Orchestra conductor says teargas landed among musicians' instruments at Paris protest

Étienne Jarrier, conductor of the Orchestre du Nouveau Monde (ONM, or New World Orchestra), has told the Guardian that teargas canisters landed among his musicians' instruments during a protest in Paris.

Jarrier said the canisters landed in the cases of a double bass and music stands and started fires at Place de la République, which the musicians had to stamp out. After noticing that the players were being directly targeted with teargas, he ordered them to stop playing.

The orchestra was playing at the square as the starting point for a demonstration by high-school students protesting over education, and by unions over wider grievances.

The wider context is a day of unrest. Rioting broke out in cities across France on Saturday, Oct. 17, during demonstrations against rising living costs, according to Reuters. Al Jazeera reported that more than 500,000 people gathered in Paris and other cities that day, and CNN reported that police officers charged demonstrators at Place de la République. On Sunday, Oct. 18, police fired tear gas at the same square and clashed with protesters there, Reuters reported.

In a written statement reported by CBC, Jarrier said the orchestra members were simply playing peacefully and joyfully when they were targeted. He described the police action against the orchestra as outrageous police violence.

The ONM is a Paris-based ensemble of hundreds of young professional and amateur volunteer musicians, blending classical music with activism focused on social and climate justice. Jarrier co-founded it in 2022, and he is 25 years old. The orchestra describes itself as anti-racist, anti-capitalist, feminist, environmentalist and committed to de-growth, the idea of scaling back economic output and consumption.

Its earlier performances have been openly political. In 2022 it played at the foot of a melting Alpine glacier. In 2024 it performed outside the headquarters of the Rassemblement National party, playing a parody of an anthem associated with Marshal Pétain's Vichy regime. It also formed a welcoming committee outside a television station for Marine Le Pen, playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy, the anthem of the European Union. Its recent protest repertoire has included The Hanging Tree from The Hunger Games and the theme from the film The Avengers.