Pilgrims

Julien Libeer has been closely following the development of the Equinox and Singing Molenbeek children's choirs for over 10 years. In 2023, he asked composer Fabian Fiorini to write a show tailored to the two ensembles. Inspired by the striking figure of Anicet Abayomi - pillar of Equinox and gospel singer extraordinaire - Julien suggested the aesthetics of black songs as a starting point.

Drawing on the historical and spiritual dimensions of this musical tradition, Fabian imagines a work straddling classical and jazz, exploring notions of journey, hardship and solidarity. From there, Donald Sturrock, a distinguished English writer and producer, devised a high-caliber libretto, specifying its contours by taking the framework of the spiritual journey provided by the influential 17th-century parable, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Pilgrims is a timeless metaphorical journey through the adversities of migration. Pilgrims tells the perennial story of a symbolic journey towards the promise of another life. It reminds us that, whatever the cause of their flight, the refugee's journey is a kind of pilgrimage: a quest for something better.

Flagey, Festival Musiq3