“In 2004, we had hosted the festival of fifes and drums from all over the world. During the second edition in 2011, I thought of inviting fifes and drums from the United States. So I sent out invitations all over the place and the Towpath Volunteers in Rochester, a city in upstate New York, responded..”
It is with joy that the Tropéziens in turn respond to the second invitation from Rochester where they will go on August 30: “La Fayette and Rochester here we are again”, shout the fifes and drums who can’t wait to pack their bags!
In the room where the rehearsals take place, rue Gambetta, Georges Giraud quickly retraces the history of this great adventure. And many people remember these US musicians in traditional clothes, enthusiastic about the welcome, to the point of launching a first invitation in 2015.
Rehearsals before the Marseillaise
The French are particularly well received at this festival in the United States. The clothes of the Towpath Volunteers are those of the time of La Fayette and the War of Independence, this perhaps explaining that. The trip will run from August 30 to September 6. But even in the footsteps of La Fayette, they do not go there for the gallery and it will not be a vacation, even if the setting is enchanting: the program is loaded with two parades as only Americans know how to organize them, but also services in schools, retirement homes, a military hospital in particular. Concerts every day to the delight of the nine fifes, eight drummers, the timpani player, the bass drum, the drum major and the other standard bearers who will make up the Tropezian delegation.
For the past few weeks, the rehearsals in rue Gambetta have focused on the pieces that will be played in the USA: you have to be impeccable, especially since by then, you will have to learn a common score for all the groups… and that no one knows yet!
Then it will also be necessary to refine the Marseillaise, which is always played with great emotion in the United States.
In addition to the Tropéziens, the Trommel Fluit (Belgium) and the fifes and drums of Ivréa (Italy) will be the other European groups.
2023-07-17 19:15:00
#Fifes #Drums #SaintTropez #Guests #Honor #United #States
