Nicolas Bouchaud & Sonia Wieder-Atherton Bring THE EMPEROR AND THE NIGHTINGALE to Tilt Kids Festival

As part of the second annual Tilt Kids Festival, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) are thrilled to welcome Nicolas Bouchaud and Sonia Wieder-Atherton for the US premiere of The Emperor and the Nightingale (Le Rossignol) on Saturday, April 1 and Sunday, April 2 at 4pm in FIAF's Le Skyroom, 22 East 60th Street (between Madison & Park Avenue).

Two powerhouse French performers-stage actor Nicolas Bouchaud and acclaimed cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton-join forces to perform an imaginative, musical rendition of Hans Christian Andersen's treasured fairytale The Emperor and the Nightingale. The pair mixes sounds from bells and all manners of music to tell the story of an emperor who tries to replace the love of a nightingale with a glittering mechanical bird.

Running Time: 60 minutes. Ages 4-10. In French.

About Nicolas Bouchaud

Nicolas Bouchaud has been an actor since 1991. He has worked with Didier-Georges Gabily on Des Cercueils de zinc, Enfonçures, Gibiers du temps, and Dom Juan / Chimères et autres bestioles. He has performed with Yann-Joël Collin, Hubert Colas, Bernard Sobel, and Christophe Perton, among others. Jean-François Sivadier has directed him in such notable works as Life of Galileo by Bertholt Brecht, Danton's Death by Georg Büchner, King Lear by William Shakespeare, and Molière's The Misanthrope and Don Juan. Recent stage works include: acting in and co-directing Partage de Midi by Paul Claudel (Festival d'Avignon 2008); adapting and performing in La Loi du marcheur (The Exercise was Beneficial, Sir) (an interview with Serge Daney), directed by Éric Didry in 2010 and presented at FIAF in 2014; playing in Miss Julie by August Strindberg, directed by Frédéric Fisbach (Festival d'Avignon 2011); directing Deux Labiche de moins (Festival d'Automne 2012); performing in Projet Luciole by Nicolas Truong (Festival d'Avignon 2013); adapting and performing in Un métier ideal in 2013 from work by John Berger and Jean Mohr, and then in The Meridian by Paul Celan in 2015, directed by Éric Didry; performing in Interview, directed by Nicolas Truong (Festival d'Avignon 2016). On screen, he has worked with Jacques Rivette, Edouard Niermans, Pierre Salvadori, Jean Denizot, and Mario Fanfani, among others. Nicolas Bouchaud is an Associated Artist at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg.

About Sonia Wieder-Atherton

Internationally acclaimed cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton interprets a broad repertory, performing numerous works that have been specifically written for her both as a soloist and chamber music performer. Parallel to her career as a concert performer, she has conceived, produced and performed her own projects, which continually reconsider the concert form, opening the repertory to the sounds of time and exploring the intersections between different forms of artistic expression. Her original works have travelled the world. Wieder-Atherton is the recipient of the Bernheim Foundation Award and winner of the Rostropovich Competition. She has studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur with famEd French cellist and conductor Maurice Gendron, as well as at the Moscow Conservatory.

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About Tilt Kids Festival

Tilt Kids Festival invites kids and families to discover, play, imagine, think, and create, with performances and events that challenge the boundaries of art forms. From theater to dance parties, music concerts, innovative workshops, conversations, and visual art installations, Tilt is designed to stimulate and inspire the audiences of today and tomorrow.

Tilt Kids Festival is co-curated by Rima Abdul-Malak, Cultural Attachée of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy; Lili Chopra, Executive Vice President and Artistic Director of the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF); and Violaine Huisman, Director of Humanities at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music. www.tiltkidsfestival.org

About the Cultural Services of the French Embassy

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy promotes the best of French arts, literature, cinema, digital innovation, language, and higher education across the US. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the country, the Cultural Services brings artists, authors, intellectuals and innovators to cities nationwide. It also builds partnerships between French and American artists, institutions and universities on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York, through its bookshop Albertine, it fosters French-American exchange around literature and the arts. www.frenchculture.org

About FIAF

The French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF) is New York's premiere French cultural and language center. FIAF's mission is to create and offer New Yorkers innovative and unique programs in education and the arts that explore the evolving diversity and richness of French cultures. FIAF seeks to generate new ideas and promote cross cultural dialogue through partnerships and new platforms of expression. www.fiaf.org

Merci!

Tilt Kids Festival 2017 is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium, Air France and Delta Air Lines, FACE Foundation, Florence Gould Foundation, the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, Howard Gilman Foundation, Institut français-Paris, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, La Roche Posay, and SACD (Société des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques).