Le Balcon

LICHT | SCHOOL WORKSHOPS

The Licht cycle addresses major universal themes: life and death, war, belief, communication between people, openness to world cultures and humour. Stockhausen entrusted the main roles in Licht to instrumentalists, dancers and singers. These themes are therefore explored through music and movement, without systematic use of speech. Depending on their age, this language elicits surprise, curiosity or scepticism. In any case, the experience of this music is a memorable shock. Our cultural activities around this cycle have reached all age groups, from nursery schools to high schools: everyone has been touched, interested or challenged by the discovery of this repertoire. These workshops also feed into our thinking about the accessibility of this music and inspire us to create new forms of concerts. The soloists play this music by heart, in motion, without scores or music stands between them and their audience, creating a direct and immediate connection. The concert can take place anywhere, in a courtyard, a classroom or a concert hall. Throughout the workshops, students discover this music and its language, take it on board and are encouraged to improvise their own music, based on work on listening or sound spatialisation, for example. The sessions also provide an opportunity to explore the different professions in music, such as production, performing and conducting. In a more traditional school concert setting, a preliminary presentation and a meeting with the musicians after the concert also provide an educational approach and an awakening of musical and sensory awareness. For older students, the concert can also become a pretext for reflection on art, history and philosophy around the major themes addressed by the cycle of seven operas. 

PROFESSIONAL INTEGRATION

When Le Balcon was founded in 2008, Maxime Pascal discovered Licht, a work that was little studied in conservatories and even discredited. The Licht academies were set up out of a need to share this music with students on the path to becoming professionals and to introduce them to complex notation and a particular language, as well as the links between acoustics and electronics. The Licht academy format offers an initial meeting to introduce Stockhausen and his work, but also to analyse and understand the elements of the language of the score. Each section is then supervised by one of the musicians from Le Balcon.

Since 2018:
93 instrumentalists from the CRR in Paris
20 instrumentalists from the CRR in Lille
35 instrumentalists from the CNSMDP
13 instrumentalists from the Pôle Sup'93
127 singers from the Jeune Chœur de Paris
35 singers from the Maîtrise de Paris (CRR)
22 singers from the Jeune Chœur des Hauts-de-France
29 singers from the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris

Finally, let us mention the integration of female conductors from the Maestra Academy (an international competition for female conductors organised by the Philharmonie de Paris): Glass Marcano (2020), Tatiana Marcela Pérez Hernandez and Olha Dondyk (2024) were able to participate as assistant conductors in productions directed by Maxime Pascal.

OPEN REHEARSALS, in partnership with the Lille Opera

 The creation of the solo scenes from Montag aus Licht provided an opportunity to open the doors of all our rehearsals to the Lille public. These sessions, preceded by a mediation session, allowed audiences to discover new music and learn about the process of creating a show. These sessions were also punctuated by a podcast, listening sessions, and introductions to the shows offered by the Balcon team.

SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE, A NEW ADVENTURE WITH POINTS-COMMUNS

As part of its partnership with Point-Communs, the new national theatre in Cergy-Pontoise and Val d'Oise, Le Balcon carried out cultural activities at Le Nôtre Primary School in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône (95310). These outreach activities took place in two parts. In December 2024, the pupils were able to attend a performance of Symphonie Fantastique by Le Balcon. A preparatory workshop was led by Gaspard Kiejman and one of the orchestra's musicians, focusing on Symphonie Fantastique, careers in music and an introduction to instruments. The second part of these workshops consisted of four sessions between March and April 2025, followed by a performance by the students. These workshops allowed the students to immerse themselves in a collective creative process from different angles: recitation of texts and body percussion, descriptive music, sound painting, etc. The aim of these sessions was to help the students achieve almost total autonomy for the performance. A great deal of work was therefore done on collective listening, as well as on giving several students responsibility as conductors of musical passages. Close collaboration with the teaching team also made it possible to link these musical workshops to the themes covered in class. These workshops sparked the students' interest and motivated them to discover, create, compose, arrange and manipulate their own musical material.