Chalais: the chamber music festival that attracts international artists to Charente

Based in South Charente since 2005, the couple dreamed of a project in their image. “A festival in the countryside, with an artistic, not commercial, vision.†What clicked? A first concert in Chalais, and a crowd there. The festival was born in 2009. Seventeen years later, the event attracts nearly 1,800 spectators over five weekends. International musicians, accustomed to big stages, come to perform there. But here, the tempo changes. “When they arrive, they take a deep breath,” says Sarah Shaw. “They rehearse, eat together… and on stage, this bond is heard.â€

Around a hundred volunteers

In Chalais, music is made up close. Around a hundred volunteers are busy behind the scenes: meals, accommodation, transport. “It’s an almost military organization,” smiles the shadowy conductor, who writes everything down in a large notebook. “But above all, it’s a big family.” In the stone nave, the listening is intense. After the concerts, artists and the public continue discussions in the cloister around local products. “People are looking for emotional, almost spiritual moments,” observes Sarah Shaw.

An expectation met by a demanding program, mixing known and discovered works, like this year around Weber and Mendelssohn. The bet, however, was entirely improbable. “The next festival is never a given, but we have never made an artistic compromise.” At Chalais, chamber music has found much more than a scene: a soul.