It is the musical link between “Prodiges” and its pop version. As conductor, Zahia Ziouani accompanies the young talents of the two France 2 competitions with the seventy musicians of Divertimento, a symphonic ensemble that she created in 1998.
This passionate artist, who grew up in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis) surrounded by two music-loving parents, stands out in particular for her commitment to everyone’s access to culture, and more particularly to classical music. While she and her orchestra delivered their first album last May (Bacchanal: Saint-Saëns and the Mediterranean) and that a musical-sporting show will take them to the stage of the Philharmonie de Paris on October 14, Zahia Ziouani looks back on her journey.
You conduct the orchestra which accompanies the finalists of “ Pop Prodigies ». What impresses you about these children?
As with the classic version, despite their young age, they are already very passionate about their discipline. It’s not easy to have this experience with an orchestra, to play in front of a jury and a large audience. So what impresses me is their ability to adapt and their technical level. We are here, music professionals, with our experience, they come with their freshness and their energy, and I think it’s a great meeting.
You yourself, at a very young age, developed a passion for classical music. What do these young talents remind you of your own story?
It’s true that I feel like I’m young again. I had this passion for music, this desire to surpass myself, to always do better. I wanted to make it my career. If there’s one question I never asked myself, it was what I wanted to do when I grew up. These young people also have this very strong desire to persevere in the path of dance, music, instruments, singing and it is very beautiful to see.
Afterwards, the hardest thing in our profession is to last, and “Prodiges pop” is just a photograph at a certain moment. Perhaps some of them will have great careers, others will perhaps want in a few years to pursue music as an amateur and devote themselves to other studies. The future will tell.
Your parents passed on their love for classical music to you, but how did the desire to become a conductor come about?
It came naturally. Hearing music at home was something quite obvious for me to want to continue this immersion in the world of the orchestra as a musician. I started with the guitar but I realized that there was none in symphony orchestras and it was this music that I absolutely wanted to play. I found it strong, powerful, moving.
So I chose a second instrument, the viola, and that allowed me to join orchestras. This is how I discovered the profession of conductor. The shift happened when I was 14. I had an opportunity in a project at the Pantin conservatory, where I was studying, to be able to direct an ensemble for a concert. It was a trigger.
Few women are conductors. How did you find your place in this environment?
I made it for myself despite resistance and difficulties. I quickly saw that the conductors were mostly men, mostly quite old, mostly European, so it’s not easy for a young woman like me, who grew up in a working-class neighborhood, with my dual culture, to identify myself. I quickly understood that I was going to have to manage on my own. At the same time, when you grow up in Seine-Saint-Denis, you are often given a rather difficult image of life, of our possibility of success, and I always had my parents who supported me by saying: “Do what you want to do, but do it well, you have to work, it is only through work that you obtain results. »
We spend our time when we are teenagers in the suburbs trying to find solutions to get around difficulties, to overcome them. I told myself that if it wasn’t possible the normal way, we would have to find another way. And I had the idea of creating this orchestra, Divertimento, because I really wanted to conduct, to prove to myself and to the musical world that a woman could do it.
You created Divertimento at 18, that’s very young…
Of course it’s young, and at the same time, I tried not to ask myself too many questions. Afterwards, the Divertimento that we know today was not built in a day. In any case, yes, at 18, I had this desire. I taught orchestral practice in Paris and in Stains in Seine-Saint-Denis, so I began to meet young, passionate musicians who also had radically different lives. I was convinced that the orchestra should be a meeting place for artists and also for different styles of music.
For a very long time, I did everything alone. I drove the truck when we had concerts with the equipment in it, I put the chairs, the music stands in the room. Little by little, this orchestra was built. At the time, the mayor of Stains was convinced of the strength of this project and offered me a residency in this town. This allowed us to have a base and logistical means to develop. This was the beginning of this great professional adventure.
The jury of “ Pop Prodigies » is part of a spirit of transmission. This is also the case for you on a daily basis. Why is this so important to you?
Because I realized that it was because my parents had passed on to me this love, this curiosity for music that I had succeeded. In terms of classical music, I found that there are not enough links between large orchestras, large concert halls and lots of young people, lots of children, families who live all over France. If it is not possible to discover music within the family or at school, we, the artists, have a responsibility in relation to that.
When I see the impact that the encounter with music had on me, I tell myself that in turn, it is important that I can allow other young people to have this encounter, to feel the beauty of this music, its power and, why not, give rise to vocations. I always told myself that I didn’t have to choose between being an artist on stage or being a teacher, but that I had to be able to do my work while having these two commitments. This is how I find my balance today as a conductor.
You talk about the academy that you opened in Stains…
Yes. I have made this educational commitment in several forms. I was director of the Stains Conservatory for ten years. I was also a teacher. Today, for more than fifteen years, this commitment has been made through the Divertimento Academy. These are devices that we carry with the orchestra. We are setting up courses which are available in schools, middle schools, high schools, social centers and music conservatories. We allow young people to discover music and practice it too.
I am fully invested in this academy. Even if, historically, it has taken up residence in Seine Seine-Saint-Denis, today our projects are also available throughout France. It’s not necessarily a building where people come to study but it’s us, the musicians of the orchestra and myself, who move around with our educational resources. We go where the young people are, and we transmit to them this passion for music.
Last year, your life was the subject of a film, Entertainment, by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaarr. Recently, Canal+ also dedicated a documentary to you, Zahia, one step ahead. What do you think we can remember from these two portraits?
This film and this documentary are about music, about my personality. It tells about my journey with my difficulties, the doubts that we can have, the questions and, at the same time, the strength too. When you want something, you can achieve it, with courage and work. My family also plays an important place in my journey. This shows that excellence has its place even in working-class neighborhoods, even in the Parisian suburbs, even in rural areas. This is what I want to show. Moving the lines is good, but it is not always easy. It takes a lot of energy, combativeness and innovative ideas to achieve this.
In the film, we also see where this passion for music came from, this support from my parents, this requirement that they had with me, that I had with myself. We see that living from one’s passion, living a passion, sometimes means making a lot of compromises, it is also being in a constant quest to surpass oneself. The film tells all of this up to the creation of Divertimento. I have always said that the most difficult thing was not to create the orchestra but to have carried it to today, twenty-five years later. I also find that in a society where we question the possibility of women having ambitious careers and also having a family life, a private life, the documentary shows that it is a balance not necessarily easy to find but that we can get there.
Which song do you think sums you up best?
It’s not simple… I really like the Bacchanal Dance by Saint-Saëns. Camille Saint-Saëns is a French composer, the country in which I was born and raised, who embodies a little of this heritage of our rich French culture; and in this piece, there are influences, melodies, rhythms, instruments from Algeria. So this music represents a little bit of my story.
The meeting between France and Algeria in music is also who I am. It’s beautiful, moving, strong music that has character. Then, I would also like to cite the composer Beethoven, because it was with this composer that the desire to immerse myself in music was born.
Bacchanal: Saint-Saëns and the Mediterranean is also the title of your album released last May…
For the Divertimento orchestra’s first recording project, I wanted to call it that. It is the emblematic work of this album, with other works by this composer who made these trips to the Mediterranean, to Spain, to Italy, to Egypt, to Algeria, and which allows us to see that the encounter with the other, it can also nourish beautiful reflections, beautiful projects, beautiful works.