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Nicolas Vérin

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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, Nicolas Vérin 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 (France), at IRCAM's Festival Résonance 2004 and in Leipzig in 2005.

As perfomer

Besides his compositional work, Nicolas Vérin has also performed electronic music, electroacoustic music, and improvisation as well. Nicolas Vérin founded Duo Alchemia with Julien Feltrin, touring in France[2].

Member of the improvised music trio DSV (Cécile Daroux, flutes, Louis Sclavis, clarinets, NV, electronics)[3] he performed in Moscow and Saint-Petersburg in 2005, Paris and other cities of France in 2004, at Festival Agora (IRCAM) in 2002 (with special guest David Wessel), toured in California in 2001. Since the untimely death of Cécile Daroux, the group remains as a duo and renamed itself Ensemble Cécile. As such, it gave a concert in homage to the late flutist in the Musicalta Festival in July 2011.

He participated as composer and electronic musician in Mirtha Pozzi and Pablo Cueco's "Improvisations préparées" project, giving concerts at the Triton and Sept Lézards (Paris)[4]. Nicolas Vérin appears also a improviser or electronic musician in several CDs (Préfixes by Michaël Levinas, Xe symphonie by Pierre Henry ...)

Nicolas Vérin performed with many other artists, among them:

  • with pianist Anne-Marie Fijal (concert and broadcast on France Musique)
  • with saxophonist Daniel Kientzy
  • with recorder player Julien Feltrin
  • with actor Jean-Louis Jacopin (on a texte by Werner Herzog)
  • within theatre, music workshops (including performances with Jérôme Noettinger, with Lionel Marchetti)
  • with members of Ligys
  • with Cécile Daroux and James Newton (Irvine), and Steve Coleman (Berkeley)
  • with Jacques Di Donato and Gyorgy Kurtag

He as performed electronic part of many mixed pieces (diffusion, mixing, sound reinforcement, computer) of works by Alvarez, Agobet, Paris, Stroppa, Manoury, Mâche, Reynolds, Teruggi, Vaggione, Risset, Globokar, Subotnick, Levinas, Grisey, Jarrell, Stockhausen, Sahariao, Siegel, De Mann, Ter Veldhuis, Talma Sutt. He also performed many acousmatic pieces by Pierre Henry (of whom he performed a great many works and possesses performance notes of all works up to 1988), by Parmegiani, Bayle, Zanesi, Naón, Berio, Xenakis, amgong others. As a pianist, Nicolas Vérin was accompanist of choirs (UC San Diego 80-81, Clichy 84-85), of singers (Carol Plantamura's class at UC San Diego, and other occasion, in classical and jazz). His interest in jazz improvisation led him to found a trio with the now renowned twins François and Louis Moutin, and a quartet with Philippe Botta, groups that performed in several clubs and concerts in the Paris area in 1986-88. He had the occasion to conduct on a few occasions : in 1988 the string ensemble Stéphane Berthet (in his own work Ombres Chinoises, and later for a whole concert of Vivaldi and Stamitz) and in 1996 Jean-Claude Risset 's Dialogues by ensemble CMC in Chalon sur Saône (France)

Awards

Prizes

  • 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)

Works

Nicolas Vérin's catalog consists of more than 60 works, ranging from solo instrument to symphonic orchestra, through electronic music (fixed sounds or live), stage music for theatre, dance. Several of his pieces are published by Éditions Jobert-Lemoine (Paris), Editions du Visage (Bondy), Éditions François Dhalmann (Strasbourg).

Main work

  • Opus 4 Solo violin piece I (7' - 1981)
  • Opus 5a Quintette à vent n° 1 (4' or 7' - 1981) for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon and optional electronics (also adapted for Brass Quintet and Recorder Quintet)
  • Opus 7 Pleine Lune (26' - 1982) for electronics (four tracks fixed sounds) and projected images (by Dominique Piolet and Nicolas Vérin).
  • Opus 8 Solo violin piece II (6' - 1983)
  • Opus 10 Solo (8' - 1984) electronics (eight tracks fixed sounds to be mixed live)
  • Opus 10c Solo III (7' - 1998)
  • Opus 12 Petites variations pour piano (10’ – 1985-2004)
  • Opus 13 Une nouvelle demeure pour Picasso, music (20') for the documentary film (52’) by Edmond Agabra (1985)
  • Opus 14 Cirios (12' - 1986) for 14 instruments (picc, fl, cl/b. cl. b, t. sax, trpt, 2 trb, el. guit, synth, perc, vn, viola, vc. and cb.)
  • Opus 15 La lueur et la fumée (1 hour –1986-1993) Musical theatre for actor, synthesizer and 10 tracks of fixed sounds to be mixed live on texts adapted from Charles Baudelaire’s Spleen de Paris
  • Opus 16 Suite pour Minnie (18' - 1986) for wind ensemble (20 musicians)
  • Opus 17 Retornelo (8' - 1987) for wind quintet
  • Opus 18 Ombres chinoises (18' - 1988) for non-professional instrumental ensemble (2/2/0/0 1/0/0 4/4/3/2/1 or more)
  • Opus 19 Miroirs Déformants (11') for oboe and electronics (four tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 19b Miroirs Déformants II (9') for fixed sounds
  • Opus 19c Espejito (7') for solo oboe
  • Opus 20 Péripéties (14'30 – 1989 – rev. 1995) for four flutes
  • Opus 21 Tulipes aquatiques (5' - 1990) music for the art film by Unglee
  • Opus 22 Rhapsodie parisienne (28' - 1990) radiophonic piece (two-track tape) with Jean Dautremay, voice, Jean Pierlot, percussion, Nicolas Vérin, synthesizer.
  • Opus 23 Projections obliques (23' –1990-1991) for solo flute and clarinet, live electronics and ensemble (Midi keyboard, tpt, trb, perc., vn, cb)
  • Opus 24 Métalmorphose (16’ - 1990) for percussion and electronics
  • Opus 24b Transe métal (11'20 - 1995) for fixed sounds
  • Opus 25 Courant statique (9'40 - 1991) for fixed sounds
  • Opus 25b De très près ou de très loin… (9'45 - 2001) for fixed sounds
  • Opus 26a Chassé-croisé Ia (8' - 1991) for clarinet (+ bass cl.) and viola
  • Opus 26b Chassé-croisé Ib (8' - 1996) for clarinet (+ bass cl.) and cello
  • Opus 26c Chassé-croisé Ic (8' - 1998) for clarinet (+ basset horn) and viola
  • Opus 27 In vino musica (19' - 1992) electronics (four tracks fixed sounds) with optional wine-tasting installation
  • Opus 29 Instabile (17' – 1992, rev. 1996) for ensemble (fl, oboe, cl/b. clar, F horn, 2 perc., pno/el. kbd., vn, vc) and live electronics
  • Opus 32a Di un temporale... (22' - 1994) for orchestra (2 fl (+ picc + alto fl), 2 oboe (+ E.H.), 2 cl (+ b. cl.), 1 bn, 1 cbn, 2 F. H. , 2 tpt, 1 tbn, 1 tuba, 2 perc, 1 hrp, strings (min. 6/6/4/4/3) and electronics
  • Opus 32b Temporale che non c'è (17'30) for orchestra (2 fl (+ picc + alto fl), 2 oboe (+ E.H.), 2 cl (+ b. cl.), 1 bn, 1 cbn, 2 F. H. , 2 tpt, 1 tbn, 1 tuba, 2 perc, 1 hrp, strings (min. 8/6/4/4/3)
  • Opus 33 Suite en mouvement (12' - 1995) 3 pieces for clarinets and electronics, for students 1st to 3rd cycle
  • Opus 34 11, avenue du Midi (13' - 1995) radiophonic piece
  • Opus 35 una rosa... una rueda... (23' - 1995) dédié à André Belamich, for speaker, ensemble (fl, 2 cl, sax, tpt, tb, perc) and electronics (four tracks fixed sounds), on Federico Garcia Lorca’s poem "Oda a Salvador Dali"
  • Opus 36a Mariposa clavada que medita su vuelo (17' - 1996) for flute and electronics (four tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 36b Thyrcis (9’50 – 2002) dédié à Cécile Daroux, for solo flute
  • Opus 38 Chassé-croisé II (8' - 1997) for violin and piano
  • Opus 39a Khamsin (20' - 1997) for drum-kit and electronics (two tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 39b Samoûm (17' - 1997) electronics (two tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 40 Chassé-croisé III (8' - 1998) for two violins
  • Opus 42 Bora (19' - 1999) for saxophone (soprano and barytone) and electronics (two tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 44 Chinook (18' -1999) for electric guitar and electronics (two tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 45 P’hioni (20' - 2000) for contrabass and electronics (two tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 47 Solid Noid (25’ - 1992-2005) for Midi piano, Disklavier and live electronics
  • Opus 48 Vents du Monde (28’ - 1999-2003) for saxophone, electric guitar, contrabass, drums and live electronics
  • Opus 49 Parties diverses (15’ – 2002-2004) concerto for Ondes Martenot and orchestra (strings + 2 horns)
  • Opus 50 Chassé-croisé IV (10’ – 2004) for flute and percussion (vibraphone and 6 gongs)
  • Opus 51 Interleaved tracks (15’ – 2004) for bass clarinet and live electronics
  • Opus 52 Jardín de acero (26’ – 2007) for soprano, clarinet (also Eb and bass), percussion, piano, violin and cello
  • Opus 53 Impulsions (15’ – 2008) 3 pedagogical pieces for strings and electronics, for students 1st to 3rd cycle
  • Opus 54 Trois études d'espace (19’30 – 2009) electronics (eight tracks fixed sounds)
  • Opus 55 -Now and Then and Now (10’20 – 2012) for recorder flute (Paetzold contrabass, tenor and soprano) and live electronics
  • Opus 56 -Étoile filante (2’ – 2011) for Bb clarinet, written in memory of Cécile Daroux
  • Opus 57 -HystéRAProtéron (3'36 - 2012) dedicated to Alain Sève for contrabass clarinet and electronics

Recordings

References

  1. ^ Contemporary Composers Index
  2. ^ Duo Achemia on Myspace
  3. ^ Trio Daroux/Sclavis/Vérin on MySpace
  4. ^ CD on Transe Européennes
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