Concert Madeleine & Salomon: Spring Will Come from the East

Clotilde Rullaud         v

Alexandre Saada        p

As part of the long-standing collaboration between the Institute Français and the Ankara Jazz Festival, we will once again present an unforgettable concert. The Madeleine and Solomon project will leave an epic and theatrical experience that will linger in your memory for years to come. We would like to thank the Institute Français for their support of the concert and the Çankaya Municipality for their venue support.

With delicate artistry, Madeleine & Salomon take on a repertoire of 1960s–1970s Eastern pop-folk songs, raising the poetic banner of freedom in the wind. Translated into English and French, the lyrics of these songs—born around the Mediterranean—lose nothing of their commitment, their strength, or the dreamlike quality that defines them. This minimalist approach, intertwining voice and piano, captures the essence of these songs, rooted in the tensions of an era torn between tradition and the longing for emancipation. Here, the infinite surrenders to just a few minutes of melody. Madeleine & Salomon (the middle names of Clotilde Rullaud and Alexandre Saada) give heartfelt voice to the pulse of a world that never stops hoping.

Singer, flautist and multi-disciplinary artist Clotilde Rullaud's work is at the crossroads of jazz, world music and poetry.

She explores the voice as a poetic and political instrument, both in her albums (In Extremis, Kananayé) and in her stage and visual creations. At the same time, she creates transdisciplinary performances combining dance, image and narrative.

In 2014, she and pianist Alexandre Saada founded the duo Madeleine & Salomon, an artistic union of their two middle names. The duo stands out for its minimalist, committed approach blending voice, piano and repertoires carrying struggles and dreams. After a first album dedicated to the great American protest voices (A Woman's Journey, 2016), the duo returns in 2022 with Eastern Spring, revisiting oriental pop-folk songs from the 1960s and 1970s. 

Pianist, composer and arranger Alexandre Saada has a multi-faceted career encompassing jazz, chanson, film music and collective creation.

He has released several solo albums (Présent, Songs for a Flying Man), devised collaborative projects such as We Free (30 musicians united around free improvisation) and composed for the cinema (Une chanson dans la tête, Youssef Salem a du succès).

In 2014, he co-founded the duo Madeleine & Salomon with Clotilde Rullaud, a project born of a shared desire to explore committed repertoires through a pared-down, deeply poetic aesthetic. Their first album (A Woman's Journey) paid tribute to militant American women's voices; their second (Eastern Spring) drew on popular music from the Mediterranean basin. Together, they give life to a music that is free, intimate and political.

This project was prepared with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Türkiye.