FRAGMENTER
The use of fragments, short forms, as well as the act of fragmenting, break down, scatter and above all suggest other connections of sense and sound. These are all ways used by the arts and time, of bringing closer, between languages, Gérard Pesson’s musical oeuvre, which is one of the most important of the French contemporary music scene, and the approach of the American opera singer and poet, Jody Pou, who writes in French.
BIOGRAPHIES
Gérard Pesson
Gérard Pesson is one of the most famous composers of French contemporary music. His art made up of conciseness, evanescence as well as evocation is part of the history of art-music and its reinvention. After a degree in Humanities and Musicology (and a thesis defence about the Aesthetics of aleatory music), Gérard Pesson took Betsy Jolas and Ivo Malec’s classes at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He founded the contemporary music magazine ”Entretemps”, and then became a resident at the Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis. Since 2006, he has been teaching composition at the Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique de Paris, and is a producer at France-Musique. He has been awarded many prizes, including the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco prize, in 1996, and the Berlin Akademie der Künste prize in 2007.
Amongst his most emblematic works, we can include Cinq poèmes de Sandro Penna, 1991-1992, for baritone, bass clarinet, horn, violin and ‘cello; Respirez, Ne Respirez plus, 1993, for string quartet; Mes Béatitudes, 1995, for piano and string trio; Récréations Françaises, 1996, for string trio, flute, oboe, clarinet; Branle du Poitou, 1997, for piano solo and 8 musicians; Aggravations and Final, 2002, for large chamber ensemble; Cassation, 2003, for clarinet, violin, viola, ‘cello, piano; Wunderblock-Nebenstück II, 2005, for accordion and orchestra; Bitume, 2008, for string quartet; Future is a Faded song, 2012, for piano and orchestra.
His works are played by the most prestigious European ensembles and orchestras, published by Editions Henry Lemoine and several monographic discs have been dedicated to his work.
Close to contemporary art, he created Rubato ma glissando with Annette Messager for the Festival d’Automne in 2008; and Pierrick Sorin staged Pastorale at the Théâtre du Châtelet in 2009.
Above all he has a very strong and constant link with literature. The opera Forever Valley, 2000, was based on a short novel by Marie Redonnet and Pastorale, 2006-2009, based on l’Astrée by Honoré d’Urfé, stems from a collaboration with the poet Philippe Beck. Gérard Pesson has published one volume of his diary, Cran d’arrêt du beau temps, Editions Van Dieren, 2004.
Jody Pou
After studying Humanities in the United States, Jody Pou, who is American, came to France to study singing at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris. She took classes in baroque singing, with the teachers Kenneth Weiss, Michel Laplénie and Agnès Mellon. Having won first prize for opera singing at the Conservatoire de Paris, she went on to win several international competitions, before beginning a career which moved towards the contemporary repertoire. She performed works by Pascal Dusapin, György Ligeti, György Kurtag, George Aperghis. In 2000, she took part in the creation of Gerard Pesson’s opera, Forever Valley, at the Théâtre des Amandiers. In 2011, she was a soloist in Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures by György Ligeti at the Opéra National de Paris. She founded the production company Shsk’h LLC in New York with the composer Igor Ballereau. Works published on-line include a carte blanche by the artist Garth Know, Japanese songs from the 18th century, creations by contemporary composers as well as Anton Webern’s work for piano and voice, performed by Jody Pou and Emily Manzo.
Jody Pou is also a poet. She has written two books, Will, Les Petits Matins, 2009 and I thought j’irais en bloom, Le Bleu du Ciel, 2014, whose lyrical and original use of an interweaving of English and French is quite surprising. She is included in the anthology Women: Poetry: Migration, 2017. She is also a painter, and her works can be found on Behance.net and Saatchiart.com.
