Hanson Prize

Dudley House is a very important place for the community of Graduate Students at Harvard. I've been blessed to work with great colleagues, and to make real friends in the house.

Energy, creativity, and concern for others, these are qualities that we are all striving to develop. Thank you, Dudley House, and all of the persons who keep this place well alive!

From granulation to spectral processing, with Max and Jitter

From granulation to spectral processing, with Max & Jitter: this is the title of the class I’m giving this year at the Conservatoire de Montbéliard.
It’s 17 meetings (Friday morning, 9-10:30), and the schedule is looking like that:

1. Free sampling (September 17th)
2. Granular “synthesis” (October 8th)
3. Get ready for Halloween: Spectrum study! (October 22nd)
4. Sonograms, back to Max (November 5th)
5. The famous “Forbidden Planet” (November 26th)
6. Christmas market in Montbéliard: Freeze your sounds! (December 3rd)
7. Phase vocoder (December 17th)
8. Old-fashioned vocoder (January 7th)
9. Phase vocoder encore! (January 21st)
10. Software design 101 (February 18th)
11. [poly~]phony (March 11th)
12. Hibernatus: frozen life (March 25th)
13. Phase vocoder: still blurry! (April 8th)
14. From melody to harmony (April 25th)
15. Interactive speed (May 6th)
16. Spectral sound slicing (May 20th)
17. The best of both world (June 10th)

It will be my modest contribution to a great composition curriculum. Whether you are looking for a composition teacher, courses in electronic music, a community of composer students, or the secrets of hyper-systemic music, if you live in France (or Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg...), you should definitely check this out.

The curriculum is conveniently organized so that students from Paris, Strasbourg, or Lyon can attend: seventeen 2-day sessions meet about each other week, and there are a couple of intensive week-ends as well. Vital are two concert weeks during which student works are performed.

The teaching staff is made of the following composers:

• Jacopo Baboni Schilingi (hyper-systemic music, composition for traditional instruments, interactive music...)
• Frédéric Voisin (computer music...)
• Lorenzo Bianchi (electronic music, sound design, studio techniques...)
• Giacomo Platini (music analysis...)

Time to dance

On Thursday, I took my first ballet class in France. After my recent composition for dancing clarinetist, electric guitar, and electronic music, I'm eager to continue and learn more in the art of movement.

José Mateo Ballet Theater: a great ballet school

But let me praise the dance school I left in June. In case you live in the Cambridge/Boston area, I encourage you to check out the José Mateo Ballet School. On January 2nd of this year, I dared push the door and take an adult class. It turned out to be a great new year's resolution. I met with awesome dancers & students, and I was lucky to work with two amazing teachers.

One of the beautiful studios, shot by Susan Young, July 2010.

First, I must thank Cosmin Marculetiu. Trained in Romania, I guess he inherited a lot from the Russian tradition; he made me discover the masculine nature that I didn't know in ballet. He loves having men in his classes, and he created course reserved to young boys. Thanks Cosmin for accepting me in the class, and for giving me homework, that was decisive!

Second, I must highly recommend Mary Thompson’s class as well. She is the queen of adagios. She choreographs truly exquisite and delicate combinations. I understand her work is close to Balanchine's style.

These two teachers complement each other perfectly. They make a great team. If you can work with them, seize the opportunity!