Stacey Kent - Tournée

Stacey Kent brings her Tournée to Lyon

We are delighted to welcome Stacey Kent for her Tournée at Bourse du Travail Lyon, an evening that promises the rare intimacy and lyricism only this artist can summon. From our vantage point as hosts, we have watched audiences lean in the moment her first phrases float across the room: the hush of collective listening, the warm release of recognition when a beloved melody returns, and the glow that follows each exquisitely shaped cadence. This is a concert built for listeners who cherish storytelling, nuance, and the close bond between performer and audience. Expect a program that flows seamlessly between languages and styles, threaded by Kent’s unmistakable voice and her band’s elegant interplay. In Lyon, she arrives with the assurance of a seasoned traveler and the openness of a poet, ready to turn each song into a shared, living experience.

The artist’s present moment

Our stage will showcase an artist in full bloom. Stacey Kent’s recent artistic life has been marked by continued global touring, studio sessions that favor clarity and intimacy, and collaborations that deepen her signature sound. Her partnership with Jim Tomlinson remains a guiding force, yielding new arrangements and original songs that sit naturally alongside the standards she cherishes. In recent years, she has brought fresh light to material from Songs from Other Places, a project that reaffirmed her gift for inhabiting repertoire across borders and eras. Audiences have been particularly moved by pieces like Bullet Train, whose cinematic sweep and lyrical delicacy feel tailor-made for Kent’s voice, and by her newly burnished readings of American Tune and Bonita—songs that, in her hands, become conversations about memory, hope, and the fragile joys of traveling, loving, and returning home. As we prepare our hall in Lyon, we’re struck by how her current set balances familiarity with discovery: the tenderness of a standard set beside a contemporary original, the English of one verse giving way to French or Portuguese in the next, all tied to a rhythmic pulse that is gentle yet alive.

What makes this Tournée stop so special for us is the way Stacey Kent crafts an evening as a continuous narrative. She does not simply sing songs; she builds a world, inviting listeners to follow the arc of longing, wonder, and quiet celebration that animates her repertoire. We expect the concert to draw on the recent vitality of her program, with the crystalline hush of Bullet Train, the reflective lift of American Tune, and the sunlit sway of Bonita forming luminous highlights. Around them, she is likely to weave other favorites and new arrangements that echo the chamber-like transparency of her latest recordings. Her band’s restraint—brushes whispering, saxophone lines gliding, piano chords unfolding like pages—creates the perfect frame for a voice that never forces and yet fills the room. In Lyon, the result is an atmosphere of closeness: the kind of listening where every breath counts, every silence speaks, and every return to a refrain feels like coming home. We are proud to offer that space, and to watch as Stacey Kent, with grace and quiet authority, transforms an evening into a memory.