Members

Sacré Tympan is a generous, energetic, quirky and inventive troupe that handles many musical languages as if they were explosives, presenting colourful, lively, yet sensitive sound images of our world. The group creates, produces and presents musical theatre shows and workshops aimed at 4 to 12 year-olds as well as concerts, shows and recordings for open-minded adults.

Under Pierre Labbé’s direction, Sacré Tympan presents audiences with cheerfully provocative musical creations mixing different stage techniques. The creators tirelessly seek new territories and dramatic effects, switching happily between contemporary music, jazz and music using improvised instruments and objects. To this end, Sacré Tympan has brought together a friendly group of multitalented and inventive musicians, artists and craftsmen coming from different worlds who love taking risks. These masters of the present moment transform the stage into an atypical artistic meeting place bringing together audiences and their music(s!). Sacré Tympan was founded in 2005 and is the brainchild of Pierre Labbé, a composer, saxophonist, flutist and free-thinker, who also acts as the group’s artistic director and manager. Its repertoire already includes two workshops and three shows for young audiences as well as two shows for general audiences. Since 2005, the Tales from the wind workshop and the musical creation workshops organized by Sacré Tympan have delighted more than 5,000 schoolchildren in the province of Quebec. Since its creation in 2007, the group’s star show, Peter and the Louse (for 5 to 10-year olds) has been performed more than a hundred times all over the province of Quebec and in France (Saint-Pierre et Miquelon). This show was deservedly awarded the ROSEQ-RIDEAU prize in 2009 and is still in great demand. Since 2010, Sacré Tympan offers a stage version of the Tales from the wind workshop, performed by Pierre Labbé as a one-man show. Their latest production, Coat Stand Fables (for 5 to 10-year olds), was created in 2011 and was selected by the Conseil des Arts de Montréal (Montréal Arts Council) as a touring show for the 2012-13 season. The show has been performed nearly fifty times and captivates its young audiences.

Sacré Tympan’s first production aimed at general audiences, Ironquake, premiered at the OFF jazz festival in 2009, was selected by the Montréal Arts Council as a touring show for the 2011-12 season and was a finalist for the 2011 Opus prize in the “Jazz concert of the year” category awarded by the Conseil Québécois de la Musique (Quebec Music Council). In 2012, the group presented a well-received second show called Vertigos. Sacré Tympan has produced two recordings: Manivelle, finalist for the 2010 Opus prize in the “Jazz album of the year” category, and Ironquake. The Montréal and Quebec Province Arts Councils show their appreciation of Sacré Tympan’s activities by awarding them annual subsidies. Besides the prizes mentioned above, the group was selected in 2012 in the “Ma Première Biennale” (My First Biennial) competition by CINARS (a Montréal-based organization promoting international exchanges in the performing arts).