ABSTRACT
I often attend contemporary music concerts with some second thought and, even, some fear. There is this concern that, for the umpteenth time, the mix of styles and genres I will have to listen to will not hold future promises nor open doors to the present because of a lack of awareness of appropriation or filiation. As you can tell, I felt slightly perplexed when I went to the Ars Nova concert presented by the group’s new conductor Jean-Michaël Lavoie at the new Canadian Cultural Center in Paris, in collaboration with the music department of the Université de Montréal. This was October 12, 2018, only a few days after their inaugural concert in Poitiers. I was, therefore, perplexed, but I was also, as one might later come to understand, ready to be surprised…
