CLASSICAL MUSIC PERFORMANCE

On the occasion of Fête de la musique and the 35 years anniversary of Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam,

Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam organised a Classical Music Performance in collaboration with Brunei Music Society.

View the evening programme here.

Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam is celebrating its 35th years Anniversary.

Established in 1986 in the Sultanate, Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam is an organisation that aims to promote French language and culture. Under the presidency of Pehin Orang Kaya Pekerma Laila Diraja Dato Seri Setia Haji Hazair Bin Haji Abdullah, Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam provides classes to the public, schools and corporates, official translations and is the only French exam centre recognized by the French Ministry of Education in Borneo. It holds multiple cultural events such as conferences, cooking classes as well as two major annual events that are Francophonie - an international celebration of French language and culture - and French Film Festival – celebrating French Films to discover or re-discover masterpieces of French cinema.

On the occasion of Fête de la Musique (Music Day or Festival of Music) concurrent with its 35th anniversary, Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam (AFBD) -in collaboration with the Brunei Music Society (BMS) and supported by the French Embassy in Brunei, TotalEnergies and Baiduri Bank- organised a Classical Music performance at Indera Samudra Hall of The Empire Brunei on Saturday 18th June.

La Fête de la Musique is an annual music celebration that takes place on 21 June, the longest day in Europe. Created under the impulse of the French Minister of Culture Jack Lang in 1982 and Maurice Fleuret the composer, it is now celebrated in many countries around the world, to celebrate music. It is very common to see during this period people playing music in the streets of Paris. This celebration is open to all, whether you are an amateur or a professional.

Thanks to the collaboration of the Brunei Music Society, more than 20 talented players performed 15 music pieces of famous French composers from the 19th and 20th century such as Camille Saint-Saëns, Francis Poulenc or Gabriel Fauré. « Some music pieces were classic and had been heard by the audience before, without knowing the composer behind: ‘Je veux vivre’ from Roméo et Juliette opera or Meditation from Jules Massenet were amongst them. » explained Elodie Simon-Hicks, Executive Director of Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam.

Jaya Punjabi, Chairperson of Brunei Music Society commented : “We are thankful to AFBD for including us in their 35th Anniversary Celebration and Fête de la Musique. Music has a power to connect to people when words fail. Today’s performance of French Classical Composers for an international crowd by performers of varied backgrounds residing in Brunei is an absolute depiction of an art form with human interaction at its centre.”

The Guest of Honour of the event was Pengiran Mohammad Amirrizal Bin Pengiran Haji Mahmud, Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports. Among the guests who attended the event were board members, members and students of Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam, members of Brunei Music Society, officials from Ministries and Government Departments, Ambassadors and Members of the Diplomatic Corps, board members of FBBA, members of the media and invited guests of the sponsors TotalEnergies and Baiduri Bank.

Speaking on the event, Ti Eng Hui, Chief Executive Officer of Baiduri Bank said, "We have been a long-time partner of Alliance Française and we are proud to be the Bank sponsor of tonight's classical music performance." He further elaborated, "In line with our CSR framework, Baiduri Bank is an advocate towards enriching the lives of our community and performances such as these are one of the ways in which we can achieve this."

For the past 35 years, Alliance Française’s objective has been to foster the French language and culture among the Bruneians locals. Being situated in the heart of Borneo, it offers an authentic and unique environment where people, students and members can meet and share a genuine French experience.

French is the only language other than English spoken on five continents. Students learn French for the benefit of their profession and business, to enhance their travel experience or to further their studies.

Olivier Branellec, Acting General Manager of TotalEnergies Brunei: "It was a pleasure for us to support Alliance Française's 35 years anniversary as it is this year that TotalEnergies is also celebrating its 35 years since arriving in Brunei. Supporting AFBD is a platform to help TotalEnergies Brunei realise its CSR responsibility pillar on 'youth inclusion, cultural exchanges and education diversification', of which TotalEnergies has sent 10 Bruneians studying in France where Alliance Française played an important role prior to leaving. They studied intensive French and the local culture to ensure smooth integration into the French universities and curriculum they were assigned to.

This classical musical performance provided young talents in Brunei a platform to showcase their commitment to their talents and passion in appreciating music from a different culture. TotalEnergies Brunei was proud to support and be part of the celebration.

“Music is an important part of French culture and France has played an instrumental role in the development of classical music. It makes sense that music was the art displayed on the occasion of the anniversary” said Pehin Dato Haji Hazair, president of Alliance Française de Brunei Darussalam.