Current work

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World Premiere of “Saint-Exupéry : de cœur, de sable et d’étoiles”

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Here is the video of the World Premiere of my piece for orchestra given at the Saint-Gervais Chuch in Jonzac, August 12th 2012 : Saint-Exupéry : de cœur, de sable et d’étoiles.

It was a commissioned by the Festival des Eurochestries en Charente-Maritime. The Festival theme was : Saint-Exupéry : Homage to his works.

The orchestra was filled with members of the following ensembles : Youth Orchestra of Turkey (Orhun Orhon, music director), Youth Orchestra of Soria (Borja Quintas, music director) (Spain), Youth String Orchestra of Laval (Manon Reddy, music director) (Quebec), Youth String Orchestra of Moscow (Vasili Valitov, music director), Clarinets Quartet Ômega (Brasil), Violins Ensemble VIVAlini of Krasnoyarsk (Elena Voytina, music director) (Russia) together with Andrei and Igor members of Young Men Choir Ladya from Togliatti (Galina Devyatkina, music director) (Russia).

My thanks to Claude Révolte, president 0f Eurochestries.

My thanks to Éric Moreau who introduced me to Mr Philippe de Saint-Exupéry from the  Fondation Antoine de Saint-Exupéry pour la Jeunesse.

I wish to thank as well the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec for supporting me by taking care of the travel fees.

 

Compositions, Current work, Education, News

Saint-Exupéry and you…

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Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the theme proposed by Claude Révolte for the commissioned work I have to deliver in the symphonic format next summer at the Festival des Eurochestries in Charente-Maritime in France.

In order to feed my creative thoughts, I would welcome your sentiments about Saint-Exupéry and what he represents for you. This would help me out in sketching my musical ideas.

Beyond Petit Prince and Vol de nuit books that I know well, Saint-Exupéry gives me a feeling of huge solitude similar to the desert he used to fly over with love. Despite everything, you could see his fondness for the humans, his brothers and sisters. He was born right at the begining of the XXth Century and disappeared at the end of the Second World War. His plane has been found at last a few years ago.

As if he could not survive a murderous era from which he escaped thru a poetic yet without being naive neither complacent. He was a fine human soul observer. He knew all its mechanism and subtilities. He is the elder brother I never had.

And for you, what does it represent?

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.

P.-S. Interestingly enough, for those curious about intellectual property, here is a particular fact about the copyright extension of Saint-Exupéry :

« Due to Saint-Exupéry’s wartime death, his estate received the civil code designation Mort pour la France (English: Died for France), which was applied by the French Government in 1948. Amongst the law’s provisions is an increase of 30 years in the duration of copyright;[65] thus most of Saint-Exupéry’s creative works will not fall out of copyright status in France for an extra 30 years. »[1]


[1] Schiff, Stacy (2006) [1994]. Saint-Exupéry: A biography (Reprinted ed.). New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 978-0-8050-7913-5.

 

Compositions, Current work, News, Press Releases, Press Reviews

Collaboration with Eurochestries

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Composer in residency for the Eurochestries in France in 2012

I have the privilege to compose an orchestral piece for the Festival Eurochestries to be held in the Charente-Maritime in France in august 2012. I will also conduct the work at this festival together with the Quebec City’s festival in august as well. I would like to thank Mr Claude Révolte, president of the Férération des festivals Eurochetries, for his confidence. I have also a special thank for Mr Laurent Breton who made this possible thru his generosity.

2012 Congres of the Fédération des festivals Eurochestries

From the January 20th to 22dn I will participate to the annual congres of the Fédération des festivals Eurochestries in Paris. It is a first for me. I will meet with contributors from all over Europe and Quebec who are involved with the organization of the seven festivals to be held during summer 2012 (Spain, France, Poland, Quebec, Russia and Slovakia)

Eurochestries, high level of  international musical ensembles exchange

The Eurochestries were created in 1989 by Mr. Marcel CORNELOUP to promote orchestral practice of youth aged 15 to 25 years, through international exchange.  The Eurochestries doesn’t bring together isolated instrumentalists but formed bands. Each year, young people are separated by languages, but united in the universal language of music.  The Festival offers to each guest orchestra the opportunity to get discovered composers of his country and his own repertoire to a wide audience. Numerous concerts held in the department allow these young musicians to showcase their band and their country. On this occasion, they discover the heritage tourism of the host region.

Compositions, Current work, Education

Composer in residency

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I begin a wonderful experience. The renowned FACE School picked me as their composer in residency in order to celebrate their 35th anniversary. This includes four workshops about the fundamentals of composition for the students of grade 10 and 11. I will also compose close to forty minutes of music for their different ensembles: choir, string orchestra, concert band, percussions and other wind and brass formations. Already I met with the students and they produced some great composition material: melodic and rythmic motives plus some voice effects as well. You can read the press release.

If you wish to share some of your teaching experience in public school about composition, feel free to do so.