They combine their passions for cycling and music: the legend of French cycling Jeannie Longo and a conductor in love with the little queen are launching a show on Saturday with a symphony orchestra, promising an original tour of France until the Paris Olympic Games .
In the impressive velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, in the Paris region, where the track cycling events are planned, maestro Dylan Corlay gives his final instructions to Jeannie Longo. The runner did not get on a bicycle, no. She is stationed, baton in hand, in front of a music stand and some 90 musicians from the Orchester national d'Île-de-France (Ondif) gathered on the floor. Objective: to direct the first four minutes of Dylan Corlay's concert-show, which combines classical music, jazz and a few moments of humor and magic.
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A moment which is intended to be the starting point of a “bicycle orchestra tour” starting on Sunday, explains to AFP the conductor, whose project received the “Cultural Olympiad” label because it explores the links between art, sport and Olympic values. He is then expected in Nantes, Pau, Toulouse, Montpellier and finally Nice on July 14, one week before the arrival of the Tour de France in this city and two weeks before the start of the Olympic (July 26-August 11) and Paralympic Games. (August 28-September 8) in Paris.
In total, 1760 kilometers that Dylan Corlay will cover by bike, with helmet, red glasses and... tailcoats, accompanied on each stage by Sunday morning runners whom he hopes to convince to come see his show.
“This allows us to open the world of the symphony orchestra to another environment,”
explains this actor, who has been honing this formula over the past two years. For this original tour of France, he wanted to be “sponsored” by Jeannie Longo, who is also a former pianist and passionate about music. The three-time winner of the women's Tour de France in the 1980s, now 65 years old, accepted, saying:
"I would like to conduct the orchestra"
, he says.
“Similarities”
The duo saw each other and worked via videoconferences so that she could learn the basics.
“I have never performed (with) an orchestra
,” she recalls. The links between their respective disciplines?
“Preparing for a high-level sporting competition”
and
“doing a concert requires the same spirit of concern for perfection,”
she analyzes. “
Afterwards, there is sharing with the public”, “all the emotion that we can give”.
In each city, Dylan Corlay will conduct the regional symphony orchestra (Orchestre des pays de Loire, Orchester de Pau, etc.) and will invite a high-level athlete to take the stage with him. The chef also sees
“many similarities”
between sport and high-level music, which
“come together on mental preparation, on something physical, on the fact of being there at the right time, with the public”
, describes this jack of all trades, winner in 2015 of the prestigious Jorma Panula International Conducting Competition (Finland). Player of trumpet, bassoon, double bass, harmonica, in his youth he was part of a reggae group, collaborated with Sanseverino and Matthieu Chedid. In short, it’s about
“being there,”
he says mischievously. During the last stage, towards Nice, Jeannie Longo plans to get back in the saddle:
“we are going to cycle together”
, she rejoices.