Jean-Francois Charles

Today is the Fête de la musique in France and around the world, as every 21st of June since 1982. Tonight, I'll be performing Electroclarinet 5 and excerpts from Electroclarinet 6 , as well as improvised music with saxophonist Stéphane Sordet . We are playing at the invitation of the contemporary music ensemble Ensemble Sillages . Here is the schedule: Brest, SNCF train station 5 p.m. Jean-François Charles: clarinets, objects & electronics; Stéphane Sordet: saxophones. Brest, rue Étienne Dolet Stage shared with Penn ar Jazz and the Brest Conservatory 5 p.m. jazz students from Brest conservatory 7:15 p.m. ensemble Sillages Stéphane Sordet/Jean-François Charles 8 p.m. Christophe Rocher & Frédéric Briet (creative jazz) 8:30 p.m. Plus d’amour 9 p.m. Moon swing 9:50 p.m. Rrrr + duo Lucas / Trémentin (free jazz/impro) 10:30 p.m. Duo Descofar (revisited celtic music) 11:15 p.m. No pilot (repetitive electronic noise)

The musique études section at the National Institute for Applied Sciences in Lyon celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The final event consists in a free concert this Sunday, with a program dedicated to Jaco Pastorius . See the concert's poster, and below a couple of links to learn more about the INSA and the Music Studies section. Insa: les 1001 facettes de l'excellence de l' ingénieur : an article in the French Grandes Écoles Journal; Article in the February edition of envue , the school's information letter; The AMI, Association musicale de l'Insa is the dynamic student organization which organizes concerts throughouth the year - a great way for members to learn a lot about artistic events management - and to have fun! La Rotonde , a 400-seat concert hall run completely by a student organization, from booking to the sound & lighting system; The Insatiable is the students' paper. They released a special edition covering the Music Studies a...

Tonight, I have the honor of serving as one of three judges in the competition organized by Pass Musique in Guipavas, near Brest, France. With music producers Ted from Rennes and Cédric Fautrel from Brest, we are going to listen to five groups and five singers, in genres going from rock to pop to hip-hop. See below the presentation of the artists, before listening to them tonight!

After his talk at Telecom Bretagne yesterday , Juan Bello is presenting his work this afternoon during the first Electrocution music festival . Come to the conference, and stay for the concert: it features great music for solo instruments and electronics, including Huayra-Yana , a creation by composer Javier Torres Maldonado for saxophonist Stéphane Sordet .

I'm delighted to invite you this afternoon to a Conference by Juan Bello at Telecom Bretagne . Juan Bello is an associate professor in Music Technology at New York University, more precisely at the Music & Audio Research Lab . During this talk entitled Designing and Learning Features for Music Information Retrieval , Juan will mix music & computer science to explain processes like chord recognition, cover song identification, or music structure analysis. This conference is made possible by the Fulbright France commission , and by Ramesh PYNDIAH at Telecom Bretagne. Juan Bello is a fulbrighter, currently in residence at Telecom Paris .

Last Sunday, I had the great pleasure to play the bass clarinet in Mahler's Lieder einer fahrenden Gesellen , with the Ensemble Entre Sable et Ciel orchestra in Brest, next to clarinetists Christophe Dravers and Michel Dissegna. Wonderful guests performed with the orchestra: singer Marc Scoffoni and pianist Yun-Yang Lee , who connected deeply with the audience. Next concert, on Sunday April 13th, features Brahms's Trio for clarinet, cello and piano, and Sibelius's 5th symphony.

Two years ago, I was very excited to announce Composit 2012, a new music festival with composition courses , organized at the initiative of my friend composer Davide Ianni. In 2014, the project is expanding: the courses include a new live electronic music workshop. Students are going to write for solo instrument & live electronics, with their composition rehearsed and performed during the summer - solo instrument may be violin/viola d'amore, accordion, or classical guitar/electric guitar. Plus, with Emmanuel Jourdan as faculty, you have a first class Max specialist to help everyone get the electronics done, and ready for the concert. It might not be too late to apply for this great summer course, offering to learn with senior composers Joshua Fineberg and Philippe Leroux . Visit the Composit web site to get the details, and do not hesitate to ask any question: the organizers of this even are wonderful and really passionate about new music.