MICHAËL LEVINAS

Concert pianist and composer, Michaël Lévinas occupies an unusual place in today's musical world. This double identity has influenced his performance and writing styles. His principal teachers were Vlado Perlemuter, Yvonne Loriod and Olivier Messiaen. He was in residence at the Villa Médicis, at the time it was directed by the painter Balthus.

Often associated with the spectral movement and with the founding of Ensemble l'Itinéraire, the compositional path of Michaël Lévinas is distinguished by the production of noteworthy works. Among these are Appels (1974), Ouverture pour une fête étrange (1979), the Conférence des oiseaux (1985), Par delà (commissioned in 1994 by the Donaueschingen Festival for the Südwestfunk Orchestra, conductor Michaël Gielen) and more recently Implorations (Printemps des Arts, 2007) or his opera Go-gol (premiered in 1996 by the Musica Festival in Strasbourg, Ircam and the Montpellier Opera with staging by Daniel Mesguich). His opera Les Nègres, after the play by Jean Genet, with the composer's own libretto, was commissioned by the Lyon National Opera and Geneva Opera, premiered in 2004 with staging by Stanislas Nordey, followed by a new production in 2006 at the Grand Theatre in Freiburg. The recording, released by Sisyphe in 2008, is a critical and public success. His work on what he calls the "paradoxical polyphonies", based principally on complex tone quality counterpoint and variations of temperament, have produced, among others, Les Lettres enlacées IV (2000), Se briser for ensemble (2008, commissioned by the Ars Musica Festival, Brussels) and Evanoui for orchestra and electronics (commissioned by Radio France, premiered in Paris on March 6, 2009, with electronics by Ircam). A third opera, composed after La Métamorphose by Franz Kafka, is currently being composed and constructed in collaboration with Valère Novarina and Emmanuel Moses. This work, a commission from the Lille Opera, will be premiered in Lille, spring 2011.

Michaël Lévinas is a professor at the National Paris Conservatory.

 

Site : http://www.michaellevinas.com

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