Jean-Francois Charles

Harvard Music Building - picture by eileansiar During the Spring, the students in the music department met a number of candidates for a new position: professor in composition at Harvard. All of the students who met with candidates were asked to share their thoughts with the recruiting committee. Here is an excerpt from my letter to the committee. I was not completely clear on the type of profile the department was looking for (see the original announcement for this tenure position ), so I imagined a course that could be a great addition to the department's offering: an exciting Gen Ed class about 20th and 21st century music... ...A Gen Ed class that would show how great and influent have been creative artists such as (I'll name just a few from the top of my head, trying to keep in mind the American orientation) George Antheil Milton Babbitt John Cage George Crumb Miles Davis Duke Ellington Michael Jackson Scott Joplin Alan Parsons Les Paul Pink Floyd Steve Reich Buddy Rich Ka...

After watching my recent dancing clarinetist video, my friend Behtash Babadi shared with me the following video, another fusion between music & dance. Quite a number of different styles in this work! Watch till the end to see the modes of interaction in the different sections. ( link to video on youtube ) Behtash told me that The ethnic music/dance is from southern Iran, by the Persian Gulf. With Mehrtash Babadi, they founded The Garden Throne project. Listen to their music, too!

Tomorrow is graduation day at Harvard . Last year, I was an usher in Sanders Theater . This year, I'm in for a more musical job. With friends, we're playing Dixie music at 6:30 a.m. during an early walk to Memorial Church , after a 6 a.m. Champagne breakfast. Looking forward to that!

As you may know, I've been interested in the relations between music and dance for a few years. My interest started maybe with the study of Karlheinz Stockhausen 's operas and compositions for moving musicians. When I took part in the Stockhausen courses in the summer of 2001, I attended Markus Stockhausen's yoga introduction, every day at 7am. That was quite a fun experience, and I remember that composer Flo Menezes attended, too. It took me time before I dare try ballet: I took my first beginning class at the Harvard Dance Center in February 2009. My teacher was Margot Parsons, whose first words to me were " Left hand on the barre "! The Harvard Dance Center's nice Studio 1, in concert configuration. Margot Parsons co-founded the Dance Visions company; you can watch her interview on To the pointe TV . Thank you Margot for accepting me and teaching me the basics of what a ballet class is!

You are invited to the last concert of the 2009-2010 HGNM season. Concert is Saturday, May 15th, 8pm, in Harvard Music Department's Paine Hall. The Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart are performing seven new compositions, including my work Risorius , and new works by my colleagues: Edgar Barroso 's Metamorphoseon Bert Van Herck 's Psalm Kristian Ireland 's Opposing Stricture Hannah Lash 's We on Earth: Migration Karola Obermüller 's mass:distance:time Hillary Zipper's Aventine Program notes I composed Risorius in 2005-2006 as the third part of the cycle Arc-en-ciel . Risorius is a facial muscle, which pulls the corners of the mouth laterally. In 2004, I started exploring the musical potential of laughter with Zygomatic , a composition for voice & live electronics. Both works are part of a long tradition of compositions using laughter, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Magic Flute , the 1923 OKeh Laughing Record , or Karlheinz Stockhausen's Luci...

This has been one of my main projects since January. I've been fortunate to have been helped by many friends (list at the end of the video). Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart. Coeur brisé on youtube

Last week, my dissertation colloquium was my last and seventh talk in five years at the Harvard Music Departement . The piece most of the audience talked to me after the colloquium has been PPP : One of the presentation slides from my dissertation colloquium. The six previous talks were: Fall 2005 Incoming PhD student, I presented some of my compositions in the fields of chamber music, dance & music, and interaction with live electronics. Violinist and composer Hillary Zipper joined me very friendly and we performed excerpts from Plex , a composition for violin and live electronics. Fall 2006 I was blessed to have the Ying string quartet for this talk. We played together a preview of the two first movements of Carlina acaulis for contrabass clarinet and string quartet. I presented my work in progress, including the drafts and ideas for the third movement, that wasn't completed at the time. Fall 2007 During the musicologists' colloquium series, I presented my explora...