Stéréolux, Nantes - 10 June 2017

The Ensemble Utopik occupies Stereolux for the second time and invites Argeninian composer Arturo Gervasoni, who himself will pay a tribute to J.-S. Bach. An encounter between baroque and contemporary music, between past and future.

The Ensemble Utopik invites Argentinian composer Arturo Gervasoni.
His music goes back to childhood: memories and forgotten feelings, called to wake up again, but also desire to do what is forbidden!
His music explores the future: the piano, the violin, the guitar and the flute are sonorized and transformed by digital processing (live electronics).
Eventually, rhythm is at the heart of all his works.
It is no doubt for this reason Arturo has chosen in his turn to invite to this concert another composer: Johann Sebastian Bach.
Paradoxal invitation! A baroque dialog between far away past and digital arts.
Bach's sonatas and partitas will alter and danse with Arturo's works: La Fiesta del Aire, Impulso Interno, Mechanical Area, Yendo…
Each work will illuminate the others.

Program
Works by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Works by Arturo Gervasoni (born 1962):

Tissage en élan (2010) (9’30)
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, guitar + sonorisation

Circundantes en eco (10’)
guitar and fixed media

Lonkomeo o la fiesta del aire (2008) (10’)
bass flute, bass clarinet

Écart à l'équilibre (2015) (10’)
violin + Sampo

Ir (2015) (10’)
violin, guitar

Impulso Interno (4’) (premiere)
flute + Sampo

Mechanical Area (2017) (5’) (premiere)
for a pianist on an interactive surface
design of the interactive surface and sound processing: Alexander Mihalic / Musinfo

Yendo (2017) (10’) (premiere)
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, guitar, piano + sonorisation

Performers of the Ensemble Utopik: Michel Bourcier - direction, Gilles de Talhouët - flute, Laurent Berthomier - clarinet, Blandine Chemin - violin, François Girard - cello, Ludovic Frochot - piano, Michel Grizard - guitar

Ensemble Utopik

Founded in 2004 in Nantes, the Ensemble Utopik is a collective of musical performers with a passion for the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The artistic direction is managed collegially by Michel Bourcier (organist, conductor), Marie-Violaine Cadoret (violin and viola),
Ludovic Frochot (piano), Michel Grizard (guitar), Hédy Réjiba (percussions) and Gilles de Talhouët (flute).
Tha adventure at the origin of the ensemble was a long-term work started in 2005 around an embematic post-war work, Le Marteau sans maître (1953-55) by Pierre Boulez, inspired from the poems of René Char.

Arturo Gervasoni

Arturo Gervasoni studied at the National University of Córdoba (Argentina). He took lessons with Helmut Lachenmann, Luigi Nono in Argentina, and Tristan Murail, Philippe Manoury (IRCAM) and Peter Eötvös in France. He obtained a Master's degree (2004) and a Doctorate in Musicology (2007) at the University of Rennes.

His music could be referred to as a research of "aural stimuli" through energy and character. His works, of sequential type, are discursive at moments. A lot of his works are of litterary and philosophical inspiration from authors such as Luis Borges, Alberto Manguel, Arthur Danto. Works by other composers also inspire him, as well as recent or farther historical events, suggesting him works that he qualifies as "derived".

His works have been performed and diffused in several countries such as teh USA, Mexico, Argentina, France, England, Italy, Germany, Spain, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Russia. His production includes chamber, orchestral, vocal and electro-acoustic music, and music for theatre and dance.