The National Guild’s executive director Jonathan Herman, alongside board chair Duffie Adelson, recently joined Davin Pierson Torre, director of the Flint School of the Performing Arts (FSPA), for a trip in conjunction with FSPA’s exchange program with the Conservatoire de Limonest just outside of Lyon, France.
The Guild and the Flint School traveled to Limonest at the invitation of Mayor Max Vincent for the grand opening of the AGORA, Limonest’s new performing arts center. In addition to music and dance studios, the 30,000 square foot facility includes a 264-seat theater, multimedia library as well as an outdoor amphitheater. As Duffie, the Guild's board chair, put it: "What an inspiring, beautiful center set against the French countryside...Thank you, Davin, for introducing us to this opportunity and to so many wonderful people!"
The trip also coincided with The Suite in F project, a cross-cultural musical collaboration between faculty musicians from the University of Michigan-Flint, FSPA, and the Limonest Conservatory. The Flint School of Performing Arts and its Flint Youth Symphony Orchestra have maintained an exchange relationship with the Conservatoire de Limonest since 2004. Each year, master classes, rehearsals, and performances have been held in either Flint or Limonest. From “culture shock” pop-up concerts by the respective percussion ensembles of the schools to the two youth orchestras performing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the two organizations have shared music and culture in their respective cities.
Pictured above (left): Jonathan Herman and Limonest Mayor Max Vincent
Pictured above (right): Jonathan Herman; Davin Pierson Torre; Duffie Adelson; Carine Mazoyer, Chair of the Board of the Conservatoire de Limonest; and her husband Christophe Mazoyer outside of the AGORA.
Published: July 19, 2018