The Haizebegi Festival is celebrating its10th edition. Over the years, it has remained committed to its dual mission: to make music a vehicle for understanding human societies and to use it as a tool for social transformation.
Local roots, international reach
Our strong local roots have allowed us to showcase numerous Basque creations. Our international outlook has enabled us to highlight initiatives from other parts of the world: from Tumaco, on Colombia’s Pacific coast; from Ushuaia, featuring the Yagans and Selk’nam of Patagonia; from the far north of the Arctic, with Inuit throat singing; as well as from Morocco, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, Serbia, Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Manipur, Bahrain, Great Britain, Germany, Ukraine, Crete, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, New Caledonia, Réunion, and Madagascar.
A total of 120 concerts, including 18 premieres, more than 80 films, 230 lectures, roundtables, and debates, as well as 120 workshops and events at high schools, middle schools, and medical institutions. The continuation of the “Filmer la Musique” workshop in partnership with the Audiovisual BTS program in Biarritz, and the annual publication of the Festival Book: 320 pages dedicated to explaining, sharing, and discovering.
Over the years, our goal has not been to entertain you, but to engage you, by making this festival a meaningful intersection of Art, Science, and Society.
Female Musicians from Afghanistan
When Ahmad Sarmast founded the Afghan National Institute of Music (ANIM) in 2010, he simultaneously established the Zohra Orchestra, an all-female orchestra that enabled female musicians to claim a place in the public sphere that had not been intended for them. But the Taliban coup in 2021 ushered in an era of terror and repression for Afghan women—and for ANIM. A. Sarmast sought help from Western democracies. Portugal responded by granting asylum to the 300 members of ANIM. In a context marked by restrictive European immigration policies, how can we not pay tribute to this open door?
That is the focus of the October 13 concert at the Théâtre Quintaou in Anglet, the Zohra Orchestra’s first concert after a two-year hiatus. Ahmad Sarmast will be there with Constança Simas, Zohra’s music director, who is also assistant conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Parwana Paikan, a dissident Minister-Counselor at the Afghan Embassy, and José Augusto Duarte, Portugal’s Ambassador, will participate in the pre-concert roundtable discussion, featuring insights from the women musicians of Zohra: What is it like to be a female musician in Afghanistan today?
Ukraine: Singing in the midst of war?
In 2008, Mariia Oneshchak and Nataliia Rybka-Parkhomenko founded the Kurbasy ensemble as part of the renowned experimental theater troupe Les Kurbas in Lviv, Ukraine. Today, the men have been swept up in the armed conflict, and the theater has been transformed into a refuge for those fleeing the Eastern front, but Kurbasy has not given up. Reduced to a duo for the duration of the war, the ensemble is coming to Bayonne, Tardets, Tarnos, and schools throughout the Basque Country to share the resilience embodied in the traditional songs of the Ukrainian forest.
Music in the Camps
The Boat Art Collective was founded in late 2019 in the Moria camp on the island of Lesbos, Greece, by people from Iran and Afghanistan. In August 2021, they presented *The Boat*, a theatrical performance that they filmed. As residence permits are gradually issued, those who leave the camp settle in Athens and wait for the others. In Bayonne, Masume Husseini and Hadi Oladi are leading a week-long theater workshop and presenting the film from Lesbos, in collaboration with the CNRS’s MusiMig program.
The Noble Art of Boxing
Didn’t expect to see boxing at the Haizebegi Festival? That’s because you weren’t familiar with the unifying power of the Azkar club, located in the heart of Cité Breuer, nor with the infectious enthusiasm of Aviron Bayonnais Boxe, nor with the charisma of Freddy Saïd Skouma, seven-time European champion and World runner-up. A boxing festival is set to take place on October 14 and 15 in Lauga, sponsored by the French Boxing Federation, the Paris 2024 Cultural Olympiad’s “Autumn” program, and the CNRS Science Festival.
Over the summer, Saïd Skouma led training sessions at the Cité Breuer, at Aviron Bayonnais, and at the Conservatory with choreographer Zoé Dumont. These sessions shaped the program: physical and technical training, handiboxing, and sparring matches—Stéphane Galland versus Nouhem Charliac, each paired with a male or female boxer. Then came the showcase events for the workshops, featuring Albert Camus and Marracq middle schools, Tony Le Guilly’s breakdancing virtuosos, and the publication of the book resulting from Martine Laborde’s writing workshops. And as a gift drawn from the very depths of his career as a champion, Saïd Skouma himself recited excerpts from his book *Le Corps du Boxeur*, accompanied by Fabrizio Cassol’s Trio Aka Moon, which transported us to the heights of jazz.
Music in the Making
Since its inception, the Haizebegi Festival has placed a strong emphasis on contemporary music. The participation of Aurélien Gignoux, percussionist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and winner of the 2021 Victoires de la Musique Classique, ensures that this tenth edition remains firmly rooted in this vital tradition. During the Conservatory Night, he brings together the best of contemporary composition: Jean-Pierre Drouet, Christian Lauba, Iannis Xenakis, and Mark Andre.
Let’s put it simply: Pierre-Alain Volondat is the greatest pianist of his generation. On May 28, 1983, at the age of twenty, he swept all the prizes at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels—a feat never before seen in the history of the competition. By winning all four prizes that day, P.-A. Volondat became a legend. This October 21, he will perform Chopin’s Fantasia and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor for us.
A Participatory Ethical Approach
Since its inception, Haizebegi has involved the public in its projects. This is because creation is, above all, a matter of social engagement. That is why Haizebegi’s posters draw our attention to the creative act that shapes the program. Patrick Tosani’s photograph for this tenth edition is titled “19th Rain.” It is part of a series of repeated attempts to “make rain” by creating an image rooted in the everyday reality of our lives—a sound-filled image that suddenly falls silent and is thus open to all manner of metaphorical interpretations.
I hope you meet some wonderful people here.
Denis Laborde,
Festival Director
