Brest

Picture by leniners

I'm thrilled to let you know that, after spending wonderful time at the Montbéliard Conservatory, I just took a new position at the Brest Conservatory. Read here a short welcome interview (French only).

Bretagne is filled with inspiring landscapes. Last week-end, I walked around the Kermorvan peninsula:

Picture by y.caradec

Great ballet school in Alsace

Maria Guerrero studied at the Royal Ballet School in London, then had a career as a dancer, a choreographer, and a maître de ballet.

I have been delighted to study ballet at her school, the Ballet Studio Guerrero, since October 2010. She is a great ballet teacher, anchored in the tradition, both very demanding and respectful with all students.

The show

At the end of April, Maria organized a show at La Coupole, a beautiful theater house in Saint-Louis, France. Dancing on a professionally equipped stage is such a fundamental experience for all dancers: it's necessary from a pedagogical point of view, and it is a lot of fun as well. Here is an excerpt of a piece Maria Guerrero choreographed for this show:

Relative... la vérité

Relative is the short piece I composed for mezzo soprano, tenor, and live electronics. In the previous post, I told you the lyrics were based on anagrams (in French). Here they are:

Mezzo-soprano: Relative
     Tenor: La vérité ("the truth")

Tenor: La courbure de l'espace-temps ("the curvature of space-time")
     Mezzo-soprano: Superbe spectacle de l'amour

These letter permutations come from a great short book of anagrams (in French), mixing poetry and fascination for science:

By the way, I also used the permutations in the text as a basis to compose the sung melodies...

Miniature for mezzo soprano, tenor, and live electronics

I was thrilled when Isabelle Jost, singer and professor at the Montbéliard conservatory, came up with a composition project for students of hers. To collaborate with colleagues who are great artists is among the missions and the pleasures of working in a dynamic pedagogical team.
I just finished a draft of a very short piece for mezzo & tenor: they are going to perform it at their final recital this year, along with classical and romantic style.
Live electronics are performed by the singers themselves, using Roland VE-20 vocal processors.
Here is the score draft:

The lyrics come from two anagrams, in French. Will you find them?

Composer Gabriele Vanoni at the Ircam cursus concert

Composer Gabriele Vanoni has been a friend of mine since his arrival at the Harvard Music Department. He has been spending the year in Paris, taking part in the selective Ircam Cursus.

Gabriele wrote a new piece for mezzo soprano & live electronics: Don. The world premiere is taking place on April 13th at Ircam in Paris. Entrance is free, but make sure you get in touch with Ircam to reserve.

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Hybrid artistic objects in Villeurbanne

PaaLabRes is a Laboratoire de recherche en actes sur des pratiques artistiques nomades et transversales - a lab in active research on nomad and transversal artistic activities.

They are organizing a very exciting expo in Villeurbanne, at the Maison du Livre, de l'Image et du Son, today and tomorrow.

All of the musicians involved in this project are great open-minded artists who love to collaborate and share their knowledge and experiences. One of the most exciting part of the expo is taking place this Saturday, March 16th, at 10:30 am. It consists in 3 labs open to visitors, who are going to create hybrid artistic objects:

• poésie sonore (sonorous poetry) with Jean-Charles François
• geste partitions et musiques sur des objets du quotidien (gesture scores and musics about everyday life objects) with clarinetist Pascal Pariaud
• la pâte à modeler le sonore (et réciproquement) (sound modeling clay - and vice versa) with Nicolas Sidoroff - as I already told you on this blog, composer & trumpeter Nicolas Sidoroff is a friend, and a very sensitive music transmitter.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy the PaaLabRes experience! More information on the MLIS web site.

Fall readings

At the end of 2011, I was reading about physical computing and micro-controllers. Last fall, the two most important books I read were about different topics:

• the first was Louis Gerstner's Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change
• the second was Carol Dwek's Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Making elephants dance

Lou Gerstner acted as the CEO of IBM from 1993 to 2001. His memoir is very interesting, with large scale stories, but also details that, for him, made a difference.

A quote from the book:
Execution is really the critical part of a successful strategy. Getting it done, getting it done right, getting it done better that the next person is far more important than dreaming up new visions of the future.

The growth mindset

This book will be useful to most people reading it, especially to anyone interested in education. The thesis is very clear, thus very memorable. After reading this book, you will remember the difference between the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. Most important, you will be able to apply this awareness in your life, whether it is in your own family, in education situations, or more generally in any business.

As a music educator, I loved reading this book. I hope you will enjoy it, too.

A quote from the book:
Becoming is better than being.