Corou de Berra Choir
Corou de Berra polyphonic songs
On March 11, the vocal ensemble Corou de Berra performed a concert in the Sainte Separate church, in the heart of old Nice, for various charities. The Corou Berra is a polyphonic choir composed of five mixed voices, from the popular tradition of southern alps.The group, which this year celebrates 25 years of existence, has established itself as a reference on the subject, in a register exploring a wide range of emotions, from intimacy to universal.
These transmitters of musical memories originally wanted to maintain, indeed discover, the artistic heritage of their region, secular or sacred, laced with Sardinian, Ligurian, Piedmontese and Provençal influences without refrain, however, from flirting with all the traditional Mediterranean songs. But these musicians and singers with eclectic backgrounds, self-taught or from conservatory, come from the classical repertoire of jazz, hard rock or reggae and practice the hurdy-gurdy, the saxophone, drums or the violin and don't intend to limit in space and time to these traditional musical horizons. On this solid foundation they don't deny, as requires a living tradition, they created a contemporary constantly changing repertoire. Michael Bianco, founder and artistic director of the group, has been constantly "repelling the identifiable, the coding, the labeling", to move towards an impressionistic, living, and inevitably creative musical universe. Orchestra with vocal cords, as it beautifully presents itself, the Corou de Berra practices a music that never freezes. Seduced by their initiative, people from the hinterland exhume from their memory forgotten compositions, academics go in search of forgotten manuscripts. A quarter century later, hundreds of concerts across Europe, an edition of twelve CD, a discographic participation with the greatest, the collect of several awards from the trade press have enabled its members to develop a complex, refined, sensitive harmonic architecture and reveal a very special timbre, that over time, has gained in power and precision.From revisited popular traditional cantatas to sacred songs of past centuries, from great classics of Provençal culture to musical groups of the current scene, the most unexpected contemporary creations gush, interpreted with all the liveliness required by singers in full possession of their culture and their art. The choir explores all tracks, punk, rock, jazz, building bridges, as with the jazzman Andre Ceccarelli, plays complicity with Francis Cabrel, seduces the composer of Dogora, grand work for choir and orchestra, that has already delighted dozens of thousands of spectators during its tours.
For the anniversary of 25 years, Michael Bianco has just released a new CD, "Canta, ti passa" (literally "sing, that'll pass away"). Illustration by Edmond Baudoin. And for the first time, a DVD of their best concerts will be released in stores in December. The opportunity to (re)discover this choir's subtle, delicate accents.
