Brice Catherin
Encyclopedia
Brice Catherin is a French composer and cell
ist, mostly active in Switzerland
.
, Luis Naon and Eric Daubresse. He received his diploma in 2005. The following year he studied at the conservatory of Basel with professor Roland Moser.
While still a student, he took his first steps in the professional scene as early as February 2005 with his first show; "Les extra-violoncellistes". The musical theatre play, was designed for three actors and nine cellists, including eight pupils of all ages and levels (Lausanne
, Switzerland). A few months later, in November 2005, he was invited to present his first "portrait-concert" at the festival Akouphène (Geneva
), where he would play and conduct his latest pieces both with and without electronic for two hours.
to contemporary music, improvised music, improvisation laboratories and workshops, interdisciplinary performances with dance, art installations, live drawing, theatre, movies, and so forth. The association works like a free ensemble, inviting people form different backgrounds, generations and disciplines to create new forms of performances. The ensemble has been invited to play in places such as the théâtre du Grütli, cinéma spoutnik and la Traverse (Geneva
), le Lapin Vert, Espace Bellevaux (Lausanne
), and in festivals such as festival Archipel, festival Black Movie.
Since its creation le Car de Thon has worked together with more than fifty people, among who one may notice the musicians Anne Gillot, Rachel Kolly d'Alba
, Yannick Barman, Tomas Korber, Christophe Schweizer; the dancers Corina Pia and Foofwa d’Imobilité;, the set director Delphine Rosay;, the illustrators and painters Baladi, Blakam, Andréas Kündig, Jean-Christophe Menu
, Olivier Texier, Tom Tirabosco,.
and Berlin
and in Switzerland in Thun
, Geneva
, and Lausanne
.
His interdisciplinary performances with illustrators, have led him to often participate in books and comic books conventions in festival d'Angoulême, salon des éditeurs indépendants (Paris), BD-FIL (Lausanne), SISMICS festival (Sierre, Switzerland).
Between 2006 and 2007 he worked as a musician and actor for the théâtre du grütli.
He also wrote a few concertos, including a bassoon concerto and a violin concerto which were premiered in 2010 by the French bassoonist Ludovic Thirvaudey and the Swiss violinist Rachel Kolly d'Alba
.
However, his most important works as a composer are "opus 40 centimeters" for two performers playing on each other, and "ma pièce avec comme un espoir à la fin", a ten hours long piece for a solo musician and electronic. Both were premiered in the théâtre du grütli in 2009 and 2010.
As a cellist, Brice Catherin is famous for playing rare 20th century repertoire such as John Cage
's late number pieces, Morton Feldman
's "patterns in a chromatic field", Heinz Holliger
's "trema" and "chaconne", but also older pieces such as Franz Lizst's repertoire for cello and piano.
He often performs with the pianist Lucie Mauch. With other musicians and actors from le Car de Thon, they regularly play Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den Sieben Tagen
. Notably, in 2008 they performed Oben und Unten, a piece which had not been performed since 1971, and Goldstaub, which is equally rarely performed given the extreme physical and spiritual commitment the piece demands from its performers.
As a improvisator, he is known for engineering the concept of "improvisation laboratories", which refers to performances of onstrained improvisations. The constraints can be as different as "playing an instrument you don't know", "playing a building", "improvise music for a cartoon", "improvisation of characters", or "mixing baroque music and free improvisation".
and the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
.
His works also remind of Heinz Holliger
, Morton Feldman
and Galina Ustvolskaya
, to mention the most important ones.
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
ist, mostly active in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Studies and first professional steps
Brice Catherin studied the cello at the conservatory of Lausanne (Switzerland) with professor Marc Jaermann (cellist of the sine nomine quartet) where he successfully completed his diploma in 2004. At the same time, he was studying composition at the conservatory of Geneva (Switzerland) with professors Michael JarrellMichael Jarrell
Michael Jarrell is a Swiss composer. Born in Geneva, he studied at the Conservatoire there, and later with Klaus Huber in Freiburg.His works span many genres...
, Luis Naon and Eric Daubresse. He received his diploma in 2005. The following year he studied at the conservatory of Basel with professor Roland Moser.
While still a student, he took his first steps in the professional scene as early as February 2005 with his first show; "Les extra-violoncellistes". The musical theatre play, was designed for three actors and nine cellists, including eight pupils of all ages and levels (Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
, Switzerland). A few months later, in November 2005, he was invited to present his first "portrait-concert" at the festival Akouphène (Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
), where he would play and conduct his latest pieces both with and without electronic for two hours.
le Car de Thon
In 2006, Brice Catherin founded a cultural association called "le Car de Thon", in order to organize and promote his work. The range of activities covers written music from the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
to contemporary music, improvised music, improvisation laboratories and workshops, interdisciplinary performances with dance, art installations, live drawing, theatre, movies, and so forth. The association works like a free ensemble, inviting people form different backgrounds, generations and disciplines to create new forms of performances. The ensemble has been invited to play in places such as the théâtre du Grütli, cinéma spoutnik and la Traverse (Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
), le Lapin Vert, Espace Bellevaux (Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
), and in festivals such as festival Archipel, festival Black Movie.
Since its creation le Car de Thon has worked together with more than fifty people, among who one may notice the musicians Anne Gillot, Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba is a Swiss soloist violinist. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 5.-Early life:...
, Yannick Barman, Tomas Korber, Christophe Schweizer; the dancers Corina Pia and Foofwa d’Imobilité;, the set director Delphine Rosay;, the illustrators and painters Baladi, Blakam, Andréas Kündig, Jean-Christophe Menu
Jean-Christophe Menu
Jean-Christophe Menu is a French underground cartoonist, graphic designer, writer and publisher best known for being one of the founders of L'Association, an influential comic book and art book publishing company from France often regarded as one of the key figures in the independent comic...
, Olivier Texier, Tom Tirabosco,.
Bristophe
In 2006, Brice Catherin and the trombonist Christophe Schweizer founded a duet; "Bristophe". The purpose of this duet is to explore improvisation in the entirety of its aspects, to use numerous instruments including electronic, to exist in all kind of circumstances, from recording in a studio to playing the pipe organs in an old church. Bristophe has performed numerous times in Germany in HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and in Switzerland in Thun
Thun
Thun is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland with about 42,136 inhabitants , as of 1 January 2006....
, Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, and Lausanne
Lausanne
Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...
.
Other activities
Beyond these ensembles, Brice Catherin has been repeatedly invited by organisations like the festival akouphène, Insubordinations, l'ensemble CHAU to perform as a composer, a cellist or an improvisatorHis interdisciplinary performances with illustrators, have led him to often participate in books and comic books conventions in festival d'Angoulême, salon des éditeurs indépendants (Paris), BD-FIL (Lausanne), SISMICS festival (Sierre, Switzerland).
Between 2006 and 2007 he worked as a musician and actor for the théâtre du grütli.
Main works
As a composer, Brice Catherin wrote numerous chamber pieces with or without electronic. His pieces can accommodate all kinds of instruments; "Opus 69" for voice and cello, "Pérégrémotion II" for solo percussion, "Super play station 3 turbo" for free ensemble and electronic,.He also wrote a few concertos, including a bassoon concerto and a violin concerto which were premiered in 2010 by the French bassoonist Ludovic Thirvaudey and the Swiss violinist Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba
Rachel Kolly d'Alba is a Swiss soloist violinist. Considered a child prodigy at the violin, she started playing at the age of 5.-Early life:...
.
However, his most important works as a composer are "opus 40 centimeters" for two performers playing on each other, and "ma pièce avec comme un espoir à la fin", a ten hours long piece for a solo musician and electronic. Both were premiered in the théâtre du grütli in 2009 and 2010.
As a cellist, Brice Catherin is famous for playing rare 20th century repertoire such as John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
's late number pieces, Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
's "patterns in a chromatic field", Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...
's "trema" and "chaconne", but also older pieces such as Franz Lizst's repertoire for cello and piano.
He often performs with the pianist Lucie Mauch. With other musicians and actors from le Car de Thon, they regularly play Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Aus den Sieben Tagen
Aus den Sieben Tagen
Aus den sieben Tagen is a collection of 15 text compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in May 1968, in reaction to a personal crisis, and characterized as "Intuitive music"—music produced primarily from the intuition rather than the intellect of the performer...
. Notably, in 2008 they performed Oben und Unten, a piece which had not been performed since 1971, and Goldstaub, which is equally rarely performed given the extreme physical and spiritual commitment the piece demands from its performers.
As a improvisator, he is known for engineering the concept of "improvisation laboratories", which refers to performances of onstrained improvisations. The constraints can be as different as "playing an instrument you don't know", "playing a building", "improvise music for a cartoon", "improvisation of characters", or "mixing baroque music and free improvisation".
Influences
According to the biography on his website, the important influences on his work are the composer Karlheinz StockhausenKarlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and the filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
.
His works also remind of Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...
, Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman was an American composer, born in New York City.A major figure in 20th century music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown...
and Galina Ustvolskaya
Galina Ustvolskaya
Galina Ivanovna Ustvolskaya, also Ustwolskaja or Oustvolskaia was a Russian composer of classical music.-Early years:From 1937 to 1947 she studied at the college attached to the Leningrad Conservatory . She subsequently became a postgraduate student and taught composition at the college...
, to mention the most important ones.
Discography
- 2007 - Opus 69 (with illustrator Baladi, written contemporary music, la cafetière)
- 2008 - Guns'n'noises (one track with Bristophe for a compilation, limited edition, akouphène)
- 2009 - Nos meilleurs Stockhausen (live recordings of four of the pieces by Stockhausen Aus den sieben TagenAus den Sieben TagenAus den sieben Tagen is a collection of 15 text compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen, composed in May 1968, in reaction to a personal crisis, and characterized as "Intuitive music"—music produced primarily from the intuition rather than the intellect of the performer...
, insubordinations netlabel) - 2011 - Early Works (AudioTong)
- 2011 - Volume 7 - Brice Catherin (SHSK'H netlabel)
- 2011 - le fils de la prophétesse - Εἰρήνη, Χρόνος (with Bristophe) (AudioTong)