After a brilliant start of the year with both awards for its CD and successful concerts, Linea is ending this sunny spring by its first US tour, summerized under the "Overseas" concept .

Let's recognize first that exchanges in new music were quite rare for a long period, between France and the USA, especially for differences in the aesthetic approach. At Linea, we love to cope with differences, and to build multicultural projects. The "Overseas tour" is run by this interest that Linea devotes to other countries or cultures, as we already did, for instance, with Korean ensemble TIMF .

First step of this trip to America takes place in New York City, where Linea performs a common concert with its local "brothers in arms" of the Talea Ensemble, on 4th june 2011 , at the Lincoln Center, for a concert including many world premieres commissioned to french and american composers.

Then, the ensemble will take part to the June in Buffalo Festival , organised by the Department of Music of the Buffalo University. The festival is dedicated to composers. Linea gonna participates to workshops with young composers, ending with a concert where the pieces will be premiered on 9th june . Another "french-american" concert will follow up on 11th june .

Both NYC and Buffalo projects are focusing on the french-american musical dialogue : it features a crossover of both musical scenes, their aesthetic streams and genres. Programs are including composers from both sides of the Ocean. That’s why we have chosen the « Overseas » concept to summary our project.

A central figure of the project will be french composer Brice Pauset , whose music has been rarely performed in the USA. He will be teaching at the June in Buffalo Festival to young newcoming composers coming from all over the world.Besides, his music will be played twice by ensemble Linea.

This US tour is a big opportunity for Linea to encounter the american musical industry and open new pages between french and american cultural cooperation. Other projects with Boston and Houston are already under construction for 2013...

We'd like to thank our partners who supported us in this project, and especially the FACE. We also thank warmly Alex Lipowski and Gail Wein in New York, and David Felder in Buffalo, for their motivation and efforts.

Photo (c) David M. - www.lejapon.fr