L'Itinéraire Ensemble

PROGRAM

Work by Franck Bedrossian: *Digital* for double bass, percussion, and electronics

Work by Franck Bedrossian: *Transmission* for bassoon and electronics

Work by Raphaël Cendo: *Scratch Data* for percussion and electronics

Work by Giacinto Scelsi: *Okanagon* for harp, amplified double bass, and tam-tam

Work by John Cage: *In a Landscape* for solo harp—Christophe Bredeloup, percussion—Yann Dubost, double bass—Brice Martin, bassoon—Virginie Tarrête, harp—Elsa Bristol, sound engineer

“In Search of Sound”:

Giacinto Scelsi was a key source of inspiration for the founders of L’Itinéraire thirty years ago: in contrast to the established trends of the time, Scelsi declared, “It is music that serves sound, not the other way around! ” Since then, embodying this principle, L’Itinéraire has served as a hub for creation and research that has, over time, established itself as a leading force in contemporary music and musical creation.

With this in mind, the concert on January 12 will pay tribute to two unique 20th-century composers, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi, alongside two young composers, Franck Bedrossian and Raphaël Cendo, who also operate within a space of creative freedom dedicated to music and in the service of sound!” Jean-Loup Graton.

The Itinerary:

L’Itinéraire is one of Europe’s leading contemporary music ensembles. Founded in 1973 by Michaël Levinas, Tristan Murail, Hugues Dufourt, Gérad Grisey, and Roger Tissier, it has since continued to expand its collaborations with contemporary composers. Today, thanks to soloists of the highest caliber, L’Itinéraire has managed to maintain the spirit of adventure that led to its creation and is, more than ever, at the forefront of the contemporary music scene. It tirelessly explores uncharted territories of sound and constantly examines the circumstances of musical creation—from composition to instrumental practice, from the stage to multimedia—thereby contributing to the development of a new repertoire.

At the intersection of cutting-edge research and the performance of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, L’Itinéraire is today one of the most prominent ensembles in the field of new music in Europe.

Christophe Bredeloup, percussion A student of Michel Cals and Jacques Delécluse, he was awarded first prize in percussion in 1989 and first prize in chamber music in 1991 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM) in Paris. In 1995, he successfully earned his teaching certification in percussion. His career as a soloist and chamber musician is divided between performing the established repertoire (Bartók, Carter, Xenakis, Leroux) and premiering new works (Calire Schapira, Benjamin de la Fuente). He has performed at Radio France, the Musicales de Lyon, and the Centre G. Pompidou. As a soloist with L’Itinéraire, he has broadened his experience through collaborations with other contemporary music ensembles, such as Court-Circuit, 2E2M, and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He teaches percussion at the Conservatoire National de Région (CNR) in Boulogne-Billancourt and sight-reading at the CNSM in Paris.

Yann Dubost, double bass Yann Dubost began his musical training by studying the violin at the age of 5, then took up the double bass at 12. After studying at the CNR in Grenoble with P. Guaingoin, he entered the CNSM in Lyon at age 15 to study with B. Cazauran, and joined the Orchestre de Paris in June 2002. He performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician and has premiered works for solo double bass by Philippe Barraud and Olivier Roinsoll. A member of L’Itinéraire since 2002, he also performs with the Alternance ensemble. Since April 2003, Yann Dubost has also been a member of the Nomad lib’ trio, a group specializing in traditional Central European music. Brice Martin, bassoon After earning his degree in composition at the CNR in Bordeaux and then at the CNR in Lille—where he was unanimously awarded the gold medal in German bassoon—he entered the CNSM in Paris in 1999. He is now a composer registered with SACEM. He plays the bassoon, the contrabassoon (Heckel system), and the saxophone, and his musical repertoire spans classical and contemporary music, as well as modern jazz, generative improvisation, and musical theater. He is regularly invited to perform with the Orchestre de Paris, the Ensemble Court-Circuit, the ONBA, and the Radio France Philharmonic.

Virginie Tarrête, harp After studying at the Paris Conservatory (CNSM), where she won first prize in harp and first prize in chamber music in 1992, Virginie Tarrête went on to pursue advanced studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg im Breisgau in Ursula Holliger’s class. As a soloist with L’Itinéraire, she devotes much of her career to contemporary music, which has led her to collaborate with numerous composers such as Mark André, Klaus Huber, and Michaël Levinas, while also performing early music on period instruments. She has performed with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under the direction of Philippe Herreweghe and with the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner. She teaches harp at the CNR in Besançon.

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE COMPOSERS

Franck Bedrossian (born in 1971): After studying writing, orchestration, and analysis at the CNR in Paris, he studied composition with Allain Gaussin and enrolled at the CNSM in Paris, first in Gérard Grisey’s class and later in Marco Stroppa’s. In 2002–2003, he took the Composition and Music Computing program at IRCAM (Paris) and studied under Philippe Leroux. At the same time, he continued his training with Helmut Lachenmann. His works are performed in France and abroad by ensembles such as L’Itinéraire, 2E2M, Ictus, Cairn, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Orchestre National de Lyon. He has received various fellowships and won numerous awards, including the Pierre Cardin Prize for Musical Composition in 2005. He is currently a resident at the French Academy in Rome—Villa Medici—from April 2006 to March 2008.

John Cage (1912–1992): American composer. He studied piano with F. Ch. Dillon in Los Angeles and with Lazare-Lévy in Paris, counterpoint with Cowell, and composition with Schönberg at the University of California. Refusing to adopt dodecaphonism, he developed his own experimental techniques. His earliest works for the “prepared piano” or for percussion instruments date from 1930. The “prepared piano” is one of his most spectacular and effective techniques: it involves placing various objects on the piano strings, which not only alter the sound but also, by shifting with the vibrations, create unpredictable sonic effects. John Cage opposed the rational nature of European musical composition: in his view—he was deeply inspired by Eastern thought and Zen philosophy—every sound is music and, as such, cannot be organized according to precise structures in works that are “finished” products. The process, whose final result cannot be predicted, is—as he put it at the time—fundamentally experimental in that it leaves room for the contingent and indeterminate.

Raphaël Cendo (born in 1975): After studying piano and composition at the École Normale de Musique (ENM) in Paris, Raphaël Cendo enrolled at the CNSM in Paris, where he studied under Allain Gaussin, Brian Ferneyhough, Fausto Romitelli, and Philippe Manoury. He has collaborated with the Ensemble Itinéraire, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, under the direction of Pascal Rophé, Daniel Kawka, Lorraine Vaillancourt, and others. His works have been performed at various events, including “Lille, European Capital of Culture,” the Radio France Festival in Montpellier, and the Voix Nouvelles Festival in Royaumont. He is currently enrolled in the annual program in Composition and Music Computing at IRCAM. Giacinto Scelsi (1905–1988) Giacinto Scelsi pursued his academic studies in Rome, including composition lessons with Giacinto Sallustio. In Geneva, he collaborated with Egon Koelher, a disciple of Scriabin, and in 1935–1936, he attended classes in Vienna taught by Walter Klein, a student of Schoenberg. In 1936, he composed his first dodecaphonic works. He undertook numerous trips around the world, journeys that introduced him to Buddhism and Zen philosophy. Around 1940, the deterioration of his mental health forced him to spend several years in the hospital, after which he revisited his technique, refocusing it on the texture of sound rather than on combinatorial methods. He no longer referred to himself as a composer but as a “messenger” between two worlds. Settling in Rome, he joined the Nuova Consonanza group, which included avant-garde composers. His visionary works are little known and rarely performed today; Giacinto Scelsi was over 80 years old when his first recording was made.