The 1st Aups Chamber Music Festival is the fruit of a dream I've had for many years. Over the last few summers, the foundations have been laid with the Isolde Quintet's four consecutive residencies in my grandmother's family home in Aups and the concerts we have given in the Var region. The opportunity to bring together my musician friends, my family and a warm audience in this exceptional place, which I've known since I was born, is unique and precious.
The aim of setting up this Festival in the village of Aups and extending it to neighbouring villages and the coastal towns of the Var is to offer a week of free chamber music concerts for the general public, adapting it to the remarkable cultural venues available to us and to the different audiences.
To create this musical programme, I have the pleasure of bringing together seven musicians from all over the world who belong to renowned orchestras in France and Germany (Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim...). First of all, my friends from the Trio Kazé on piano and cello, joined by an oboist, a bassoonist, a violinist and a violist. This constellation of instruments has enabled me to develop a rich and varied programme, and to offer the public a wide range of concerts featuring many different groups.The aim of setting up this Festival in the village of Aups and extending it to the neighbouring villages and coastal towns of the Var, is to offer a week of free chamber music concerts for the general public, adapting to the remarkable cultural venues that are made available to us and to the different audiences.
For the debut of this festival, I want to highlight and combine French and German cultures, both in terms of the programme and the guest musicians. My musical career has taken me from France to Germany, and in both countries I've met musicians with whom I enjoy sharing musical and human moments.
The musical programme is designed to take each concert on a journey between the two countries, with the great German and Austrian composers that we all know, French composers from all eras that we wanted to highlight and female composers who have unfortunately too often been forgotten by history despite the incredible quality of their works, such as Louise Farrenc and Clara Schumann.
In the future, this festival aims to become an integral part of the Var's cultural landscape, enabling us to continue to explore the rich repertoire of chamber music, to present special moments of sharing with the public and to promote up-and-coming young artists.
— Tristan Roche, artistic director