Nicolas Vérin
Nicolas Vérin (born 21 June 1958 in Saint Omer, France) is a French composer and professor of music.
Within contemporary music, his voice appears original and unusual. Captivated by the musical gesture and the life of sounds, he explores in a singular manner a fascination for time and its complexity. He draws into this open field a plurality of languages, to achieve a synthesis beyond dogmas and trends[1].
Nicolas Vérin received commissions from the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, INA-GRM, Studios, Festivals and Conservatoires. He was composer in residence in the Midi-Pyrénées region and was awarded the prize Villa Médicis hors les murs. His music, published by Éditions Jobert, has been performed and broadcasted worldwide.
Beginnings
After initial studies with private professors of piano, at the Martenot School and the Brest Conservatory, he obtained his Diplôme de fin d’études from the Conservatoire National de Région de Saint-Maur in piano, studies in chamber music, harmony. At age 12 he started to learn guitar on his own, and a year later founds and leads a pop music group. This was to be followed by jazz piano, which he learned mostly on his own, but also with teachers (Matias Pizarro, Jimmy Cheatham, François Couturier) After his baccalauréat, he followed a summer workshop in Cordes, near Toulouse, with INA-GRM composers Jacques Lejeune and Jean Schwartz, during which he decided to become an electroacoustic composer. He then registered in music and science at the Universities of Paris VI-Jussieu, Brest and Parschwartz musique concrèteis VIII-Vincennes, where he obtained a licence de musique (B.A.). During this time, he organized with a fellow student the first electroacoustic music concert in the city of Brest.
Thereafter, he entered the electroacoustic music composition class of Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel at Paris Conservatoire where he got his degree in 1979. Vérin went on to study 5 years at the University of California, San Diego, where he obtained a Master of Arts (1982) and a PhD (1986) in composition and computer music. His main professors there were Roger Reynolds, Jean-Charles François, Joji Yuasa, Robert Erickson, F. Richard Moore, Bernard Rands, Gordon Mumma, Julio Estrada.
Career
Upon returning to France, he collaborated as musical assistant with Pierre Henry, doing studio work, recording, mixing, sound processing, research, CD preparation, concert performances in major Festivals in France and Germany. He maintained a relationship with the pioneer of Musique Concrète, who invited him in his studio for a composition in 1988, asked him to manage the synchronization of the piano and tape parts of his Concerto sans Orchestre in 2000. In 1988, he was chosen by Jean-Claude Eloy to work at CIAMI (Centre d'informatique appliquée à la musique et l'image, Rueil-Malmaison) in charge of the MIDI studio and the cmusic/CARL environment. In 1989 he joins the creation department at IRCAM, where he works as a tutor. This involved coordinating the productions of invited composers (Michael Jarrell, Michaël Levinas, Frédéric Durieux, Hans-Peter Kunz) and teaching several courses of Computer Music (for the Doctorate Program of Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and IRCAM Computer Music Curriculum).
In 1992 Nicolas Vérin is appointed Professor of Electroacoustic music (Certificat d'Aptitude obtained in 1993) at the Conservatoire National de Région of Chalon sur Sâone (Burgundy), where he is tenured in 1998. From 2002 to the present, he is Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music (senior-class in 2011) at Ecole Nationale de Musique et de Danse d’Evry (Essonne).
From 1992 to 1995, he is composer-in-residence in the Midi-Pyrénées Region. This includes a residence at LIMCA (Lutherie Informatique et Musique Contemporaine à Auch), where he realizes two compositions. He is appointed Musical Director for two editions of the Auch Danse/Musique Contemporaines Festival (in Gascony), involving the programming of 8 concerts, some in relation to dance companies. The residence also included studio work at GMEA (Groupe de Musique Electroacoustique d'Albi-Tarn), resulting in an electronic music piece, In Vino musica, given daily for the show Musique des Vignes from October through November 1992 at the Centre Culturel de l'Albigeois.
In 2003-2004, Vérin is invited at IRCAM to do a new version of his work 11 avenue du Midi on the WFS system (sonic holography), installation presented at Nicéphore Days in Chalon 2004, at IRCAM's Festival Résonance 2004 and in Leipzig in 2005.
Awards
Prizes and selections
- Villa Medicis Hors les Murs (French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2001 and 2010);
- Concours Luc Ferrari -Hörspiel 2, by La Muse en Circuit and Radio France (1995);
- CEDS (New London, Connecticut, 1991);
- selections in many competitions including Sond'Arte (Lisbon, 2009), Bourges (1998, 1997, 1996, 1994, 1990), Olympia (Athens, 1989), Leonie D. Rothschild (USA), etc.
Commissions
- French Ministry of Culture (1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2003)
- INA-GRM (1989, 1993, 2004, 2009)
- Radio France (1991, 1996, 2004, 2012)
- Festivals (Dijon in 1996 and 2001, Perpignan 1995, Nancy 1999)
- Studios (Césaré Reims 2012, CRFMW Liège 2009, GMEA 1991, GMVL 1990)
- Conservatories (Bagnolet 2007, CEFEDEM Dijon 2006, Evry 2003, Champigny 1986...)
Scholarships
- Lavoisier Grant, and invitation at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies of UC Berkeley (1992)
- Resident at Cité des Arts, Paris, selected by the American Center (1984-86)
- Various grants and scholarships from UC San Diego (Tuition Scholarship, Fee Scholarship, Fellowship, Travel Grants, Chancellor Grant, etc., from 1982 to 1986)
- Scholarship from the Ministère des Affaires Etrangères (USA : 1980-81 and 1981-82)