Imagined several years ago by host Monique Giroux and songwriter Luc Plamondon, the Maison de la chanson et de la musique du Québec will indeed settle in the place they dreamed of: the former Saint- Sulpice, in Montreal.
Prime Minister François Legault and Minister of Culture and Communications Nathalie Roy made the announcement on Friday at the Grande Bibliothèque in the presence of the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, but also Monique Giroux.
We want this new place to introduce local music to Quebecers, young and old, newcomers and tourists. That it gives a taste for discovering local music and, through it, our great artists and our culturesaid, by press release, François Legault.
Located in the Latin Quarter, the Saint-Sulpice library, whose building is classified as a heritage building, has been unoccupied since 2005.
A showcase for Quebec song
The Maison de la chanson et de la musique du Québec will also aim to promote the history of Quebec song and music, in particular by providing access to handwritten, sound, digital and visual documents related to it.
Open to the general public as well as to artists and music professionals, it will be a space for creation as well as practice of music, but also a place to host artist residencies, school workshops, teacher, meetings and exchanges of ideas.
Quebec song and music needed a house, the first exclusively dedicated to them, with premises where they could be preserved, told and projected into the future.reacted by press release Monique Giroux, president of Écho Sonore.
A partnership with BAnQ
Created in 2018, the NPO Écho Sonore, placed under the honorary presidency of Luc Plamondon, will take care of the animation as well as the artistic programming of the House and will ensure its co-direction with Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec ( BAnQ).
BAnQ’s collections and funds related to song and music are rich. Charged with a highly symbolic past for Quebec, the remarkable Saint-Sulpice library will allow us to highlight them and place them at the heart of the animation and cultural and educational mediation of the House.indicated, in a press release, Marie Grégoire, President and Chief Executive Officer of BAnQ.
BAnQ, in partnership with Écho Sonore, will produce content for this new Maison de la chanson et de la musique du Québec with a project called The soundtrack of Quebec, which will receive $2 million in assistance from Quebec. The objective is to give the Quebec population online access to the musical heritage from the collections and holdings of BAnQ until the opening of the House.
A survey will also be launched for the general public and the cultural community to elect the 50 essential Quebec songs. Each of these songs will then be the subject of a video clip.
More details to come
Radio Canada
Radio Canada
Source: Radio-Canada
