Jean-Francois Charles

Yesterday, I went to Strasburg and had a coffee with Armand Angster, my former clarinet teacher. He is an expert at many clarinets, including bass and contrabass. The first instrument I learnt with him, after Bb clarinet, was the basset-horn, to play a Pascal Dusapin work during Festival Musica in 2000. Last year, I put together a recital program both artistically engaging and pedagogically interesting. I played it twice:   - Bayridge Residence and Cultural Center, Boston, February 24th, 2007   - Harvard University Hall, Cambridge, March 1st, 2007 Program Suite / Ed , Armand Angster - bass clarinet Petite Fleur , Sydney Bechet (1897-1959) - Bb clarinet Sieben Lieder der Tage , Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) - basset-horn Episodes , Gunther Schuller (1925-) - Bb clarinet Clarinet Quintet - Larghetto , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) - A clarinet Lina , Jean-François Charles - contrabass clarinet God bless the child , Billie Holiday (1915-1959)...

Do you remember of the announce of the Dancers' Dozen show ? Here is the video of Ballade : Ballade is one of the " 12 Études for Clarinetist Dancer ." As written in my original plan, the piece includes several references: First, the form of the piece is modeled after the classical verse form ballade . It is therefore made of 3 eight-line stanzas and a final envoi. The opening clarinet phrase could be heard (and analyzed) as a variation on the solo overtures of Debussy’s “Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune”, and Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps.” Similarly to the music, the choreography makes use of three sources of inspiration. During the first part ("stanza"), the dance builds upon movements from Nijinsky’s Prélude à l’après- midi d’un faune . In the second part, music and movement become more earthy. The dance is developed mainly after a cell from Nijinsky’s Rite of Spring . In the third part, I use gestures referencing François Villon ’s Ballade d...

One of my on-going projects has been the composition of “ 12 Études for clarinetist dancer .” In the tradition of musical studies designed for the musician to improve his/her skills in a precise domain, each piece will actualize a different approach in terms of: musical composition technique choreographic style relation between music and dance proportion of written and improvised elements notation Here is the (provisional) May 2007 version of my plan for these 12 studies: I cleaned-up this plan to include it in my final presentation for a course I took in the Spring of 2007: Music and Movement Tomie Hahn is a singular artist. I quote the bio on her sweet website: Tomie Hahn is a performer and ethnologist whose activities span a wide range of topics including: Japanese traditional performing arts, Monster Truck rallies, issues of identity and creative expression of multiracial individuals, and relationships of technology and culture; interactive dance/movement performance; ...