Heiner Goebbels
composer

Born in Neustadt in the Palatinate in 1952, Heiner Goebbels has lived in Frankfurt since 1972. Certainly one of the world's most frequently performed living composers, he is also an extraordinary artist, staging his own creations. The author of musical theater, radio plays and works for musical ensembles and symphony orchestras, he is in demand by the most renowned composers, from the Ensemble Intercontemporain to the Berlin Philharmonic. He creates audacious and demanding shows, whose depth also reveals the sociologist behind the brilliant musician and the director with a streamlined aesthetic. Heiner Goebbels works with sound, musical parameters, sight and imagination, all at once, assiduously practicing the art of textual and musical collage, thus offering a multidisciplinary approach that is as assertive as it is accomplished. He began his career writing incidental music for theater, film and dance, and has been directing his own music-theater works ("Ou bien le débarquement désastreux", "Max Black") since the early 90s. Goebbels wrote his first opera in 2002, "Paysage avec parents éloignées", for the Grand Théâtre de Genève. In 2003, he wrote "From a Diary", commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Simon Rattle, followed by the music-theater pieces "Eraritjaritjaka" and "Stifters Dinge". Since 1999, he has taught at the Institute for Theatre Studies at the University of Giessen, which he directed from 2003 to 2011. Since 2006, he has also been President of the Theaterakademie der Land Hessen in Frankfurt. From 2012 to 2014, he is Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale - Festival International des Arts.

Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain
ensemble

For 25 years, the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain's mission has been to disseminate the repertoire of the 20th and 21st centuries, with over five hundred works by two hundred composers to its credit, including one hundred and seventy premieres. Immersed at the heart of creation, the EOC pursues a sustained effort to interpret today's music, through concerts and an original discography, open to a century of music. The EOC offers concerts for medium and large ensembles, with or without electronics. It promotes the pure instrumental concert, but also the mixing of instrumental and electroacoustic sources, and collaborates with other imaginary worlds (theater, opera, multimedia, dance, circus, etc.). It provides unwavering support for creative work, through a team of committed musicians, on the basis of constantly renewed artistic demands. The Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain is recognized as a key player in contemporary music at local, regional, national and international levels. It is a regular guest at major cultural venues and specialized and general-interest festivals (Automne en Normandie, Présences, ManiFeste, Musica, Festival Manca, Les Détours de Babel, L'Estival de la Bâtie, Biennale Musiques en scène, Musica Nova, Nuova Consonanza, Venice Biennale, etc.). Under the leadership of its head, the EOC naturally situates the epicenter of its activities in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and is actively involved in the cultural development of its region by proposing, promoting and developing innovative artistic projects around contemporary music, in partnership with local social and cultural players. The aim of these initiatives (concerts, workshops, conferences, workshops, etc.) is to raise awareness among all audiences of the music of our time, between learned music and popular sources, so often imbued with societal, poetic and cultural issues. The Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain is an Ensemble à Rayonnement National et International (CERNI). It is subsidized by the Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - Drac Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Département de la Loire, the Ville de Saint-Étienne, Spedidam and Sacem.

Pierre-André Valade
musical director

For almost twenty-five years, Pierre-André Valade has led an active career as a guest conductor, performing all over the world. In 1991, he co-founded the ensemble Court-Circuit, of which he remained musical director until January 2008. He then became Principal Conductor of the Athelas Sinfonietta Copenhagen until June 2014, and has since continued to work regularly with the ensemble as guest conductor. He is "Conductor in Residence" at Tel Aviv's Meitar Ensemble from 2014 to 2017, and since 2013 "Principal Guest Conductor" of the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain. He made his symphonic debut in 1996 with Olivier Messiaen's "Turangalîla Symphonie" at the Festival of Perth (Australia), conducting the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. He then the Bath International Music Festival, where he conducted the London Sinfonietta for the first time, and has been a frequent guest ever since. It was with this ensemble that he took part in the tribute to Pierre Boulez at London's South Bank Centre in 2000 for the composer's 75th birthday, performed at the Sydney Festival, and conducted Harrison Birtwistle's "Theseus Game" at the London Proms. With the same Ensemble Modern, he recorded "Theseus Game" for the German label Deutsche Grammophon, and took part in the Lucerne Festival in September 2004. His 2008 recording of works by Hugues Dufourt conducted by the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg was awarded a Diapason d'Or de l'année as well as a "choc" by Le Monde. and a "choc" from Le Monde de la Musique. In 2013, his concert recording of "Interludium" by Vitold Lutosławski with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra was chosen to feature on the CD collecting the many tributes to this composer for the centenary of his birth. While Pierre-André Valade regularly conducts Europe's leading 20th-century ensembles, he is also to be found at the helm of major symphony orchestras in major works of the repertoire (Mahler, Debussy, Ravel, Wagner, Stravinsky, Bartók...). He conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, first for the 50th anniversary of the Royal Festival Hall in London in 2001, then in 2003 (Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony), and in 2004 for the "Omaggio, a celebration of Luciano Berio" festival at the Royal Festival Hall. He has also conducted the soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic at the Osterfestspiele Salzburg (Salzburg Easter Festival), and on several occasions the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra, the Göteborgs Symfoniker, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, as well as the Sinfonieorchester Basel, the Polish National Radio Katovice Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic and other leading orchestras. His August 2008 concert at the helm of the Tokyo Philharmonic was hailed as one of the three concerts of the year in Japan in 2008. In the same year, he received the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros in the "conductor" category, where he was the only person nominated, for several of his recordings. In 2013, he was the guest of Oslo Opera for a production of "Khairos", an opera by Norwegian composer Knut Vaage, and in Northern Ireland of Opera North for a highly acclaimed production of Gerald Barry's "The Importance of being Earnest", on a libretto taken from Oscar Wilde's play of the same name. In 2014, he made his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra della Scala in Milan. His interpretations are thus oriented towards both the world of contemporary ensemble music and that of symphonic music, where he conducts an extensive repertoire.