here.”

Arties performs a mix of German, French and American western classical music and throws in some Bollywood numbers to entertain the crowd. “It’s important for us to play different things and add to our repertoire. We can’t play classical and not include German music because some of the greatest composers are German and Austrian,” he adds.

Emmanuel Christien explains that the classical music of different countries echo different eras. “French music is very 20th century while German is 18th and 19th century. Around that time a lot of national schools of eastern European and Czech music started and that music became big. Only in 1830 did Paris become an important city for music,” he says. “Before that, it was Vienna.”

The Arties Festival happens in India twice a year and they hope Chennai will again be on their list of performances. “Arties is a big family of musicians. The idea is to make people meet; sometimes they work well together and then we try to perform together. This is so that the band is not just five friends who play every time. We always invite new people,” says Gautier. The band also performs at NGOs and for the underprivileged during their trips here. “We try different ways to spread music,” he says.

Arties is an Indian private limited company based in Paris. “We were playing in other countries as well but focussed on the festival in India, so the collaborative began here. Even now, we have finished performances in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia and Vietnam. The idea is to grow but our biggest event will be in India,” smiles Gautier.

Arties Festival performs tonight on March 26 at 7.30 p.m. at Rukmini Arangam auditorium, Kalakshetra Foundation. Entry is by invitation, only available at the Alliance Francaise of Madras (communication@af-madras.org). For details, look up www.artiesevent.com.

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