Parisian Orchestra in Protest: What Remained After the Gas Capsules

TVS News AI redaktionell betreut präsentiert Pariser Orchester im Protest: Was nach den Gaskapseln blieb.

An orchestra that does not see itself as a sacred object

The young musicians of the Orchestre du Nouveau Monde continued playing during the student protests last week, even though gas capsules ended up in their double bass cases. For the members, this was no reason to leave the stage. They belong to a tradition of radical orchestras that understand music not as an inviolable work of art, but as a means of social action.

The ensemble was founded by the young conductor Étienne Jarrier and his friends while they were still teenagers. Their declared aim extends far beyond the classical repertoire: The music is to be anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, environmentally conscious and oriented toward decolonial growth.

Double bass cases, Place de la République and glaciers

The orchestra's performances are deliberately provocative. It plays the La Marseillaise, music from “The Avengers,” Dvořák's New World Symphony and protest songs. At the Place de la République in Paris and at the foot of a glacier, the musicians perform under conditions in which a classical concert would hardly be conceivable.

For the orchestra, what matters is not whether all the notes are played in the right order. Instead, the decisive question, it says, is whether a performance changes people's awareness and presents a different kind of classical music that is connected to reality again.

Between protest concert and political action

The musicians' commitment goes beyond pure concert performances. The orchestra's tools include civil disobedience, visits to schools, demonstrations and concerts. The group thus deliberately moves between the established institutions of classical music and the streets of the capital.

The band's latest fame has not undermined these principles. On the contrary: The commitment during the protests makes it visible that, for this orchestra, the boundary between musical performance and direct political action is permeable.