Panel

Ballroom - Montreal 1 to 5
Host : Alix Dufresne
Panelists : Frédéric Mazelly, Rafael Payare & Maria do Céu Ramos

How can the performing arts help us live together more effectively?

In this new era, the importance of living together worldwide is becoming increasingly apparent. We need to come together and assert the values of our contemporary performing arts community, which is open to the world. Performers around the world, that’s what we do every day: gather people around what is alive on earth. A collective affirmation based on the need to circulate the living arts, to expose ourselves to difference, to awaken our emotions, to feel our bodies in motion, to honour our creative power, to open our minds; and, above all, to do it together.

This panel, moderated by artist Alix Dufresne, will offer the perspective and questions emerging from the current generation.

Alix Dufresne
Alix Dufresne directs, writes and performs. Her creations include Nuits Frauduleuses, La déesse des mouches à feu, Hidden Paradise, Féministe pour Homme and Malaise dans la civilisation. For her audacity in renewing staging practices, she has positioned herself as a rising figure in the performing arts. Her shows, whether poetic, sociological or political, always resonate with the concerns of today's world.

Frédéric Mazelly
Frédéric Mazelly is artistic director of the Parc and the Hall at La Villette in Paris, where he has been in charge of cultural programming since 2007.
He is particularly committed to young international artists, and actively seeks to encourage creation through various programs in the performing and visual arts.
As project manager at La Villette, he initiated the 100 Dessus Dessous festivals (dance, theater and performance), Villette Sonique (contemporary music), Villette Numérique (digital and electronic arts), and external projects focusing on the visual arts and world music with Scènes d'Eté. He has been an active member of the European networks Junge Hunde, IETM, and now Create to Connect. More recently, he was at the heart of activities surrounding the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where the spaces at La Villette were transformed into the Parc des Nations, a site for celebrating Olympic medal winners, and hosted Archi Folies, an outdoor exhibition project with twenty pavilions for twenty sports federations. Former administrative and artistic director of the Théâtre de Châtillon, he holds a degree in economics and studied opera singing at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Rafael Payare
With his innate musicianship, brilliant technique and charismatic podium presence, Rafael Payare is one of the most sought-after conductors on the international scene. A graduate of Venezuela's renowned El Sistema music education program, he began studying conducting in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. In 2012, he made meteoric progress, winning the prestigious Malko International Competition for Young Conductors, held in Denmark. Since 2015, Maestro Payare has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor, the late Lorin Maazel. He was Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019, and has held the same position with the San Diego Symphony since 2019. In recent years, Rafael Payare has conducted many of the world's most prestigious orchestras, including in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris. He has also made major operatic debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival, the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Royal Danish Opera and, most recently, at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the 2022-2023 season, he became the ninth Music Director in the history of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM).

Maria do Céu Ramos
President of Évora_27 – European Capital of Culture since October 2024, Maria do Céu Ramos has a distinguished career in philanthropy, with a strong focus on social and cultural sectors.

She holds a law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon, completed the Advanced Management Programme for Executives at the Faculty of Economics and Business Sciences of the Portuguese Catholic University, and obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Creativity and Design Management for Business Innovation at IADE.

Ms Ramos served as Secretary-General of the Eugénio de Almeida Foundation, one of the largest private institutions in the Alentejo region, from 1987 to 2024, overseeing both its institutional and cultural activities.

She has been the President of the Portuguese Foundation Centre since 2018, representing approximately 150 of Portugal's leading foundations.

Among her other notable roles, she was a member of the Évora 2027 Association for European Capital of Culture and a member of the Strategic Council of the Alentejo Central Intermunicipal Community. From 2008 to 2013, she was a member of the Urban Regeneration Partnership Committee for the historic centre of Évora.

She served as Secretary of State for Youth in the XII Constitutional Government, from 1992 to 1995, and as a Member of Parliament representing Évora, from 1999 to 2002, and Porto, from 1995 to 1997.

Ms Ramos also served as President of the Advisory Council of the Espírito Santo Hospital of Évora from 2014 to 2017, was a member of the Regional Council of the Alentejo Regional Development and Coordination Commission from 2010 to 2018, and a founding member of the Évora Regional Tourism Commission from 1991 to 1992.

Additionally, she held the position of Chair of the Fiscal Council of the Obra de São José Operário Social Solidarity Foundation.

A qualified lawyer, Ms Ramos has also held legal positions with the Alentejo Regional Directorate of Agriculture and the Alentejo Regional Delegation of the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training.

In June 2023, she was awarded the Gold-Class Municipal Merit Medal by the Évora City Council.