Written by Adriana Srsnova
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The Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama has a long-standing Thursday Lunchtime music series. On 23 November, the Music and French Studies departments collaborated for an experimental cross-subject live concert featuring French indie pop singer La Féline.
The Thursday Lunchtime music series is well-established in the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama. However, the live concert given on 23 November by French indie pop singer La Féline was unusual in being an experimental cross-subject collaboration between the Music and French Studies departments. It turns out we should do this more often: it was a tremendous success! Over 250 people attended the concert, including final-year French Studies students on Barbara Lebrun’s final-year course Protest Music in France, staff and students from Music and other SALC subjects, members of the Alliance Française de Manchester, and members of the general public.
On bass guitar and lead vocals, accompanied by drummer François Virot, La Féline mainly performed songs from her latest album, Tarbes, released in 2022. She also invited a small choir of student volunteers to join her on stage: Adriana Srsnova, Samantha Riley and Steffan Eldridge. Thanks to enthusiastic rehearsals that very morning, the choir’s participation enhanced La Féline’s crisp delivery and atmospheric Music, giving an epic feel to the whole performance.
The concert was followed by a Q&A introduced by local music legend Dave Haslam, a La Féline fan. Among other topics, students asked La Féline about her musical influences (Sonic Youth and Brigitte Fontaine, it turns out!), her Spanish heritage, the limitations and rewards of being a ‘smalltown girl’, her reconciliation of emotions and intellectualism (when she’s not singing as La Féline, Agnès Gayraud is a philosopher and specialist of Theodor Adorno). The recording of the Q&A is now being used in Dr Lebrun’s class for students to base their essays on.
The last word is for the choir members:
“ When we were presented with the exciting opportunity to support the concert, me, Sam and Steffan immediately signed up despite the fact that neither of us is a professional singer. However, together we practised, learnt how to read sheet music and built each other’s confidence up. We even got to sing in a completely new and rare language, Occitan, for the song ‘Fum’! During the rehearsals and the concert, we were all a bit nervous but thanks to how friendly and welcoming La Féline was to us, we all really enjoyed the experience, and the concert was a huge success.
Overall, the way passion for Music brings people together created a very special atmosphere at La Féline’s concert. We are all very grateful to La Féline and all the organizers for this opportunity, as it not only helped us improve our musical skills, but mainly it was an unforgettable experience which we will cherish for a long time” – Adriana Srsnova, BA (Hons) Politics & French.
Initiated by Dr Alexander Gagatsis (Music), the event was supported technically by Guillaume Dujat, and generously funded by the Music department and by SALC’s Teaching, Learning and Student Experience (TLSE).