‘Chants libres’ in Occitanie, 26

Published on May 26, 2026

A programme of concerts, singing walks, musical performances and workshops, organised by the Les Éléments Chamber Choir and enriched by the participation of amateur choirs, is set to take place across Occitanie.

This year’s festival will be all about discovery and sharing, with a desire to reach out to audiences of all ages in a variety of venues: heritage buildings, natural sites, theatres and schools.

The festival will centre on a wide-ranging repertoire blending world music, jazz, sacred chants, contemporary works, and traditional and regional songs. The aim is to promote choral singing and to offer moments of sharing, joy and conviviality.

In Occitanie, the Chants libres programme has been led since its inception by the Les Éléments Chamber Choir, and celebrates all forms of choral expression, bringing together professional ensembles, amateur choirs, as well as children’s and youth choirs.

For this new edition of Chants libres 2026, Joël Suhubiette and Les Éléments invite us on a journey across the continents, in partnership with Le Patio des Arts, the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental du Grand Narbonne, and the City of Narbonne.

Joël Suhubiette and the Les Éléments Chamber Choir

Founded by Joël Suhubiette in 1997 in Toulouse, the Les Éléments Chamber Choir has become one of the leading forces in the French professional choral scene. Winner of several awards (the Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Choral Singing from the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, the Victoire de la Musique Classique), its repertoire ranges from the Renaissance to contemporary works, in forms as diverse as a cappella, oratorio and opera. The ensemble performs in Toulouse and the Occitanie region, in Paris and throughout France, on international tours, and has been in residence at Odyssud-Blagnac since 2001 and at the Cité de Sorèze since 2006. In 2019, the Ministry of Culture, as part of its national programme to promote vocal art, designated Les Éléments as the National Centre for Vocal Art for the Occitanie region.

Programme for Friday 26 June 2026

Rosa-Lune et les loups

7.00 pm – Amphitheatre, Palais des Congrès – Gruissan
Featuring the 1C1 and 1C2 choirs and the Patio des Arts junior choir,
rehearsed by Delphine Rode
Patio des Arts Choirs – Conducted by Christopher Gibert
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

The 1C1-1C2 choirs and the Patio des Arts junior choir, accompanied by the vocal quartet comprising Amandine Bontemps, Eloïse Chadourne, Hervé Suhubiette and Thierry Péteau, and conducted by Christopher Gibert, will perform the show *Rosa-Lune et les loups*, a brand-new adaptation of the children’s book by Hervé Suhubiette.

Featuring Amandine Bontemps (soprano), Eloïse Chadourne (alto), Hervé Suhubiette (tenor), Thierry Péteau (bass), Gaël Pautric (clarinet), Etienne Manchon (piano and synthesiser) and Chantal Aguer (marimba and percussion).

Billetterie

Programme for Saturday 27 June 2026

Vocal Painting Workshop

10.30am–12.30pm – Patio des Arts Auditorium – Narbonne
Eloïse Chadourne
Duration: 2 hours

Report on the Vocal Painting workshop

3.00 pm – Courtyard of the Palais des Archevêques – Narbonne
Eloïse Chadourne
Duration: 20 mins

Amateur Choirs' Gathering

3.30 pm – Salle des Synodes – Narbonne
Duration: 1 hour 50 minutes
Saltarello, conducted by Delphine Rode
Bä, bä vita lamm (arr. N.H. Asheim)
Si mes vers avaient des ailes - R. Hahn (arr. Biddlecomb)
Chœur des fées - extrait du Songe d'une nuit d'été, F. Mendelssohn
L'étoile - C. Chaminade
Les pêcheurs - C. Chaminade
Regina cœli - M. Bonis
White winter hymna - Pentatonix

Quinte & Sens
O Radiant Dawn - James MacMillan
Revecy venir du Printans - Claude Le Jeune
Ave Regina Caelorum - Philip WJ Stopford
Aj, Stupaj - Bohuslav Martinů
Napadly písně - Antonín Dvořák
Locus iste - Anton Bruckner
Lully, Lulla, Lullay - Philip WJ Stopford
Tryptique autour de Ronsard - Frédéric Terrien
  Ciel, air et vents (voix égales de femmes)
  Mignonne, allons voir si la rose (voix égales d'hommes sur un thème de Déodat de Séverac)
   Mignonne (suite) (voix mixtes)
Smile - Turner, Parsons, Chaplin (arr. Ben Bram)
Trois Chansons Françaises - Francis Poulenc
  La belle se sied au pied de la tour
Pilons l'orge
Les tisserands
Viva la Vida - Berryman, Buckland, Champion, Martin (arr. J. Johansen)
Ensemble Nymphæa, conducted by Nathan Crapella
Muusika - Pärt Uusberg
Ave verum Corpus - Eleanor Daley
Virita Criosa - Thomas Jennefelt
Hymn of the travelers - Gustav Holst
Yggdrasil - Eric William Barnum
Alice - Sarah Quartel
Swifter than Flame - Elaine Hagenberg

Silence and music

7.00 pm – Salle des Synodes, Palais des Archevêques – Narbonne
Les Éléments Chamber Choir, Dames de choeur – Conducted by Joël Suhubiette
Duration: 1 hour

Joël Suhubiette and Les Éléments invite us on a journey across the continents. In Vietnamese, Brazilian, Polish, Greek, Spanish, English, Occitan, Swedish, Japanese… the ensemble performs a cappella works written from the mid-20th century to the present day. For most of these pieces, the composers drew inspiration from their own roots and culture, celebrating the beauty of nature and paying tribute to the traditions or, at times, the spirituality of their countries.

The final touch to this journey is a world premiere commissioned by Les Éléments from the Odawa (Canada) composer Barbara Assiginaak, whose works are performed across Canada, the United States, South America, Europe and the Far East. Barbara Assiginaak has composed a piece for Les Éléments sung in the Anishinaabe Indigenous language, celebrating the power and strength of nature.

"It is Ursula Wood’s poem ‘Silence and Music’, set to music by her husband Ralph Vaughan Williams, that gives its name to this new programme. It evokes a primordial silence, the sounds, the winds, the sea, the birds, and then the hand of man through which music awakens from the silence in which it lay dormant. For me, the whole spirit of the programme is encapsulated in this poem."

Joël Suhubiette

Billeterie

The vocal ensemble Quinte & Sens comprises eight singers who are passionate about a cappella vocal music, with a particular focus on composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The beauty and harmony of their voices, combined with the crystal-clear clarity of their performance, have earned Quinte & Sens critical acclaim (4 Diapasons for their CD *Le compagnon des étoiles*).

Saltarello is the upper-level ensemble for the vocal department at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental du Grand Narbonne, led by Delphine Rode. It is accompanied by Marie Arnaud on piano and Catherine Bonaccorsi for vocal technique. By taking part in a wide range of projects both within the conservatoire and across the region, the young singers are able to explore diverse repertoires, from Vivaldi to Steve Reich via Schubert, performing in various ensembles.

The vocal ensemble Nymphæa was founded in 2025 in Montpellier by Nathan Crapella. This choir brings together 15 female students from the Conservatoire: choristers, singers, conductors and instrumentalists. It was born out of a desire to sing in a small group, amongst friends, to explore a new, more demanding repertoire that aligns with each member’s musical ambitions. Keen to remain rooted in the music of their time, the choir explores the work of contemporary composers.

Singing a cappella or accompanied by their pianist Stefan Nimirceag, the ensemble has been meeting for rehearsals since September to put together their first programme: Incantations.

Brought together by their shared passion for a cappella vocal polyphony, the singers of the A Bocca Chiusa quartet have been touring France since 2015.
The four singers devise eclectic and lively concert programmes, always striving to forge a genuine connection with their audience. What sets them apart is the very nature of their projects: with three staged shows, A Bocca Chiusa challenges the conventions of traditional a cappella polyphony. Their taste for originality is also reflected in the creation and commissioning of bespoke arrangements.

Programme for Sunday 28 June 2026

Moment musical / Musical interlude

10.30 am – Entrance via Passage de l'Ancre or entrance from Rue Droite
A Bocca Chiusa
Duration: 25 minutesSans Cible

11.30 am – Salle des Synodes, Palais des Archevêques – Narbonne
A Bocca Chiusa
Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

Sans Cible is an exclusively French-language musical programme that blends contemporary and classic French songs (from Charles Trénet, Jacques Brel, Michel Legrand and Anne Sylvestre to Stromae, Angèle and Orelsan), traditional songs from various regions of France and Quebec, and even American hits translated into French.

Through this journey through a Francophone world that is by turns cheerful and sombre, reflecting struggles, the ensemble A Bocca Chiusa offers a fresh perspective on this repertoire by creating a dialogue between the stories, exploring the echoes, connections, responses and consolations from one song to the next. The characters seem to draw on their collective musical memory to invent their own narrative.

In a format that blends performance and concert, our four outsiders experience the power of songs: the power to reopen access to speech, to the strength of the collective, and to reclaim together the right to dream.

Chants et danses d'Europe centrale

Songs and dances from Central Europe

Cinema Theatre, Scène Nationale – Narbonne
Les Éléments, conducted by Joël Suhubiette
Running time: 1 hour

The chamber choir Les éléments and Joël Suhubiette take us on a journey through Central Europe, to the very heart of Gypsy, Slavic and Hungarian folk traditions, as well as into the intimate and refined atmosphere of Viennese salons.

Here, a selection of pieces by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Stravinsky, Bartók and Ligeti capture the essence of Romantic poetry or sweep us up in dance with their wedding songs, Gypsy evenings and peasant ballads.

Billeterie