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Film night: Chevalier
Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Chevalier de Saint-Georges
The Early Music Society of Nova Scotia (EMS) is proud to join in the celebrations of this year’s African Heritage Month by presenting “Chevalier,” a 2022 feature film based on the life of the French-Caribbean musician Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges. This is the first of several events that the EMS hopes to organize to commemorate the 280th anniversary of Joseph Bologne’s birth.
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (25 December 1745 – 9 June 1799) was a French violinist, conductor, composer and soldier. He was the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in European music.
Joseph Bologne was born in Guadeloupe to Georges de Bologne, a white French slaveowner, and Nanon, a young enslaved woman of African descent. As a child, Joseph was taken to a boarding school in Paris after his father noticed his skills in music, dancing, and fencing. In France, he excelled in violin playing and composition, despite bullying and mistreatment by white students and teachers.
During his life, he composed an array of violin concertos, string quartets, sinfonia concertantes, violin duets, sonatas, two symphonies and an assortment of stage works. His first composition, probably written in 1770 or 1771, was a set of six string quartets, among the first in France.
The EMS screening of “Chevalier” is one of a number of film screenings taking place in Halifax for African Heritage Month 2025. For a list of other screenings in the Halifax Regional Municipality, see https://ahm.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/.