Choeur D’enfants du Bénin

Choeur d’enfants du Benin has 60 children at the French Arts Centre of Cotonou.  The choir established in 1992 as part of the children’s section of the L’Ensemble Polyphonique du Bénin.  Students at the school study ballet, choir and orchestra. The repertoire includes a cappella songs as well as dance movements and the use of percussion and other traditional accompaniment – body percussion.  The choir has performed on national television, radio and at many state occasions.  The choir has performed at the World of Children’s Choir in Vancouver in 2001 and won prizes at the 2002 Choir Olympics in Busan,  South Korea.  The choir has toured France in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2007.  The choir has enjoyed intercultural exchanges in Hong Kong, 2005 and the USA 2006 and France 2007.

Felix Nassi

Born in 1961 at Natitingou, Benin (West Africa), Felix Nassi is a self-taught musician who later studied choral conducting in France with Stephane Caillat and Jacques Barathon and in the Netherlands with Jos V. Veldoven.  He has founded and directed several choirs, the most well known being the Children’s Choir of Benin.  Nassi can speak French, English, some Spanish and some Dutch and four African languages.  He has created the festival Les Rencontres Polyphoniques du Benin and has been invited as guest conductor and lecturer in Namibia, South Africa, Belgium, France, Canada, USA and the Netherlands.