A LOOK BACK AT THE MEDINEA SESSION IN LJUBLJANA (SLOVENIA)

This programme by the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra is reserved for young composers of jazz and of music from any of the Mediterranean cultural traditions. Led by Fabrizio Cassol, composer and jazz musician, each Medinea session provides a unique opportunity for these young creators to engage in a process of innovative intercultural composition, based on the power of oral transmission and the strength of collective creation.

From 6 to 20 March 2023, a new Medinea session united thirteen young Mediterranean musicians from eight countries (Italy, Portugal, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Morocco, Tunisia and Greece) in Ljubljana, Slovenia, under the direction of Fabrizio Cassol.

The two-week residency allowed these young artists, whose backgrounds are in in jazz and traditional Mediterranean music, to express themselves, and to compose their own musical repertoire together. At the heart of this creative process, memorization and oral transmission reign supreme, without any musical notation; and contemporary and intercultural creative expression takes on a fully collective form, in the spirit of the centuries-old musical traditions of the Mediterranean region.

The newly created musical repertoire was performed as a public concert on 20 March at the Julija Betteta Hall, in the Kazina Palace in Ljubljana.

This creative session is the result of a close collaboration between the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Academy of Music of the University of Ljubljana — the Festival’s Slovenian Medinea partner — with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

At the end of this session, representatives of the member institutions of the Medinea network met to review past activities and discuss future collaborative projects and initiatives.

The following musicians participated in this 2023 Medinea session in Ljubljana:

• Alessandra Soro, singer (Italy)

• Sarra Douik, singer and oud (Tunisia)

• Omarhaba, singer and guembri (Morocco)

• Ajda Blaževič Arko, violin (Slovenia)

• Myrsini Pontikopoulou-Venieri, violin (Greece)

• Giorgos Markopoulos, traditional clarinet (Greece)

• Oscar Viret, trumpet (France)

• Álvaro Correia Pinto, alto saxophone (Portugal)

• Emanuel Vuk, tambura (Croatia)

• Simon Groppe, piano (France)

• Marco Ullstein, vibraphone (Italy)

• Jošt Lampret, double bass (Slovenia)

• Francesco Parsi, drums (Italy)