WIN ENTRANCE TICKETS - READ BELOW
The inaugural event hosted by Lionel Gauthier, was held just outside the museum on 23 September 2021, facing the lake, with a sunset over the Mont Blanc as beautiful as can be. "It has taken the Musée du Léman nearly 2 and a half years to be able to host a vernissage. It is with much joy to see the museum full of life again."
He went on to say, "Tonight we are celebrating swans, these white birds, elegant and impressive, and we invite you to discover their history through our exhibit, but also through a book that we have published entitled, Le Lac du Cygne, Glénat Editions."
Alexandre Demetriadès, the cultural representative for the city of Nyon, talked about his early fear of these enormous white birds, beasts of some sort, that he always gave wide berth to during his younger years. Now he has a new respect for swans, and an admiration for their elegant and graceful nature.
Anne-Sophie Deville, scientific collaborator for the museum, spoke about how swans have adapted to living here, how they keep faithful mates, and how they use their long necks to reach to the bottom of the lakeshore to munch on algae.
Juliette Davenne, above, was thanked for all the work she has put into the three museums of Nyon. For this exhibit, she coordinated the content, including trips to Yvoire, Annecy, and even to Provence... she hung 580 origami swans, reconstructed a real swan's nest, made a mock wedding cake, abd even realized a short film.
When we found out that there was a new parkour sporting center opening in the Geneva area, we had to ask Jesse Peveril to tell us more about it. Parkours a training discipline where your aim is to get from one point to another in the fastest and most efficient way possible through of obstacle course of walls and ramps and ledges, without the use of extra equipment. Read on to find out about the terrific prize that Jesse is offering our readers.
Jesse admits that this has been a product of many many years of passion and commitment to a sport that he loves and practises for most of his life. Being able to build a dedicated gym to have people come in and experience and share the sport of parkour is a beautiful thing to him.
Parkour is for anyone who likes to jump, climb, move and have fun doing parkour, no minimum or maximum age! A version of parkours that can benefit the older generation through mobility workshops to help keep strength, balance and coordination is something you might never have thought existed!
Jesse, why did you start? What has been the inspiration?
I started parkour 16 years ago and spent a good amount of time as a professional athlete competing internationally; after stopping competitions it felt like the right next step in my career.
I also spent a lot of time visiting parkour gyms around the world, so a lot of the inspiration from our setup is based on those.
I am Swiss/Canadian, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My mom moved to Geneva with me and my little brother when I was 10, we both did public school for a couple months before my mom decided that she wasn't happy with the education given here so she home-schooled us for 3 years before we went back to public school, afterwards I tried a lot of different pathways such as ECG, apprentice chef, psychology but I would constantly skip school to go do parkour instead so none of those led to anything. In the end I've had quite a successful career in the sport so I guess it was the right thing to do! After about 10 years of competitions, appearances, events and workshops around the world I finally decided to settle down a bit more and that's when I got my Swiss citizenship and started the Parkour EXPO project.
How lucky we are to have such an abundance of English-language plays during the lead up to the end-of-year holidays! Here is another one with a competition to win a pair of tickets. The Village Players are putting on Arsenic and Old Lace and we are delighted to find out more.
Ilona Horvath explained the inspiration behind this particular play, "After dreaming of directing this play for six years, the time has finally come for me to share my love of this story with you. It holds a particular place in my heart because it is a scary play that makes you laugh and a funny play that should scare you! It is a play that's difficult to categorise or label. Plus it has two wonderful female roles, all too rare in theatre. Then it has a rainbow of secondary characters that are simply delightful. It has been my pleasure and joy to work with the actors and production team of the Village Players."
The history of The Village Players (VPs)
The Village Players was founded on 11 November 1981 in La Conversion, Switzerland, by a group of enthusiasts of English language theatre led by Zelda and John McKillop.
Since then the Village Players have produced a wide range of shows in various theatres and halls in and around Lausanne and elsewhere in Europe.
Currently the VPs have staged 107 Productions in front of paying audiences – including 17 Old Time Music Halls and 11 English language Theatre Festivals, not only in Switzerland but also in Belgium, The Netherlands and Germany. Participation in these festivals has resulted in the awards being gained for Best Presentation, Original Script and a Discretionary Award for an actress with a non-speaking role!
The Village Players are a friendly and informal group who have been entertaining themselves and others in the Lausanne area with amateur theatre, music, song and dance for the last 30 years. In addition to the wonderful public productions the group puts on each year, members have the opportunity to enjoy a variety of monthly events including play readings, poetry recitals, musical evenings and social events.
Autumn of Music 2nd edition from 27 to 30 October 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Montreux, 6 October 2021
A festival presented by the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation
From 27 to 30 October 2021, the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation presents its autumn festival at the Petit Palais, opposite the Fairmont Le Montreux Palace, featuring free public concerts by emerging Swiss artists, workshops and jam sessions. In addition, the 7th Montreux Jazz Academy will host six young talents under the guidance of renowned mentors: Shabaka Hutchings, Edward Wakili-Hick, Alexander Hawkins, Jowee Omicil and José James. The Academy concert will round off the event in style on 30 October.
Last October, the Montreux Jazz Artists Foundation created its own festival in the middle of a pandemic. The objective: to bring together artists and their audiences in an intimate setting that fosters interaction, creativity and discovery. Based on the success of this initiative, the Foundation is pleased to announce the second edition of its Autumn of Music festival, from Wednesday 27 to Saturday 30 October 2021. The event will be held in the sumptuous setting of the Petit Palais, located opposite the Fairmont Montreux Palace.
Autumn of Music is a hybrid festival, split into two parts: the first for the public through a programme of concerts and free educational activities; the second reserved for artists through the Montreux Jazz Academy. The event embodies the main objectives of the Foundation, which is of public interest and whose role is both to support young talent and to promote universal access to music.
7TH MONTREUX JAZZ ACADEMY
The Montreux Jazz Academy is a residency for musicians based on the transmission and explo- ration of new artistic approaches. For its 7th edition, the Academy will be under the direction of three of today’s leading figures on the buzzing UK jazz scene: saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings, drummer Edward Wakili-Hick (both members of the Sons of Kemet) and pianist and organist Alexander Hawkins (collaborator of South African legend Louis Moholo-Moholo). The trio of musical directors will be backed by two mentors: multi-instrumentalist Jowee Omicil and singer José James - both of whom were on the Festival’s bill last summer.
These renowned artists will accompany six musicians selected by the Foundation. Among them are two laureates from the Montreux Jazz Talent Awards: Matt Brown, the 2019 winner with his duo Run Logan Run, and Meskerem Mees, who won the competition this year. Four young talents, active on the Swiss jazz scene complete the selection: Fabian Mösch, Louise Knobil, Daniel McAlavey and Djamal Moumène. Their programme will be intensive and thrilling, to say the least. Mornings will be devoted to practical workshops with music industry and media experts designed to help them manage their careers. In the afternoon, the young talents will work together on their own compositions, revisited for the closing concert.
After a start/stop year of theatrics due to the current pandemic, GEDS (aka Geneva English Drama Society) has come back swinging with a classic: Waiting for Godot. We chatted with John Ward, director of the play. Read down to enter the competition for a pair of tickets!
What has been the inspiration to put together Waiting for Godot?
Waiting for Godot was actually the first play I saw in a theatre apart from the odd musical or pantomime. I saw it in a theatre in Cork, Ireland, where I grew up. I had heard of Waiting for Godot before and of course, of Samuel Beckett, the author, though I didn’t know much about him either. I was really struck with how funny it was. Beckett had this reputation for being quite heavy, and indeed his novels and other works are not the easiest of reads but Waiting for Godot wasn’t like that.
It was a funny and touching play about two friends stuck in an impossible situation. It had a wit and charm about it that I wasn’t expecting. When I thought about proposing a play to direct for the Geneva English Drama Society, my first experience and great memories of Godot came back to me. Little did I know at the time that the world would be gripped by a pandemic and the themes of Waiting for Godot would become all the more relevant as the whole world waited to get through the upheaval of the pandemic!
A Tragicomedy in Two Acts
The play is described by the author as a Tragicomedy in two acts and it's basically about two men named Vladimir and Estragon who are waiting at the side of a road for someone named Godot. I don't think I’m giving anything away to say that Godot doesn’t arrive.
However, various other characters pass along the road. A rich landowner called Pozzo and his slave pass by and at the end of each act a boy arrives with a message from the mysterious Mr Godot. The play is essentially about these two characters waiting and how they converse and entertain themselves to stave off the boredom of their situation.
It's never quite clear who Godot is or what he had promised them. The play has been lauded as a profound statement on the human condition in that we are all waiting for something and often we aren’t quite sure what that is. This was the great trick that Beckett pulled off in this play. By stripping the story down to its bare essentials and even a fairly bare stage he produced from a simple story a commentary on the human condition that has made the play world famous.
Despite that, the play is essentially a comedy about two friends trying to cope with the absurd situation they have been cast into. It is also sharpy, energetic, and darkly funny!
