Musical and vocal repertoires of the Val d’Aosta, Savoy and Piedmont

Vincent Boniface

Vincent Boniface was born into a family of musicians from Aymavilles, in the Aosta Valley, who for over 45 years have preserved, promoted and spread the musical tradition of the Western Alps (Trouveur Valdotèn: Liliana Bertolo – vocals; Sandro Boniface – diatonic accordions, accordion, vocals; Rémy Boniface – violin, diatonic accordion, hurdy-gurdy, vocals; Vincent Boniface – diatonic accordion, bagpipes, clarinet, flutes, saxophones, percussion, vocals).
Together with his brother Rémy (with whom he forms the duo Pitularita) he constitutes the fifth generation of musicians of this family who places at the centre of their research the encounter between popular expression and experimentation. With this group he performs in Italy and abroad, proposing a repertoire suitable for both concerts and concerts for a dancing audience, thus achieving a strong interaction with the audience who actively participates in the dance, recreating a party atmosphere that escapes the connotations of space and time (the dances proposed come in fact from different European areas and are the result of his own composition or the arrangement of contemporary creations by other authors). The duo was called in 2022 to participate in the Alpes project curated by Yves Cerf and the Choeur Ouvert (Genève) which revived the repertoire of the late Jean-Marc Jacquier, founder of the famous Savoyard group La Kinkerne.
It is within the international cultural movement better known as Bal Folk that she joins forces with pianist Marta Caldara and Bramo (on beatbox) to create Estremìa, with whom she released her first album in 2015 entitled “That’s Folk, Baby!” distributed by RoxRecords (the Estremìa project merges with that of Trouveur Valdotèn in the summer of 2023 during the first edition of the L’Ento Festival in the park of the Aymavilles Castle, an experience that will then be repeated for the celebratory concert of the 45th anniversary of Trouveur Valdotèn on the stage of the Splendor theatre in Aosta at the conclusion of the 2024 edition of the Foire de Saint-Ours).
The cross-border project Toc Toc Toc is part of the same circuit and has its roots in the encounter between the folk heritage of the typical instruments of the accordion – hurdy-gurdy – bagpipe/clarinet trio and the chanson française. The project gave birth to two publications: “Bonsoir Clara!” in 2009 and “L’ombre et la lumière” in 2014. The project continues its journey with numerous live performances in France, Italy, Germany, Holland and Portugal where it is occasionally called upon to conduct ensemble or instrumental music workshops.
In 2011, an artistic partnership was born with the Iraqi lutenist and singer Fawzy Al-Aiedy within the Noces Bayna project, aimed at children and their families who rediscover French-speaking musical culture through a game of mirrors on the Arab world. Collaborations with Al-Aiedy also include joining the Radio Bagdad 4tet (ethno-jazz) project and creating the electro-world project Ishtar
Connection which gives birth to an eponymous album in 2019.
In 2023, together with the folk-rock songwriting group L’Orage, he released Live vol 1, the 7th album of this band that, after the partnership with Sony Music and the success of this project that continues its journey begun in 2008 studded with numerous live performances throughout Italy, arrives at a new sextet line-up.
He also continues his activities as artistic director of the collective Patoué eun Mezeucca with the aim of federating and promoting all the interpreters of the popular song in Patois in the Aosta Valley, among which stands out the collaboration with Philippe Milleret within the Trimbal group, as artistic director of the international festival of new trad music in the Aosta Valley Etétrad which has exceeded the threshold of 25 editions, and as artistic director of the new festival of musical grafts L’Ento Festival.
Alongside all the artistic activity mentioned above, he maintains a second stable career as a cultural operator active in the field of teaching and promoting Franco-Provençal in nursery schools and primary schools in the Aosta Valley as well as in the Ecole Populaire de Patois, collaborating regularly with the Brel and the Centre d’études francoprovençales René Willien.

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