Québec: Poetry into Song

What happens when the singer is not only the interpreter of a song, but its poet?

French-Canadian soprano Elisabeth Boudreault and British composer James Garner come to Song in the City with Années Naïves et Paysages, a new song cycle setting Elisabeth's own French-Québécois poetry.

Written especially for Elisabeth's voice, the cycle explores human connection: the ways our lives converge, pull apart, and are unexpectedly rearranged by one another. James's spare, quietly lyrical music creates an intimate space in which Elisabeth's words can speak with striking clarity and immediacy.

Born from a longstanding creative friendship, the work is also a meeting of cultures, bringing British and French-Québécois artistic traditions into conversation and drawing on the spirit of the bard, chansonnier and troubadour.

Alongside the new cycle, Elisabeth and James present a wider programme of song exploring Québec, language, memory and belonging - an intimate evening celebrating the extraordinary relationship between poetry, music and the human voice.