The choir of collège Lamartine

I wrote previously about how Silke has music class at Lycée Racine. Jerome too has music at collège Lamartine. And choir. He is one of two new students in his class; choir class started with singing some songs from last year. Needless to say, he was feeling a little lost. The reaction? "Il faut que tu rattrapes." The kids have heard this ever since they first arrived in Paris. The short translation of this is, "You need to catch up." A longer translation, with explicit narration of the connotation might be, "You are a funny and uncultured foreigner, but there must be a reason why you have been sent to me and it is beyond my authority to do anything about it. So, unlikely as it may be, you will catch up to the rest of the class as soon as may be. There is no need to pose any questions."

For introduction, here is a recording of the choir of collège Lamartine; they are singing together with two other choirs: the choir of collège Paul Bert, Paris, and the choir of lycée français de Madrid. They are accompanied by orchestre excellence France. This recording is from a concert given in 2010 in both Paris and Madrid. (How do I have this recording? Jerome came home from school with it. And since it seems no one else has put it on youtube, I did. )

In March, the school choir has an exchange to Heidelberg. And later in the season, Jerome tells me, they will be part of the children's chorus at a concert at la Philharmonie de Paris with l'orchestre national d’Île-de-France. That is very exciting. January 2015 is the inaugural season of la Philharmonie de Paris. It is a wacky new building being built in le parc de la Villette - the first big concert hall built in Paris in a long time. Here is a fun video about the construction:

I could include photos, but it is easier just to link to their website: http://www.philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/ . And, from Jerome's description, my best guess at which concert it is, is this one: http://saison-2015.philharmoniedeparis.fr/en/activites/concert-participatif-en-famille/14457-sacre-symphonique . (Sorry: obviously their website is also under construction, since this is supposed to be the English version, but clearly mostly isn't.)