"Canti di a Terra" – Music from Iran & Corsica

Friday Oct 18, 2013

Pre-concert chat at 7:15pm with Matthew White

Christ Church Cathedral

690 Burrard St.
Vancouver, BC

A CO-PRESENTATION WITH EARLY MUSIC VANCOUVER

An extraordinary meeting of musical cultures: two ensembles – Constantinople (Montreal) and Barbara Furtuna, the stunning male vocal quartet from Corsica that specializes in the unique, centuries-old tradition of Corsican polyphonic song – present “Canti di a Terra”, a programme that takes audiences on a voyage from the heart of the Mediterranean and the mesmerizing songs of Corsica to ancient Persia and mediæval Europe.

Ensemble Constantinople

“As musician-inventors and musician-travellers, we endlessly replay our utopias, with Babel as backdrop. The territory to explore is infinite: cultures and memories whose lines we like to shift so that they finally converge. Furthermore, we make migration and the mixing of cultures our territory. Is it perhaps our early exile that led us to return to the source, to follow the tracks of our predecessors, to tirelessly search for creative allies? Whatever it is, this awareness of belonging to several space-times is as basic to us as respiration, as inspiration.”

Constantinople is the story of a musical ensemble that chose the journey as its cornerstone—geographical journeys, but also historical, cultural and inner—and to seek inspiration from all sources, to aim for distant horizons. Drawing inspiration the ancient city illuminating East and West, the ensemble, founded in 1998 in Montreal, was conceived as a forum for creation, encounters and cross-fertilization. Over the past decade, the group has developed over 30 new works and staged nearly 100 cities in 20 countries.

Ensemble Barbara Furtuna

Barbara Furtuna is a polyphonic Corsican group of four men. Even though the group still finds its inspiration in the island’s oldest traditions, it is now distinguished by its own creations and offers a music that answers our contemporary longings.

The group has been present on the international scene for the last ten years, in Europe, but also North America or Australia. It has increased prestigious scenes, solo or with unexpected collaborations. With the baroque ensemble L’Arpeggiata, with the ancient music of Constantinople. The quartet has shown that it could transcend a single register and that traditional music has still the ability to surprise us and to move us.