Inaugurated in February 2015, the Cité de la Musique et de la Danse of Soissons is now the focal point of an awareness, education, and diffusion policy for a variety of audiences. This brand new conservatoire, unique in its architecture and artistic design, is a world away from the old infrastructures.
- 03 October 2019
The architect Henri Gaudin, here signing his latest work in collaboration with his son Bruno Gaudin, has responded perfectly to the elected officials' request. The Cité de la Musique et de la Danse has become the must-see attraction of Gouraud Park in Soissons. The quality of the facilities and their reputation radiate far beyond the limits of the department. The conservatoire, through its educational innovation and the quality of its teaching, is an invaluable resource centre for the territory.
The former conservatoire of Soissons, which was aging and split into three cramped sites, suffered from very constraining operating conditions, both for the teaching staff and for students and their parents. The facility didn't offer the necessary teaching tools for quality music and art education.
To address this problem, the elected officials of the Agglomeration Community of Soissonnais embarked on developing a Cité de la Musique et de la Danse. The idea to construct this new conservatoire in the heart of Giraud Park rapidly gained a foothold. This park, dedicated to the service sector, enjoys a pivotal location between the major historic sites of Soissons and the agglomeration's boulevards.
Various objectives
In addition to modernising infrastructures, the project also aimed to provide the territory with a specialised musical and choreographic establishment worthy of the development ambitions of the Agglomeration Community of Soissonnais.
The initiative also had excellence objectives in three priority areas:
at the educational level, with quality teaching of music, dance, and drama;at the artistic level, with the dissemination and creation of works;at the cultural and social level, with the promotion of amateur activities and the seeking of new audiences (especially through music education for young people from lower-income neighbourhoods who don’t have the economic, social, or cultural resources to learn about and practice classical music in existing institutions).By participating in a policy to revitalise the surrounding territory, the creation of the Cité de la Musique et de la Danse of Soissons is undeniably a "structuring" project for Soissons. As the agglomeration community’s territory has always received support from the European Union for this type of project, it seemed only natural to include it in this new initiative.
A success story
Today, the conservatoire’s staff is constantly evolving. While the institution welcomed 500 students at the start of the school year in 2015, it received more than 600 applications for the 2018/2019 academic year.
21 subjects are taught at the school, which houses 25 classrooms, two studios dedicated to teaching dance and self-expression through movement, a recording studio, an orchestra hall, and a documentation area.
In addition, partnerships have been drawn up with schools and the agglomeration in order to offer students enhanced artistic education as part of the school timetable and curriculum.
The conservatoire also has several spaces dedicated to the diffusion and creation of live music, singing, dance, and dramatic art performances. The facility welcomed more than 10 000 spectators during the 2017/2018 season, thus fulfilling its priority objective to facilitate everyone's access to culture as much as possible. For example, an appropriate pricing policy has been implemented to meet both budget balancing requirements and the need to fulfil democratisation ambitions.
To fulfil these objectives and keep the facility running on a daily basis, no less than 40 people work together as a team at the Cité de la Musique et de la Danse.
Total investment and European funding
The "Cité de la Musique et de la Danse of Soissons: a new conservatoire" received a total investment of EUR 17 735 760; the European Regional Development Fund's contribution amounts to EUR 4 000 000 under the ERDF cooperation programme for the 2007-2013 programming period. The investment falls under the "Competitiveness, Innovation, and Knowledge Economy" priority.