Musicians


Olivier CLASS (flute)

Thomas MONOD (clarinet)
Guillaume ROGER (violin)
Vincent ROTH (viola)

Nicolas FRITOT
(cello)
Maxime SPRINGER (piano)
Matthieu CHARDON (percussion)
Lee Forrest FERGUSON
(percussion)

Christophe BERTRAND (artistic director)

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Thomas MONOD (clarinette)

Born in 1976, he studied clarinet, bass clarinet and chamber music with Laurent BERTHOMIER and Armand ANGSTER. He obtained several first prizes (clarinet, bass clarinet and chamber music) at the Strasbourg National Conservatory. In 2002, he participated in the International Ferienkurse of Darmstadt where he studied with Ernesto MOLINARI.

He is regularly invited by various ensembles, such as the Ensemble MODERN, KLANGFORUM Wien, MUSIKFABRIK, Chronophonie, and is part of the Ensemble Linéa.

His encounters with composers such as Pascal DUSAPIN, Ivan FEDELE, Helmut LACHENMANN, Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN, Betsy JOLAS, Georges APERGHIS, Gualtiero DAZZI, Bernhard LANG or Michael JARRELL have been decisive for the understanding of their musical language. He has also had the opportunity of being conducted by Emilio POMARICO, Vladimir SPIVAKOV, Oliviers DEJOURS, Franck OLLU, Philippe NAHON and Günter NEUHOLD.

He participated in the Musica Festival, in the Studiokonzerte of the Darmstadt Ferienkurse, in the International Music Festival of Colmar. He was also prize-winner of the 20th century music interpretation competition "CHAIN 2001".

Furthermore, he collaborates with other forms of art, such as the dance company Hoogenraad and he also holds a teaching qualification (DE) for the clarinet. He plays the entire set of clarinets: soprano clarinet, basset horn, bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet.

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Oliver CLASS (flûte)

 

Born in 1976, Olivier Class studied at the Strasbourg National Conservatory and at a local Conservatory in Paris. His professors were mainly Philip JOLIVET and Cécile DAROUX for the flute and Armand ANGSTER for chamber music. In Strasbourg, he obtained first prizes both in flute (in 1997) and in chamber music (in 1998), before receiving the First Prize of the City of Paris in 2000. He also did several courses with Carin LEVINE at the Internationale Ferienkurse of Darmstadt as well as with Pierre-Yves ARTAUD.

He works with composers such as Klaus HUBER, Luis DE PABLO, Ivan FEDELE, Christophe BERTRAND, Frédéric KAHN, Gualtiero DAZZI, Claudio GABRIELE, Jean-Paul DESSY or Ahmed ESSYAD. In chamber music ensembles or as soloist, he performed at the Musica Festival (Strasbourg), the Italian Cultural Institute, the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Strasbourg, the 8th Festival of the Union of European Theatres and the festivals Rendez-vous Musiques Nouvelles (Forbach), Aujourd’hui Musique (Perpignan), Why Note (Dijon), Musiques en Scène (Lyon), in Paris at the CEMAMU as well as at the Théâtre du Châtelet, at the Secondo Novencento Francese e Italiano in Come, the CRM in Rome, the Spoleto Festival, the CDMC in Madrid and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse.

He played with several ensembles including the Ensemble Linea and the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Pascal ROPHE, Jean-Philippe WURTZ, Ramon LAZKANO or Günter NEUHOLD. In 2003, he joined ensemble of European flutes eWave. He participated in the recordings of compositions by Claudio Gabriele (Studio Musicale Arcangelo, SMA 012, 2003), Jean-Paul Dessy (Le Chant du Monde/Harmonia Mundi, LDC 2781144) and a more classical CD with the flute ensemble Bilitis.

He plays the entire set of flutes: piccolo, C flute, alto flute, bass flute and contrabass flute

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Maxime SPRINGER (piano)
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Born in France in 1980, he studied the piano at the Strasbourg National Conservatory with Laurent CABASSO, and chamber music with Armand Angster. He obtained the diploma of musical studies (DEM) in 2000 as well as a piano concert diploma and a proficiency diploma. He also studied with Gerry MOUTIER, Igor LASKO, Denis PASCAL and Igor BASHKIROV.

He has had the opportunity to work with composers such as Thierry DE MEY, Pascal DUSAPIN, Ramon LAZKANO and Luis DE PABLO, as well as with Christophe BERTRAND and Javier TORRES MALDONADO.

In 2002, he performed the Concerto for two pianos by POULENC with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jan Latham-Koenig.

He performs regularly with the Duo Appel d'Air with the flutist Keiko Murakami and with the Ensemble Linéa. He played on several occasions at the Musica Festival in Strasbourg, for France-Musique, as well as in Spain and in Italy (Spoleto Festival).

In 2002, he obtained the second prize at the Internal Competition CHAIN in Bienne. After studying at the CEFEDEN of Bourgogne, he also obtained a teaching qualification (DE) for the piano.

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Guillaume ROGER (violin)


Born in 1982, he started learning the violin at the age of 6 and was admitted one year later at the Strasbourg National Conservatory. In 2000, he obtained unanimously the first prize in violin and in chamber music in 2001. During that same year, he also won the Encouragement Prize of the Freiburg Franco-German Circle.

Between 2000 and 2002, he studied with Jean-Jacques KANTOROW, Jan TALICH and Christophe POIGET.

In 2002, he was accepted at the National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance (CNSMD) of Lyon, where he studied with Vladimir NEMTANU, Jean ESTOURNET and Kazimierz OLECHOWSKI until he obtained his first prize in violin and the French national diploma of graduate music studies (DNSEM) in 2006. He has also worked with composers such as Georges APERGHIS, Pascal DUSAPIN, Ivan FEDELE, Bernard CAVANNA and Luc FERRARI.

He is currently pursuing his studies at the CNSMD of Lyon in a contemporary music course (“Atelier XXème”) and has been admitted for 2007/2008 at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London in the class of Jacqueline ROSS. He has also participated in quartet masterclasses with members of the Quatuor Danel and the Tokyo String Quartet.

Since 2001, he has been conducted among others by Jerzy SEMKOV, Kirill KARABITS, Walter WELLER, Peter CSABA or Jan LATHAM-KOENIG whilst working regularly with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Contemporary Orchestral Ensemble, the Symphonic Orchestra of Saint-Etienne, as well as during the Musica Festival. With the orchestra of the Lyon Opera, he participated in 2006 in Lyon and at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in the French Premiere and recording of « Faustus » by Pascal DUSAPIN.

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Matthieu Chardon (percussion)

Born in 1981, Matthieu CHARDON was accepted at the age of 7 at the E.N.M. of Mulhouse, where he studied percussion and the saxophone. When he was 12 years old, he decided to dedicate himself fully to the learning of percussion with Gabriel BOUCHET, founder member of the Percussions de Strasbourg.

He continued his studies at the Versailles National Conservatory in the class of Sylvio GUALDA, where he obtained a first prize unanimously. Finally, he was admitted in the class of Frédéric MACAREZ in the Paris National Conservatory, where he obtained in 2003 a first prize unanimously and with honours.

Winner of the Chamber Music International Competition of Illzach with the trio « JaNiMa » and of the International Competition of caisse claire organised in Paris in 2004, he also very quickly developed a strong interest for ensemble music (he is a member of the group Paris-Percu with which he performed in multiple festivals, such as in Paris, Nancy and Porto-Rico).

In 2004, he joined the Lucerne Festival Academy conducted by Pierre BOULEZ, invitation which was renewed for the three following years. He performed orchestral compositions by Pierre BOULEZ, Edgar VARESE, Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN, Harrison BIRTWISTLE, Matthias PINTSCHER, Christophe BERTRAND etc. In 2005, he founded the Lucerne Festival Group, a twelve-member percussion ensemble dedicated to performing compositions, such as those of Pierre BOULEZ, Edgar VARESE, Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN, Harrison BIRTWISTLE, Matthias PINTSCHER or Christophe BERTRAND.

If his personal choices reveal a particular interest for solo performances by interpreting compositions from Iannis XENAKIS, Yan MARESZ, François-Bernard MÂCHE, Bruno GINER, Per NORGARD, Yoshihisa TAÏRA or Javier ALVAREZ, he also collaborates as regularly as possible with a certain number of contemporary ensembles (two recordings with the ARTE DIE ensemble, first production of « Landness » by Daniel D'ADAMO with the SILLAGES ensemble), classical ensembles (Opéra du Rhin, Mulhouse Symphonic Orchestra, Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux or Colonne Orchestra) or variety music (studio recordings, orchestra of the Star Academy, recordings for the « Musiques au Cœur »).

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Lee Forrest Ferguson studied as a scholarship student at the University of Iowa under Thomas L. Davis (1991-5). In 1995 he received a bachelor of music in percussion performance and then was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study with Bernhard Wulff at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, in Freiburg, Germany (1996-8). Lee was a member of the Freiburg Percussion ensemble, which received first prize in the German Music School Competition for the category New Music (Leipzig 1998). He has played with Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Surplus, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, MusikFabrik NRW and is a member of the New Music initiative, SUONO MOBILE ensemble chronophonie, and the US ensemble, Luna Nova. As a performer of new music, Lee works mostly in solo and chamber music genres . He is a percussion instructor at the Southern Blackforest Music School in Tiengen, Germany. 

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Christophe BERTRAND (artistic director)
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Christophe Bertrand was born on 1981. After obtaining first prizes in piano and chamber music at the Strasbourg National Conservatory (where he studied with Laurent CABASSO, Michèle RENOUL, Armand ANGSTER), he has been performing and recording with the Accroche-Note and the Ensemble In Extremis, which he co-founded. With them, he collaborated with composers such as Ivan Fedele, Pascal DUSAPIN, Michael JARRELL, Mark ANDRE, Wolfgang RIHM, etc.

He began studying composition in 1996 with Ivan FEDELE at the Strasbourg National Conservatory, and obtained in 2000 his composition diploma unanimously with honours. During that same year, the Musica Festival dedicated a concert to him, and he attended the “Cursus annuel de composition et d'informatique musicale 2000-2001” at the IRCAM, where he worked among others with Philippe HUREL, Tristan MURAIL, Brian FERNEYHOUGH, and Jonathan HARVEY.

His compositions, conducted among others by Pierre BOULEZ, Jonathan NOTT, Hannu LINTU or Marc ALBRECHT, have been performed by prestigious ensembles and soloists: Ensemble Intercontemporain, Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, Arditti Quartet, Accroche Note, Court-Circuit Ensemble, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Adelph Ensemble, Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Ensemble Intégrales, Divertimento Ensemble, Ensemble Musicatreize, Mandelring Quartet, Avanti!, etc. ; Garth KNOX, Juliette HUREL, Jan MICHIELS, Marc COPPEY, etc.

His compositions have been performed in France (Musica Festival, Ircam, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Agora Festival, Centre Georges Pompidou, Salle Olivier Messiaen of the Maison de Radio-France), in Germany (Beethovenfest Bonn, Ultraschall-Festival, IFNM in Darmstadt, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Hamburg Opera), in Switzerland (Lucerne Festival), in Belgium (Ars Musica Festival), in Italy (Festival Traiettorie, Rondo-Milano, Spoleto Festival), in Holland (Gaudeamus), but also in the USA, in the United Kingdom, in Slovenia etc. as well as various radios in France and abroad.

Among others, he has been receiving commissions from the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Lucerne Festival, the Beethovenfest of Bonn, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Auditorium du Louvre, the André Boucourechliev Fondation, Les Musicales of Colmar, the Berlin Radio, the French State, Accroche Note, the Musicatreize Ensemble, the Festival Rendez-Vous Musique Nouvelle, etc. as well as from several private sponsors.

He obtained in 2001 the Music Prize from the Académie des Marches de l'Est, as well as the Honours at the Gaudeamus Festival and the Earplay Prize in 2002. In June 2007, he won the SACEM Hervé DUGARDIN Prize, as well as the André CAPLET Prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Institut de France).

He has recently been selected by the French Academy in Rome to be resident at the Villa Medici during 18 months.

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