Since the creation of PIANO AND CO, Nathalie NÉGRO has ensured that her social commitments are reflected in all the company’s activities. Since 2007, she has been focusing on the issue of gender equality in the music industry. As part of this effort, the Musical Bounce Back project features artistic direction structured around the theme of women composers.

Musical Bounce Back, which is co-financed by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, is a resilient and unifying project. Thanks to musical creations, an innovative pedagogical journey and the realization of a documentary, this project will raise awareness among euro-mediterranean musicians, performers, teachers and publics about gender equality, and especially the promotion and visibility of female composers.

Teachers and learners imagine tools and methods of tomorrow to raise awareness on this issue. Together they create original content in a pedagogical toolbox (podcasts, interviews and questionnaires, gathering of data and scores, debates production, round tables, cooperation games…)

New technologies are a major element of this artistic and pedagogical journey. Participants are involved in a creative process by collaborating through the LoLa (Low Latency) system: a high-quality, low latency audio/video transmission system that enables engaging encounters, which fosters creation thanks to direct and regular links with female composers.

Concerts, workshops, round tables and in-person and online rehearsals will be organized over three years which enables to meet, discover and maintain the link between musicians and female composers involved in the project.

In April 2024, a one-week public event will bring together Musical Bounce Back’s European musicians in Marseille around a wide programme with round tables, film projections, concerts, and, above all, the presentation of the final creation in the Conservatory of Marseille, which will be the occasion to give as world première the work by female composers.

For the Musical Bounce Back project, PIANO AND CO is commissioning musical creations from the female composers Esthir LEMI (Greece), Angela DA PONTE (Portugal), Nariné MEKHITARYAN and Eve RISSER (France).

Anne ALIX will produce a documentary about three generations of female musicians that will tackle the question of women in music.

For this project, PIANO AND CO continues to weave local partnerships with LMA (AMU-CNRS-ECM), IESM, the CFMI, the Conservatory Marseille, Marseille Museums, Alcazar library, the GMEM-Cncm…

This initiative is being carried out by six partners from the fields of music education, educational engineering, research, innovation, and musical creation:

PIANO AND CO (Marseille, France), leader, the Organisation of European Programmes and Cultural Relations (Limassol, Cyprus), Laboratory of Music Acoustics and Technology/ LabMAT at the National and Kapodistrian University (Athens, Greece); Casa do Professor (Braga, Portugal); the Komitas State Conservatory (Yerevan, Armenia), and the Laboratory of Collective and Artificial Intelligence/LICA (Marseille, France).