End of Year Concert with the OCN

December 12, 2023

The Orchestre du Collège Néerlendais (OCN) is a student orchestra composed mainly of students from the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. It was launched in 2019 by Dr. Caroline Hoebens and enjoyed only a short season before the pandemic arrived. I took up the offer of being the musical director of this orchestra for a year now, and it has been a pleasure to work with all the people I’ve met along the way.
For its first out-of-doors event, the OCN held an end of year concert at Fondation des Etats-Unis. Our program included the first movement of Chopin second piano concerto Op.21 with FEU resident pianist Ian Tomaz, the first two movements of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony as well as a selection of Christmas carols.
Many thanks to the FEU for the invitation to perform in the beautiful Grand Salon.

Rendez-Vous Musical #93 @FEU

November 5, 2023

Last Sunday 5th of November took place the monthly Rendez-vous musical at Fondation des Etats-Unis of which I was in charge of the organisation. Unfortunately pianist Ian Tomaz fell sick and the program had to be modified at the last minute. He was replaced with fellow FEU artist Samuel Gaskin that played some interesting pieces by Schulhoff and Gershwin. I accompanied flutist Isabelle Pazar on pieces attributed to Antonio Vivaldi but more probably written by French Baroque composer Nicolas Chédeville from his opus Il Pastor Fido. Then a selection of pieces by Franz Liszt :

Journées Européennes du Patrimoine 2023

September 23, 2023

The week-end of 16-17th of September was the occasion for celebrating the European heritage. On this occasion, many public buildings in Paris were open to the public. This year’s theme was “patrimoine vivant” and in this context I was invited in taking part to the opening of the musical season at Fondation des Etats-Unis. On the program sonatas by Scarlatti and Enescu. A lovely audience and a beautiful sunny afternoon on the Steinway.

15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Béla Bartók

August 14, 2023

Béla Bartók (1881-1945) was a known Hungarian modernist composer of the 20th century. Together with Constantin Brăiloiu (1893-1958) he has been a pionneer in the field of ethnomusicology, exploring Hungary, parts of Eastern Europe and even northern Africa and Turkey to record folk music and then transcribe it. His transcriptions of Romanian folklore are among the most complete to this date. A distinguished pianist as we can here from the surviving recordings (e.g the amazing pianism we hear in his Scarlatti), he composed several now well-established pieces of the repertoire like the Piano Concerto No.3 or the Out of Doors suite.