Philharmonie de Paris : Lhe music eand as a driving forces for a more harmonious world

At a time when culture is looking for a sustainable economic model and politics has deserted the cultural field, the Philharmonie de Paris is charting an original course. Behind its 450 annual concerts, its renovated museum, its youth orchestras and its educational programs, there is a clear vision: to make music a lever for social transformation. Interview with Constance Lombard, Director of Corporate Philanthropy.

Constance Lombard, a strategist at the service of meaning

A graduate of Sciences Po Paris and HEC, Constance Lombard has forged her career in France's most prestigious cultural institutions: the Louvre, the museums of the City of Paris, then the Grand Palais. Since 2024, she has been director of patronage and development at the Philharmonie de Pariswhere she puts her expertise at the service of a cultural project with a strong societal impact. Committed, rigorous and inspired, she embodies a generation of professionals for whom culture is a lever for emancipation and a common good to be defended with method and passion.

Patronage, the cornerstone of a mixed model

Constance Lombard is no stranger to the challenges of cultural financing. After years of involvement with the Louvre's Department of Islamic Art and the Louvre-Lens, she joins the Philharmonie with her conviction intact: patronage is not a luxury, but a necessity.

"The Philharmonie's annual budget is close to 100 million euros. Without the support of companies, foundations and individual philanthropists, many of our structural projects would simply not be possible," she explains.

A good example of this is the DEMOS program, a musical transmission program for children from working-class neighborhoods, a third of whose funding comes from sponsors. Another third is provided by local authorities, and the final third by the French government. A balance she considers virtuous: " The State provides the impetus, the sponsors amplify it, and the local authorities relay it.. "

But it's not enough just to say so: fundraising is a process that requires conviction and strategy!

Fundraising in the cultural sector is a key strategic function today. At the crossroads of marketing, institutional diplomacy and philanthropic commitment, it involves mobilizing private financial resources to support the general interest. It involves communicating a vision, building lasting relationships with donors, and demonstrating the tangible impact of each contribution. It's a demanding profession, often discreet, but one that has become central to the future of ambitious cultural projects.

A culture rooted in reality and looking to the future

But beyond the budgetary equation, it's a committed approach to culture that the Philharmonie embodies. "Here, music is not an end in itself. It's a tool a tool for cohesion, emancipation and openness to others "she asserts.

The figures speak for themselves: 10,000 participants in Demos children's orchestras and 750,000 participants in educational activities every year. And the effects are measurable. A recent sociological study has shown that young people accompanied by the Philharmonie since 2013 have significantly better educational and social trajectories.

It's this social effectiveness that patrons often come for. " They want to see their impact. And the Philharmonie proves it, with studies to back it up. "

Democratize with the same level of requirements all music and all audiences

Classical, jazz, rap, world music... the Philharmonie breaks codes. It breaks down barriers. " Our workshops are as much about dancing as playing an instrument. We learn music as a group, through pleasure and the bodynot elitism", defends Constance Lombard.

The same approach at the museum, where the oud dialogues with the lute, electronics with the baroque. The message is clear: no culture is more legitimate than another.

One ambition: to contribute to a new world

At a time when inclusion, mental health and ecology have become societal priorities, the Philharmonie de Paris is responding with action. Reducing its carbon footprint, integrating families and transforming lives through music are all part of its DNA.

But this ambition goes even further. Music, by its very nature, enriches, soothes and elevates consciousness It stimulates the brain's reward circuits, releases dopamine, enhances concentration, language and memory, and reduces stress. It acts as a common language, a collective experience of emotion. In this sense, it is a powerful lever for inner healing and transformation that enables each individual to get to know themselves better, and societies to understand each other better. It is precisely this transformative, humanistic and sensitive dimension that the Philharmonie seeks to activate.

Constance Lombard is convinced: philanthropy is essential, but it cannot and must not replace public action.. It is part of a virtuous triangular dynamic between the public sphere, the business world and civil society. In France, however, this interface is still fragilemarked by a long history of separation between general interest and commercial logic.

Yet it is in the fertile porosity between the values of public service and the methods of the corporate world that a sustainable cultural model is built.. A hybrid, flexible and demanding model, in the image of the Philharmonie de Paris: a public institution, managed with agility, but nurtured by the confidence of its patrons. As such, it embodies a modern archetype of cross-sector cooperationwhere patronage becomes a bridge, a catalyst, a lever for progress. Long live music! Long live patronage! Thank you Constance.