Bechara El-Khoury has been a fellow traveller with the Orchestre des Jeunes d’Île-de-France (OJIF) since the training programme’s inaugural concert in 2016.
The latest product of the friendly partnership between this exemplary group of young musicians and the French-Lebanese composer, the Chant de lumière pour la Sainte Vierge [Song of Light for the Blessed Virgin] for cello (the young talent Louis Rodde, prize winner at the ARD competition) and orchestra will have its world premiere on June 15^th of this year.
The ethereal shimmer of textures, the exceptional melodic sense, the delicate poetry of blended instruments – all the familiar qualities of Bechara El-Khoury's writing will come together to make this moment a high point in the composer's residence with the OJIF.

"This is a meditative work that I composed in 1995 and then rewrote in 2017, while still keeping the spirit and, as much as possible, my style for that period! The structure of the work does not follow any classical form! It is instead a "rhapsodic" speech, a sort of loosely planned and structured improvisation. The song is poetic and serene. It is not sacred music in the strict sense of the word, but more of a nod to purity and eternity..."

Bechara El-Khoury 

World premiere
15 June 2018, OJIF, cond. David Molard, Théâtre Rutebeuf, France