In the light-filled classroom of the Stains Conservatory, in Seine-Saint-Denis, the first notes of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 resound. Concentrated, five teenagers listen to the introduction of brass, clarinets and bassoons of the second movement, while Zahia Ziouani mechanically taps the rhythm of the melody with her fingertips. Between two notes, the conductor cuts the sound, then asks her students about their first impressions. “It looks like a happy story,” dares Emilie timidly. Benevolent burst of laughter from his teacher. “If you want! I would rather say that it’s a rather dark, melancholic piece”, she explains, before recounting the inspirations of this so-called “New World” symphony, evoking its power, dissect each note. The charm operates: captivated, the students remain attentive until the end of the session. Badis, who hesitated a few months ago to stop the music, even confides his desire to conduct the finale of the symphony at the concert of the orchestra conducting class of the Conservatory, which will take place next February. A broad smile appeared on her teacher’s face. “I like coming here, because it’s a place where I feel useful”, she confided to us after the course.
“Here” is the department of Seine-Saint-Denis where she grew up, more precisely the town of Stains where the Divertimento orchestra that she founded in 1998 resides, and even more specifically the Municipal Conservatory of Music and de danse (CMMD) which she directed for ten years. She takes the time to train young musicians there, despite an international reputation, dozens of concerts all over France, and now a film about her life, entertainmentby Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, in theaters this Wednesday, January 25.
Zahia Ziouani cherishes the diversity of backgrounds and the closeness she maintains with her students, which does not always exist in other structures. Even if, in Stains as elsewhere, rigor is required. “I want work, commitment, punctuality and know-how”, lists the conductor. “Excellence can be learned. In music or in the professional world”. Lesson learned for Gaston who, as part of the Divertimento Academy created by the forties, has already had the opportunity to play at the Philharmonie, at the Seine Musicale or in front of the presidential couple at the Elysée. At only 21, the young man often wanted to give up the cello for football, and join the friends who were skipping music theory lessons. “But Zahia taught me determination, and now we do crazy concerts. I like to say thank you for all that,” he confided to L’Express.
Gaston likes to find common ground with “his” teacher. Zahia Ziouani also “occasionally hated” her mother for forcing her to continue music, doubted her skills and legitimacy – as a child, she could not identify with “those white, usually bearded men” whom she saw leading the major international ensembles. “But as you can see in the film, it was the collective adventure of the orchestra that pushed me to continue”, she tells us.
The love of classical music, too, which she discovers in the filmed version of Marriage of Figaro recorded by his father, or at the opera when his mother takes him, with his twin sister Fettouma, to a performance of the magic flute of Mozart. As a child, she remains marked by the scene of the film Green Sunin which the character played by Edward G. Robinson sees images of nature before he dies, while listening to an extract from Pastoral by Beethoven. At an age when others admire the performance of the actors, she will wait for the end of the credits to make sure, on the television screen of Pantin’s family apartment, that it is indeed Symphony No. 6 by the German composer. “I was amazed by the energy and the beauty of this orchestral music. There was a kind of evidence, it resonated in me”.
First seduced by the guitar, the musician quickly took up the viola, which allowed her to join her cellist sister in an orchestra. Positioned just in front of the chef, she then begins to dream. “I watched to the right, to the left, behind me, I heard the sounds of the instruments he was leading. I was fascinated”. Hours will follow watching documentaries on conductors with his father, devouring specialized magazines or deciphering scores of Mozart in his bed, lit by a flashlight. While reading, the teenager already distinctly hears the melody forming in her head. “Sometimes it was almost better than having headphones: I was shaping the music the way I wanted to hear it.” At the age of 14, at the Pantin conservatory, she conducted an orchestra for the first time to “give a hand” to her teacher at the time. “I realized that it was there, my place. And I never left it,” she laughs.
Zahia Ziouani, however, had to hang on. Crossing the ring road to study at the Parisian high school Racine, which offers a double music course, in 1995, she and her sister were confronted for the first time with “class contempt, sometimes racism” from certain teachers. “It’s not normal that you are so good coming from Seine-Saint-Denis”, they will hear between two lessons. No matter: the misplaced reflections and comparisons with students much more advanced in their musical careers were “the ultimate kick in the ass” that the twins needed. At the same time, Zahia Ziouani met the Romanian composer Sergiu Celibidache – whom she admired to the point of having hung a poster of him in her room – who spotted her and taught her how to conduct an orchestra. After her baccalaureate, she divided her time as a teacher at the conservatories of Stains and Paris. In each of these cities, she observes young artists locked in their social and cultural bubble. “There were these Parisian musicians who never left Paris, and those from Stains who never crossed the ring road. I decided to bring them together”.
At only 20 years old, she decided to create her own orchestra: it would be called Divertimento. Faced with cultural institutions, mayors, department presidents, she defends her project and tries to unlock dates and raise funds. “It was my only opportunity and my only chance. I would still be waiting for the phone to ring in my room if I hadn’t moved”, she breathes, while the women do not represent in 2023 only 4% of the profession of conductor. “I heard that I will not be able, that I will not have the necessary authority, the adequate physical strength. I was also told that it was not compatible with motherhood… And yet!”, she quips, pointing to her 8-year-old daughter, who is calmly drawing in a corner of the room.
In 2007, Zahia Ziouani was the first woman to be named guest conductor of the National Orchestra of Algeria. With the 70 musicians of her ensemble, she is also delighted to give around fifty concerts a year, everywhere in France and for all audiences. These partnerships are not always easy to obtain. Committed to cultural diversity, Zahia Ziouani denounces the “double discourse” of certain institutions. “We are asked to get involved with young people, rural areas, working-class neighborhoods… What I do. But I still have so much trouble finding money and concerts,” she says.
“To obtain subsidies, it’s sometimes the 12 labors of Hercules. You have to seek public authorities, business leaders, patrons… It’s a battle of explanations and conviction”, confirms Morald Chibout , president of the Divertimento Orchestra. With his experience as general manager in major national groups, the man has been fighting for three years alongside the conductor to make the whole even more visible. “We have often been seen as ‘the suburban orchestra’, even though we are a philharmonic orchestra with national and international aims…Things are starting to change, but it’s a daily fight”.
Zahia Ziouani continues to invest in a thousand projects. Resolutely modern, it will offer spectators at the Théâtre du Rond-Point the opportunity to immerse themselves in a symphony by Mahler with the help of a video scenographic work next March, before presenting a show inspired by the World Cup in October. rugby at the Philharmonie de Paris. And for the 2024 Olympics, she is already working on a series of concerts that combine classical music and break dance, a new Olympic discipline. Above all, she is impatiently awaiting the famous concert of her conducting class next February. For a few weeks, the rehearsals of his young students have already started at the CMMD in Stains. The opportunity for Badis, Emilie and the others to show, in turn, all their talent.
