Franรงois Paris leads the CIRM in Nice. For those unfamiliar, the CIRM is one of the seven national centers for Musical Creation. Its activities revolve around four main areas: production, dissemination, research, and training. They bring together professionals: composers, musical assistants, researchers, sound engineers, musicologists, students in electroacoustic composition, working, among other things, on new technologies in the service of musical creation.
Franรงois Paris is a composer, a lover of music and its development. He arrived in Nice in 2000. Since then, he has been fighting to maintain the excellence of his center. Technical skills, both in equipment and personnel, are present. Everything is good in the best of all possible worlds… Unfortunately not. The offices located on Avenue Jean Mรฉdecin are not functional. “It is difficult to move our equipment. We have to go down two floors. We are forced to pay movers. It’s a budget…” Franรงois Paris sighs. For safety reasons, it is impossible to host more than twenty people at 33 Avenue Jean Mรฉdecin. Yet, the CIRM aims to showcase its activities and productions. It regularly does so in schools, during the Manca Festival, or during the sound week. The CIRM in Nice is the third national center for musical creation but is the last in terms of budget. Franรงois Paris takes this with philosophy: “We must abandon the culture of results for the result of culture. In Nice, we think of the extraordinary first before thinking of the essential.” Since his arrival, he has been demanding new premises. A futile demand even if one understands his request. “I hope that the arrival of Muriel Marland Militello as deputy for culture, passionate about music, will enable this relocation.”
Last Wednesday, in his office, Franรงois Paris received a visually impaired person, a lover of music, new technologies, and creating works of art. For an hour, the two enthusiasts discussed how to combine all these specialties: music, visual art, braille. A specialist dialogue that the “uninformed” will be able to decipher during the sound week which will take place in January.
Suspense…