Attention: tribute concert by reservation only!

More information at the bottom of the page.

Concert event:
a special reunion with the conductor who co-founded the Ictus ensemble
Like Elvis in 1968 or Gloria Lasso in 1985,
the beloved and Serenissimo Georges-Elie returns to the stage!
This tribute concert is organised in the context of La musique du geste,
an upcoming documentary portrait of Georges-Elie Octors by Isabelle Dumont
with the friendly support of Jorge León and produced by RUBIS Productions.

Georges-Elie Octors – known to all the musicians as Géo (pronounced Jay-Oh) – was the musical director of Ictus from 1994 to 2021. During this period, he conducted the vast majority of our concerts. We owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for crafting the ensemble’s unique sound from its first years – more than a sound, in fact, rather a method, a kind of friendship, a way of being together and playing together; a curious blend of obsessive meticulousness and laissez-faire.

To Georges-Elie, rhythm has always been the sole path into the sprawling forest that is music. All paths converge, of course, but for him, rhythm comes first. Don’t forget, after all, that he was also a percussion teacher until his retirement and a formidable virtuoso on the classical timpani. At rehearsals, before talking about anything else – harmony, timbre, phrasing – the ensemble first and foremost had to spend time playing together, really together, deeply immersed in the beat, identifying with and in tune with his gesture. We, the musicians, never tired of contemplating this gesture, the unparallelled elegance with which he would weave musical time. Georges-Elie didn’t make a big deal of it either. He’d developed a way of gesturing without emphasis but rather supple, dance-like, a world away from the ‘contemporary specialist’ conductors prevalent in the 90s, who look stiff as a board beside him.

Never did he say ‘ensemble, please, let’s see… second sixteenth note!’. To him, rhythm isn’t mathematical; it’s a vital leap forward. Whenever we weren’t playing in time, well, it was because his gesture wasn’t clear, or at least that’s what his modesty led him to say. He’d apologise and correct the gesture, repeating it with greater clarity and focus. Or he’d utter some enigmatic phrase that somehow clicked: ‘Just some points in space here!’ or his famous ‘whoever plays last wins!’ (to ensure successful syncopations).

Himself the son of a conductor, Georges-Elie can make a whole table erupt in laughter at dinner by channelling the great leaders of the post-romantic tradition. He knows it all by heart: the hilarious and outrageous stories about these legendary leaders, the machos, the tyrants, the bullies, the spoiled kids. He himself was never like that. For one, he was always simply incapable of getting angry. It may have bothered him a bit during his youth, but after realising how people loved him as he was, he learned to love himself, and everything just worked out.

“It’s good to cross the great water, for there are no obstacles.” So wrote the wise authors of the I Ching, telling us it’s time to grasp our chance. And that is precisely what being a conductor means to Georges-Elie, no more and no less – playing on chance, removing obstacles, smoothing out time, giving others an opportunity to cross the great waters. Because once the rhythm is found, when flowing gesture wins out over stiffness and awkwardness, everything else falls into place: the harmonic backbone falls into place, then the phrasing, then the form. There are no more obstacles, and all are free to contribute their own inventions, suggestions, even their own impertinence. And so the music goes on…

PROGRAMME NOTES

RESERVATIONS AND SPONSORSHIP

CONCERT
31 October 2024 at 20:30 at the Rosas Performance Space,
164 Avenue Van Volxem, 1190 Brussels

PRICING
Pay what you can (suggested price: €15), cash or Payconiq
Reservation required via this email

SPONSORSHIP
Do you also want to pay tribute to Georges-Elie Octors? Then support us by helping to finance this concert! A sponsorship account has been opened at the King Baudouin Foundation: all donations of €40 and above are tax deductible at a rate of 45%. For example, a €100 donation will effectively only cost you €55. Every contribution counts towards remunerating the participating artists.

You can donate online via this link.
A heartfelt thanks in advance for your generosity.