Jean-Francois Charles

The festival of Italian Music Suggestioni is taking place this week-end at Harvard , and on Monday and Tuesday at Columbia University and at the Italian Institute of Culture in New-York. This event has been organized by composer Gabriele Vanoni , a friend of mine at Harvard. He invited great composers: Pierluigi Billone Stefano Gervasoni Fabio Nieder Davide Rondoni Paolo Valesio If you're around Boston or New-York, seize the opportunity to meet with the composers, and to enjoy their music during the concerts!

You are invited to enjoy the music and the dance: Dudley House - Harvard Yard Saturday, March 27th, 2010 8:30pm - swing dance lesson 9:30 pm - party with live big band Live music for a great dance party The Spring Swing is a great tradition at Dudley House. I would be happy to see such events appear in France someday. In many conservatories, where jazz is taught, that would be a fun way to have a party involving students, parents, teachers... Before coming on Saturday, look at Jonathan Ruel's pictures from last year:

In the Fall of 2009, I was a Teaching Fellow for Professor & Pianist Robert Levin 's course Chamber Music from Mozart to Ravel . In the syllabus, Pr. Levin included the study of Claude Debussy 's Cello Sonata . Along with many students, I found this rebel piece wonderful. So, I decided to compose an homage to Debussy for the Harvard Hydra Winter 2009 concert . I entitled this new work for contrabass clarinet and electronics Electroclarinet 2 . This composition is directly inspired by the second and third movements of Debussy's Sonata for cello and piano. Inspired by Debussy Sonate pour violoncelle et piano First pages of Debussy's score, with my annotations The Cello sonata was and remains a modern piece of music. In the first movement , you can hear a D dorian / Eb modal juxtaposition that we will later associate to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue . But to find such adventurous moves as the ones in the second and third movements, we may have to study the music of

Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com In case you could not attend the Hydra December 2009 concerts, here is the video of Electroclarinet 2, a composition for contrabass clarinet & live electronics : I play a Leblanc paperclip contrabass clarinet , augmented with live electronic sound processing. Electroclarinet 2 is an homage to Claude Debussy. Do you hear that in the music? More about this side of the story next week...

The annual Fulbright Afternoon of Music organized by the Massachusetts Fulbright Chapter is taking place this Sunday at 3pm (see June Park's poster at the top of this page). If you missed yesterday's concert of world premieres at Dudley House , we'll be performing again two versions of Acquainted with the night . Program Jean-François Charles (basset-horn) Bert Van Herck – Acquainted with the Night Jean-François Charles – Acquainted with the Night with Michael Barrett, voice & Miriam Conti, piano June Park (piano) Frédéric Chopin – Nocturne Op. 9, Nr. 2 June Park – Secrets of Life (2010-02-28) ARIRANG ~ 아리랑 ~ (Violin: June Park, Piano: Veronica Villegas Rojas) Katherine Lee (piano) Frédéric Chopin – Waltz in C# minor, Op. 64, No. 2 Claude Debussy – Bruyères [“Heathers”] from Préludes, Deuxième Livre Olivier Messiaen – La Colombe [“The Dove”], from Préludes Veronica Villegas Rojas (piano) Charles Koechlin - Epitaphe de Jean Harlow with Lindsey McChord, flute &

Composer, conductor, pianist, and music educator Bert Van Herck is a colleague of mine at Harvard Dudley House , where he is the musical director of the classical orchestra. He conceived the "Acquainted with the night" project: Acquainted with the Night Thursday, March 4th, 2010, 8 pm Dudley House Common Room Free admission In an experiment of collaboration and improvisation, each of the Dudley Music Fellows composed a song on the same text by Robert Frost . Five world premières in one concert! You will hear Robert Frost's poem Acquainted with the Night , in new musical versions by: Behtash & Mehrtash Babadi ( saroud, tanbour & recitation ) Jean-François Charles ( voice, basset-horn & live electronics ) Bert Van Herck ( voice, piano & basset-horn ) Gabriele Vanoni ( voice & piano ) Jan Kennard ( voice & piano ) Musicians: Michael Barrett, voice Anney Gillotte, voice Maryam Vaziri, voice Miriam Conti, piano Mehrtash Babadi, tanbour Behtash B