Besides its regular activities, Orchestre Partout organizes an annual Laboratory Project, in which musical interaction is key. Thus, the bands repertoire and idiom expands, and experienced band members get the chance to get a deeper musical understanding.
In 2018 Orchestre Partout collaborates with ‘Fanfare St. Caecilia’ from Heemskerk and professional musicians gathered in ‘The Paradiso Orchestra’. The project consists of a series of musical meetings and concerts, leading to the musical apotheosis on the 2nd day of Christmas, in ‘poptemple’ Paradiso, Amsterdam.
Orchestre Partout and St. Caecilia both have a low threshold, popular repertoire. The styles however couldn’t be more different. In this project we seek for exciting musical cross-overs between the ‘western’ repertoire of St. Caecilia and the world-repertoire of Orchestre Partout.
For this project many special arrangements are being made.
We hope to inspire other music groups and institutions to think ‘out of the box’ and start similar exchange projects.
Concerts:
Oktober 7th, refugee centre Heerhugowaard
November 10th, Hal 25 Alkmaar
December 26th, Paradiso, Amsterdam
The orchestra’s music is inspired on cultures throughout the world. CCO started in 2014 as the ‘Band Without Residency Permit’ in collaboration with brassband ‘De Tegenwind’ (‘The Headwind’) and foundation ‘De Vrolijkheid’ (‘The Happiness’), working together in refugee center Utrecht.
Shortly after, Orchestre Partout, female choir ‘Mihira’ and (street)band Kladderadatsch joined in, bringing with them residents of refugee centres Alkmaar, Arnhem and Nijmegen.
Musical leader Hermine Schneider made arrangements for the orchestra, bridging the gap between Middle-Eastern and Western music.
In 2017 CCO played (amongst others) in RASA (Utrecht), Festival Mundial (Tilburg), Liberation Dinner, Tropenmuseum (Amsterdam), Tivoli Vredenburg (Utrecht).
‘The paradox of Karaoke Europe is that it deals with the mobility of the immobile. The partners’ activities are focused on the local situation and on the social groups that are fixed in one place.’
In 2014 Orchestre Partout collaborated with Archa Theatre from Prague (Czech Republic), PanoDrama from Budapest (Hungary) and Stanica Zilina from Zilina (Slovakia).
Archa is a theatre and production house, and is founder of the All Star Refugee Band, under musical direction of Michael Romanyshyn. In this band refugees play alongside professional musicians, and tour the country.
PanoDrama makes so-called ‘Verbatim’ theatre, literal words from interviews are text in the theatre play. PanoDrama focuses a lot on the problems that the Roma-community face.
Stanica Zilina provide a stage for theatre makers and musicians, in an old stationhouse and its surroundings. The specific location triggers many artists into making new artforms.
In the joined program ‘Karaoke Europe’ we have collaborated in many different constellations, reacting and reflecting on one another’s work, coming from different backgrounds and disciplines.
Ted van Leeuwen was guest at PanoDrama, during the making of a new theatre piece, contributing in music. Some scenes now had sung inserts, giving a new layer.
Also, Ted worked with Archa, doing workshops with young kids, teaching them to sing, looking for playful clapping and stamping beats. Some experiments ended up in the theatre performance. In the performance locals and professionals played together.
In return Anna Lengyel, founder and director of PanoDrama came to work with Orchestre Partout, to work on the dramaturgy of our concerts. We experimented with the order of the songs, the stories in between, experimented with a narrator.
Also Philipp Schencker, frontman of ASRB Prague (he is musician, singer, actor and visual artist) came to work with us, focusing on stage presence, visual aspects and PR-graphics.
In the final ‘wrap-up-festival’ Orchestre Partout played in Archa Theatre Prague, with a 10-man band, joining the stage with members of the ASRB.
The project was documented in a book, available on request.
