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Bruno Procopio

Jul 13
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La Camera delle Lacrime et le Jeune Choeur de Dordogne

La Camera delle Lacrime

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La Camera delle Lacrime et le Jeune Choeur de Dordogne

Grouped together around Bruno Bonhoure and Khaï-dong Luong as of 2004, the members of La Camera delle Lacrime are committed to showcasing and rediscovering heritage works while renewing them through their creative interpretative choices.

With the assistance of specialists and scholars who gravitate around the group, La Camera delle Lacrime offers historically-based programmes that dramatize the musical repertoire with the aim of making it more intelligible.

The ensemble’s name is an homage to Dante Alighieri, poet and friend to troubadours. Dante spoke of this ‘Chamber of Tears’ as a place where he would overcome distress and return to his roots, re-emerging with newfound energy.
Bruno Bonhoure – Musical Director, Solo Voice

Born in 1971 in Aurillac, Bruno Bonhoure carries with him the heritage of the songs and tales that punctuated the peasants’ daily life in the Haute Auvergne. Dedicating himself first to art history, his need for and love of the stage led him to Paris.

Compared to the ‘Bildung’ by Carlo Ossola (Professor at the Collège de France) and to Giovanna Marini by Lionel Esparza (Radio France), the quality of Bruno Bonhoure’s voice, his stage presence and his personality make him one of the most captivating of French tenors.

As the ensemble’s musical director, Bruno Bonhoure promotes the Occitan language through multidisciplinary shows. His creations offer a new interpretation of this historical-musical repertoire and have been praised by the Languedoc Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences.

Khaï-dong Luong – Staging, Scenography, Artistic Co-Producer

Born in Cambodia in 1971, Khaï-dong Luong arrived in France after fleeing the Khmer Rouge. With a degree from the Agrégation des mathématiques and a Master’s in film studies, his main focus is the creation of alternatives to pre-established styles. Thus Khaï-dong Luong restructures the usual formats and brushes aside convention in order to surprise and innovate. His contemporary vision of how to interpret historical repertoire has led him to consider new methods of communication, along the lines of the participatory show based around the Red Book of Montserrat.

A protean artist, while in Chicago he co-wrote the documentary Someplace Else, which was selected by the Los Angeles, New York and Chicago Film Festivals, as well as a series of animated films selected by the Annecy Festival.

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Jul 13
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Suzana Bartal

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Suzana Bartal is one of the upcoming piano talents of the young generation. Recent performances have taken her to prestigious venues such as the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Salle Pleyel and Radio France in Paris, Merkin Hall in New York as well as Milton Court in London.  Her appearances have been captured by France Musique. Other highlights of the past months include a Germany tour with violist Mariko Hara as part of the series “Best of NRW”. Their duo has been hailed as “brilliant, facettenreich und virtuos” and was recorded by the West Deutscher Rundfunk. Suzana’s playing has been described as having a “pearly touch and of absolute precision” by the Bonner Anzeiger.

In January 2015, Suzana made her triumphal debut with the Orchestre Avignon-Province in the Grieg Concerto under the baton of Wolfgang Doerner, as she stepped in very last minute for pianist Marie-Josèphe Jude. Her performance has received critical acclaim: “As soon as she lays her hands on the keyboard, the artist sets up a strongly marked personality. Her touch is sure, she shows perfect technique and plays with absolute simplicity pages of great complexity. Her sound is powerful and luminous (…)” – Le Marseillais.

Suzana Bartal has become the winner of the New York Concert Artists Concerto Competition in 2013 and has made her NYC debut with orchestra in 2014. She was also the winner of the 2012 Woolsey Concerto Competition allowing her to perform under the baton of Peter Oundjian.

A recipient of the prestigious scholarship from the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe, Suzana has also been supported by the Fondation Nadia et Lili Boulanger, the ADAMI and the Williamson Foundation.

Suzana’s wide range of repertoire reaches from solo works and concertos to chamber music works, all of which she actively and passionately performs. She has given concerts all around the world: in Germany, Holland, Italy, Hungary, UK, Belgium, France and Romania as well as the US and China. Her performances have  been  captured  by  French,  German,  Hungarian  and  Romanian  radio  and  television  channels.

Suzana is also an enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music and has worked with some of the most significant composers of our day, such as Thomas Adès and Eric Tanguy.

Extremely active as a chamber musician, Suzana has performed with violinists Alexandra Soumm, Deborah Nemtanu, Guillaume Sutre and Hildegarde Fesneau, soprano Karen Vourc’h, cellist Yan Levionnois, clarinetist Pierre Génisson and musicians from the Philharmonique de Radio France orchestra (David Haroutunian and Pauline Bartissol) and the Orchestre de Paris (Anne-Sophie Le Rol and Eric Picard), among others.

Born in 1986 in Timişoara (Romania) into a Hungarian family, pianist Suzana Bartal started her musical education in her hometown. Only three years later she became a winner of national and international competitions and gave her first solo recital at the age of 12 and had her first concerto apparition at the age of 13. In 2005 she decided to move to France where she studied with Denis Pascal, Pierre Pontier and Florent Boffard in Paris and in Lyon at the CNSMD. Between 2011 and 2014, Suzana has perfected her skills at the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Peter Frankl. She is currently a candidate for a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Yale and has received the Harriet Gibbs Memorial Prize for excellency in studies from Yale. In 2013 – 2014 Suzana has been at Teaching Fellow at the Yale College.

Many distinguished artists have influenced Suzana’s musical and artistic development, such as: András Schiff, Leon Fleisher, Paul Lewis, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Claude Pennetier or Matti Raekallio, as well as the Ysaÿe Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet or the Emerson Quartet. She has been invited to take part in the very selective International Musician’s Seminar in Prussia Cove (UK).

Her first album, an all-Schumann CD, was released by Paraty (Harmonia Mundi distribution) in March 2016.

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Jul 13
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Ivan Ilić

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Pianist Ivan Ilić took degrees in mathematics and music at the University of California Berkeley before moving to Paris in 2001. He then studied at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris, where he was awarded a Premier Prix. The City of Paris sponsored his first recording.

Ivan Ilić has released three CDs with Paraty: 24 Préludes by Claude Debussy (2008), 22 Chopin Studies by Leopold Godowsky (2012), and For Bunita Marcus by Morton Feldman (2015). His albums have consistently been among Paraty’s most successful and most widely disseminated.

In recent years Ilić’s approach has broadened in scope, as he searches for a way to reconcile his intellectual curiosity with his career as a soloist. In 2011 he acted in two French short films: Luc Plissonneau’s Les Mains and Benoît Maire’s Le Berger. He also began to write about music; recent articles have appeared on the websites of Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and Music & Literature. Since 2014 he has co-produced several 5-hour radio series for Swiss Radio.

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Scriabine : Prélude op 16 n° 1 par Ivan Ilic par francemusique

Jul 13
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FILIPE PINTO-RIBEIRO PORTRAIT FOR PROMOTIONAL USE

Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro

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FILIPE PINTO-RIBEIRO PORTRAIT FOR PROMOTIONAL USE

One of Portugal’s most recognised musicians, both nationally and internationally, Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is considered a ‘poet of the piano’, whose musical interpretations, characterised by profound emotion and intellectuality, are appreciated as being without equal both by the public and by music critics. Born in Porto, he studied in various countries before becoming a disciple of Lyudmila Roshchina at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he obtained Doctorate in Musical Performance in 2000.

He is intensely active as a concert artist, invited as a soloist by major concert halls, festivals, and orchestras internationally. He has premiered the works of several composers, including Sofia Gubaidulina and Marcelo Nisinman, and has regularly performed with acclaimed musicians such as Gary Hoffman, Renaud Capuçon, José van Dam, Nicolas Altstaedt, Gérard Caussé, Jack Liebeck, Michel Portal, Anna Samuil, Lars Anders Tomter and Christian Poltéra. In 2006, he founded the DSCH-Schostakovich Ensemble. He is currently a university professor and serves as artistic director for numerous musical projects. Filipe Pinto-Ribeiro is a Steinway Artist.

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Jul 13
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_JB01535(c)Jean-Baptiste Millot

Fanny Azzuro

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_JB01535(c)Jean-Baptiste Millot

“Azzuro: the young French pianist’s crystal-clear, poetic and luminous playing matches her surname to perfection.” Alain Cochard –concertclassic.com

Fired by an insatiable curiosity and decided zest for the fusion of musical and artistic styles, Fanny Azzuro, born in 1986, dedicates her first solo recording to the Russian repertoire so dear to her heart, from which she has chosen three contrasting works from the 20th century.

Prize-winner at several prestigious international competitions, including the World Piano Competiton in Cincinnati (World medalist, 4th prize), Lalla Meryem in Rabat, Morocco (Best interpretation of modern music and the Chopin prize), Washington International Piano Competition (semi-finalist), Piano Campus (Best interpretation of modern music), Vulaines-sur-Seine (1st prize), she has been invited to perform on many national and international stages: in Paris, at the military museum in Les Invalides (showcasing young artists just starting their career), at the National archives in Hôtel de Soubise (Festival of young artists) and at the maritime museum; as well as at the Debussy museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, at the Abbaye aux Dames (Saintonge Piano Festival), at the Montpellier ‘Radio France’ Festival, at the Prades Pablo Casals Festival, at the Piano Campus Festival in Cergy-Pontoise, at the Annecy Classic Festival, at the Auditorium de Vaucluse, at the Passerelle national venue in Gap; in Germany, in Austria, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, in Belgium at the Brussels Royal Conservatoire, in Luxembourg, in Italy, in Spain and in Croatia. She also performed in the United States (New York Piano Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Texas Piano Festival), Morocco, Djibouti, Brazil, the United Arab Emirates and China.

She has also been heard on the radio, in broadcasts by France Inter, France Musique, France Culture, RFI and FIP.

She started studying the piano in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence with Jean-Pierre Lecaudey and then José Arrué, at the Montpellier Conservatoire with Mireille Michaud and Suzan Campbell, at the Paris Regional Conservatoire with Olivier Gardon then at the Paris National Conservatoire with Théodore Paraskivesco, Laurent Cabasso and Denis Pascal, when she completed –respectively– herBachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Piano and Chamber music (in the classes of Jean-Noël Crocq and Ami Flammer with the SpiriTango Quartet). In 2011, she was a pupil of Tuija Hakkila at the Helsinki Sibelius Academy (Finland). Since 2012, she has continued to improve her technique at the ‘Incontri col Maestro’ International piano master-class in Imola (Italy), under Boris Petrushansky.

Other encounters helped stimulate her energy and musical curiosity: the unique Russian pianist Vladimir Viardo, the renowned French teacher Dominique Merlet, as well as Dmitri Bashkirov, Jacques Rouvier, Aldo Ciccolini, Jay Gottlieb and Gisèle Magnan.

As part of SpiriTango Quartet or together with jazzmen Tigran Hamasyan and Hervé Sellin, Fanny Azzuro breaks down barriers and broadens her experiences as a chamber-music player: dueting with horn-players Pierre Azzuro (her brother), André Cazalet, Hervé Joulain and Matthieu Romand, with violinists Kristi Gjezi, Sora Han and Vanessa Szigeti, as well as with the pianist Audrey Abela.

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Jul 13
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Ensemble Turicum

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Founded in 1992 by Brazilian singer Luiz Alves da Silva and Swiss violinist Mathias Weibel, the TURICUM Ensemble is dedicated to historically informed performance on period instruments. Ranging from 5 to 30 musicians, the sound of the ensemble modulates while remaining recognizable. The ensemble distinguishes itself by the freshness of its interpretations, but also by its programming; unusual works are juxtaposed in ways that illuminate their interrelatioships.

Emphasis is placed on music from the 18th to the early 19th centuries from the Iberian Peninsula and South America, with a particular preference for Brazilian composers such as José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Manuel de Oliveira , Marcos Portugal, and Antonio dos Santos Cunha. Naturally, the music of Italy and German-speaking countries is also represented.

In the TURICUM Ensemble’s concerts, it is not ununsual to experience classical music, folk songs and literature in the course of a single event. In this context the Swiss writer Hugo Lötscher (a renowned specialist on Brazil and Portugal) has collaborated with the Ensemble. 

In addition to frequent appearances in Zurich, the TURICUM Ensemble has performed in several international festivals, including: Schlosskonzerte Thun, Festival für Musik Sakrale Schwäbisch Gmünd, Friedenauer Kammerkonzert Berlin, Musica Antiqua Wien Musikverein, Les Chemins du Baroque (Sarrebourg and Paris), Yverdon Expo02, The Year of Brazil in France (Paris, Nîmes and Alençon), Festival de Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia), Festival de Inverno de Ouro Preto (Brazil), Música nas Igrejas (Rio de Janeiro), and Kammermusikverein (Ettelbruck and Luxemburg). 

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Jul 13
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Ensemble Psallentes

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The ensemble Psallentes was founded by Hendrik Vanden Abeele in 2000. Psallentes’s professional singers research Gregorian chant in various stages of its historical development. The group’s primary focus is Gregorian chant from the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Psallentes has recorded the music of Johannes Brassart (2000), Arnold Lantins (2001) and Pierre de la Rue (2002 and 2006, Diapason d’Or). In 2006, the ensemble released three new CDs: a collaboration with the Capilla Flamenca (based on the Marian Music of Obrecht – Musique en Wallonie), a project with the French ensemble Millenarium (Messe des Fous – Ricercar), and finally, the fifteenth century Ghent version of the tenth century Liège service of the Holy Trinity (Ricercar). Previous recordings include a collaboration withMillenarium in 2007, based on the Llibre Vermell de Montserrat (Spain). Another notable album was the 2008 release of Bellum et Pax, in collaboration with Capilla Flamenca.

Psallentes has performed at countless festivals, large and small, in Flanders and across Europe.

The core members of Psallentes are Conor Biggs, Pieter Coene, Paul Schils, Philippe Souvagie and Hendrik Vanden Abeele. Director Hendrik Vanden Abeele is pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Leiden. He is also researching Gregorian chant in the Southern Netherlands from 1250 to 1550.

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Jul 13
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Mater Dolorosa©Jean-François Mariotti

Ensemble Mora Vocis

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Mater Dolorosa©Jean-François Mariotti

The singers of Mora Vocis, performing by heart and with flowing movement, captivate each form of architectural heritage. With their whirls of sound, the artists interact with the acoustic characteristics of each venue, drawing the attention of the public to parts of the edifice they often no longer even notice. Each venue, whether it be of historic interest or purely unconventional, becomes an integral part of the journey.

A dash of humour and an unexpected flight of fancy provide the finishing touches to each production.

Somewhat like builder journeymen, Mora Vocis is inspired as much by the physical medium as the beauty of the medieval manuscripts.

Rather than attempting to produce a historical reconstruction, the singers simply share their passion for these musical treasures, from virtuosic neumæ to the complex polyphony of Ars subtilior.

Many a contemporary composer and music maker has been won over by medieval thinking. A poem, canticle or melody from the Middle Ages serves as inspiration for compositions that fit the voices of Mora Vocis like a glove. The singers enjoy interpreting these new scores with the same uncompromising approach they adopt for the early repertoire.

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Jul 13
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Ensemble Le Piano Ambulant

Ensemble Le Piano Ambulant

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Ensemble Le Piano Ambulant

In 2001, a collective of Lyon musicians that were feeling adventurous founded The Ambulant Piano to play classical music “differently, and in different contexts”.

The musicians seek to shed new light on the classical repertoire by using transcription and by staging their performances. This taste for the off-beat has led them to collaborate with a wide variety of artistic disciplines, leading to a whole new performance frontier, with productions tailor-made for each repertoire.

Thus the company incorporates, depending on the production, live performance, film, theater, shadow puppets… Debussy is combined with video art, Stravinsky with carnival, and Wagner with amplified music.

The Ambulant Piano is a collegiate framework in which each musician participates in the musical arrangements and staging decisions. Each musician contributes an individual sensibility to the different projects.

In addition to performances in traditional concert halls, The Ambulant Piano has strived to go where they are least expected, right from the start. Thanks to their flexible productions, which are technically independent from one another, the company dares to go where no other has gone before.

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Jul 13
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Ensemble et Chœur L’Échelle

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The scale is a wonderful tool which has accompanied man throughout the ages.

Indispensable for navigators, who measured his ropes knot by knot, scales are present in every part of the ships which gave birth to the earliest international merchants and economic empires.

The patterns of scales can be seen along mats, sails, hulls and on the piles pushing into the water, and help balance the ballast in the hold of the ships.

So it was that during the Renaissance certain ports in the East and in Asia were called Echelles, before becoming the exotic trading-posts of the Indies.

At the same time, the word scale designates everything which grades, measures, climbs, situates, and gives the possibility of reaching, balancing and progressing : hence Jacob’s ladder, the scale of values, shades of colour and the different musical scales. Still essential to man, scales permit him to organise his place in the biodiversity of his cultural and physical world.

The Ensemble l’Échelle declares itself partisan of certain Renaissance music, for the profoundly humanist ideas which it expresses. The chamber musicians who make it up seek to pool their musical talent in the search for an appropriate historic verisimilitude.

In the polyphony of the 16th century, the laws of counterpoint direct that each voice is of equal importance. On this secure basis, each line evolves according to the opinion and the manner of the others treating the same material. The music comes to life through the exercise of a common approach and the expression of common thought.

The artistes of l’Échelle seek firstly to respect, then go out to meet, and finally to surprise their public. They seek to modify classical concert-giving mode, the better to attract a new regard from a new public by exposing new facets of their chosen repertoire.

Aware of the particular architecture and different acoustics of each performing space, they propose a “made to measure” organisation of that space according to the programme, to give each listener a truly unique experience. And in their desire to surprise that listener, they also propose the juxtaposition of different kinds of performers – circus artists, dancers, comedians, philosophers and poets to share the stage with the musicians as equal partners.

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VENECIA par l’ensemble L’Echelle (CUENCA, Espagne 2012) from classiquenews.com on Vimeo.