The Cité de la Musique is a group of institutions dedicated to music and situated in the La Villette quarter, 19th arrondissement

XIXe arrondissement

The 19th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France.Situated on the Right Bank of the River Seine, it is crossed by two canals, the Canal Saint-Denis and the Canal de l'Ourcq, which meet near the Parc de la Villette.The 19th arrondissement includes two...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. It was designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc

Christian de Portzamparc

Christian de Portzamparc is a French architect and urbanist. He graduated from the École Nationale des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1970 and has since been noted for his bold designs and artistic touch; his projects reflect a sensibility to their environment and the town is a founding principal of his...

 and opened in 1995. It consists of an amphitheater; a concert hall that can accommodate an audience of 800-1,000; a museum of music, containing an important collection of classical music instruments dating mainly from the fifteenth- to twentieth-century; and exhibition halls, workshops and archives. Part of François Mitterrand

François Mitterrand

François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand was the 21st President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra, serving from 1981 until 1995. He is the longest-serving President of France and, as leader of the Socialist Party, the only figure from the left so far elected President...

's Grands Projets along with the Parc de la Villette

Parc de la Villette

The Parc de la Villette is a park in Paris at the outer edge of the 19th arrondissement, bordering the Boulevard Périphérique, which is a ring road around Paris, and the suburban department of Seine-Saint-Denis.-History:...

, the Cité de la Musique reinvented La Villette - the former slaughterhouse district.

Its official address is 221, Avenue Jean Jaurès, 75019 Paris.

Philharmonie de Paris

The Paris Philharmonic (philharmonie de Paris

Philharmonie de Paris

The Philharmonie de Paris, a great symphonic concert hall of 2,400 seats and whose construction had been postponed for about twenty years, should complete the Cité de la musique in early 2014 in the Parc de la Villette in Paris....

), a 2400-seat symphony hall, had been planned for about 20 years and is now scheduled for completion by 2012. The announcement was made on March 6, 2006 by the French minister of Culture and communication

Minister of Culture (France)

The Minister of Culture is, in the Government of France, the cabinet member in charge of national museums and monuments; promoting and protecting the arts in France and abroad; and managing the national archives and regional "maisons de culture"...

 Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres

Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres , often known as RDDV, is a French politician, France's Minister of Culture from 2004 to 2007...

, the mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë

Bertrand Delanoë

Bertrand Delanoë is a French politician, and has been the mayor of Paris since 2001. He is member of the Socialist Party . Delanoë was born in Tunis, Tunisia to a French-Tunisian father and a French mother...

, and the director of the Cité de la Musique, Laurent Bayle, at a press conference concerning the reopening of the Pleyel Hall, now associated with the Museum.

The cost of construction of the new auditorium may reach EUR

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

170 million, and will be paid for equally by the French Government and by the Ville de Paris, who has not excluded the possibility of funding from Région Île-de-France or the use of private financing.

It was announced in April 2007 that the hall would be built by Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture...

.

Musée de la Musique

The Museum of Music (Musée de la Musique) features a collection of several hundred musical instruments collected by the Conservatoire de Paris

Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...

. The museum's collection contains instruments used in classical and popular music from the seventeenth century to the present time including lutes, archlute

Archlute

The archlute is a European plucked string instrument developed around 1600 as a compromise between the very large theorbo, the size and re-entrant tuning of which made for difficulties in the performance of solo music, and the Renaissance tenor lute, which lacked the bass range of the theorbo...

s, almost 200 classical guitar

Classical guitar

The classical guitar is a 6-stringed plucked string instrument from the family of instruments called chordophones...

s, violins by Italian luthiers Antonio Stradivari

Antonio Stradivari

Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a crafter of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas, and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial, "Strad", is...

, the Guarneri family

Guarneri

The Guarneri is the family name of a group of distinguished luthiers from Cremona in Italy in the 17th and 18th centuries, whose standing is considered comparable to those of the Amati and Stradivari families...

, Nicolò Amati

Nicolò Amati

Niccolò Amati was an Italian luthier from Cremona.-Biography:Nicolò Amati was the fifth son of Girolamo Amati and the grandson of Andrea Amati, the founder of the Amati Family of violin makers. Of all the Amati Family violins, those of Nicolò are often considered most suitable for modern playing...

; French and Flemish

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 harpsichords; pianos by French piano-makers Erard and Ignaz Pleyel

Ignaz Pleyel

Ignace Joseph Pleyel , ; was an Austrian-born French composer and piano builder of the Classical period.-Early years:...

; and saxophone

Saxophone

The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

s by Adolph Sax.

The instruments are exhibited by period and by type. Audio devices are provided at the entrance allowing visitors to hear commentary and excerpts of music played on the instruments.

External links

• Cité de la Musique official website
• Médiathèque de la Cité de la musique - Listen to excerpts of concerts