Maxime Perrin and Samuel Thézé perform a musical interlude at#IYS2020

The importance of sound in culture, entertainment, safety, communication, and in defining the human experience is many times taken for granted – but not this year! 2020 has been designated theInternational Year of Sound, and throughout the year will be many special events focusing on the impact of sound and educating people about the importance of sound in enriching our lives.

Kicking off this worldwide event was an opening ceremony held on January 31st, in Paris atSorbonne Grand Amphitheatre– which included supporters from across the globe who came to celebrate sound! Acoustics First was there to support this launch!

There were talks from many prominent members of the acoustic and physics societies including:

Prof. Gilles Pécout(Rector, Académie de Paris)
Prof. Jean Chambaz(President, Sorbonne Université)
Prof. Mark Hamilton(President, International Commission for Acoustics)
Christian Hugonnet(President, La Semaine du Son)
Prof. Vincent Gibiat(President, Société Française d’Acoustique)
Prof. Michel Spiro(President, International Union of Pure and Applied Physics )
Dr. Shelly Chanda(World Health Organization Representative)
Marion Burgess(IYS2020 Co-Organizer)
Prof. Jean-Dominique Polack(IYS 2020 co-organizer)
Prof. Michael Taroudakis(Moderator)

Jim DeGrandis fromAcoustics First(in his trademark hat!) speaking with Marion Burgess and Michael Taroudakis before the start of the ceremony.

Jim outside one of the sound exhibits at the #IYS2020

They debuted a short film produced by the International Commission for Acoustics and sponsored by i-ince called “Sound of our Life” directed by Antonio Fischetti – which shines a light on the different ways noise and sound impact our lives.

有两个sound exhibits at the ceremony, showing different ways to use speaker arrays and for different reasons. One was for a driver and passenger listening to different music in a car, the other was a novel sound pillar that had different sounds travelling around the circumference.

There were also two cultural music events. The first was a musical interlude performed by Maxime Perrin (accordion) and Samuel Thézé (bass clarinet). The second was the “Révolutions Vocales” concert performed by Compagnie VocAliques, which was translated into English for this international audience.

Following the ceremony was a reception in the beautiful ballroom, where attendees could reflect on the ceremony and discuss the different events planned for this year.

在巴黎大学宴会厅接待。

Check out the Official International Year of Sound website athttps://sound2020.org/