Concert du chœur d’hommes les Armaillis de la Gruyère

Eguisheim

The 35-member men’s choir Les Armaillis de la Gruyère will perform in the traditional costume of the armailli (the herdsman who makes Gruyère cheese in the mountain pastures), and during this Advent season, its program will consist of Christmas carols sung in the Gruyère dialect.

This Swiss choir preserves the legacy of the music created by the founding father of the Fribourg choral tradition (Abbé Joseph Pierre Bovet). This abbot was a teacher. He conducted and composed. And he set out to compile a catalog of popular Fribourg melodies. He made choral art a hallmark of identity. Many of the songs in his repertoire are emblematic of his attachment to the rural world and the dignity of farm labor.

To succeed Michel Corpataux as director of the Chœur des Armaillis de la Gruyère, Nicolas Fragnière of Vuadens was selected from among 14 candidates. Aged 43, Nicolas Fragnière is well known in the Fribourg choral community. After conducting the mixed choir L’Espérance de Vuadens for many years, he has been directing the vocal ensemble “La Cantilène” in Fribourg since 2000, as well as the mixed choir of Grandvillard since 2004. A graduate of the Fribourg Conservatory (music education for middle school and high school) and the Lausanne Conservatory (orchestral conducting), he teaches music at the Intercantonal High School of La Broye. Nicolas Fragnière took over as conductor of the Chœur des Armaillis de la Gruyère in January 2017.