Anaiki

Since its creation in 1987 by Father Jean Eliçagaray, chaplain for Paris Basques, the men’s choir Anaïki (“between brothers”) has made it their mission to show off and spread Basque culture through its most beautiful melodies. Lead by Jean-Marie Guezala since 1990, Anaiki is now made up of over 30 singers, all passionate amateurs, who contribute to making a whole country and its culture better known and appreciated in Paris, France and abroad. The tight bonds of friendship between the choir members help them faithfully present a repertoire often evoking strong sentiments of joy, pain, love, patriotism or sadness… A centuries-old tradition started, perhaps, by “Bertsolari” – musical and improvisational poets - or else by the people itself or by fishing fellowships or other associations, the harmonies date mostly from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th. The melodies and texts are often much older, sometimes medieval, and describe profound feelings and moments of daily life. Anaiki strives to share this rich tradition full of contrasts. The choir interprets “classics” from the traditional repertoire but also resuscitates numerous forgotten or unknown melodies thanks to the choir director’s research. This research continues, and large parts of our culture have yet to be explored and updated. Numerous collaborations with Basque choirs like, for example, the famous Coro Easo of Saint Sébastien, have already created a certain number of opportunities allowing, in particular, our choir to interpret certain melodies dedicated to or commissioned by this choir. In parallel, the work done for the past 6 years together with professional Russian choirs has allowed for even more progress in this research. Numerous meetings between choir directors have made a real collaboration possible on the repertoires of each choir, especially for religious and popular songs and on Christmas in particular. More information is available on our website www.anaiki.com, where one can also listen to our CDs.