Sejourne Marimba
Myra Krallman
Emmanuel Sjourn (born 16 July 1961) is a French composer and percussionist, and head of percussion at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg. His music is influenced by Western classical music and by popular music (rock, jazz, extra-European music).[1]
Sjourn was born in Limoges. After studying classical piano, violin, music history, acoustics and musical analysis at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, Sjourn continued his education there, and in 1976 entered the percussion class of Jean Batigne [fr], founder director of Les Percussions de Strasbourg.[2] Under his guidance, Sjourn became interested in contemporary and improvised music. He won first prize (mdaille d'or) in percussion in 1980, and then specialized in mallet percussion.[3]
In 1984 he became professor of mallet percussion at the conservatory and won the European Audio-visual Grand Prix for his 1981 CD Saxophone et Percussion.[4] As a player, he is considered one of the most prominent mallet percussionists[5] and expanded vibraphone and marimba performance by introducing six-stick playing and the vibra-midi.[6] He began to compose around the time he began teaching. While continuing his activities on stage and in teaching, Sjourn emphasized composition.
In 1984 Sjourn began teaching mallet percussion at the conservatory and became head of the percussion department. He received his Certificat d'Aptitude in percussion in 1991. In 1994, he was appointed academic advisor to the French Ministry of Culture for the preparation of the Certificat d'Aptitude. He regularly sits on the juries of international competitions and gives master classes in the major music academies in Europe, Asia and North America. His educational compositions include a method of mallet percussion in 6 volumes.[7] He is also co-author of 10 ans avec la percussion (2002).[8]
In 1981 Sjourn and saxophonist Philippe Geiss founded the group Noco Music[9] that recorded Saxophone et Percussion. The album was awarded the audiovisual European Grand Prix in 1984 by the Academie du Disque Franais.[6] In 1996, accompanied by the New London Chamber Choir, Sjourn premiered Sance for soprano, choir and MIDI vibraphone, by the English composer James Wood.[10]
As a member of the contemporary ensemble Accroche-Note since 1988, he has premired more than one hundred works by composers including Donatoni, Dillon, Aperghis, Manoury, Fedele, Mash and Pesson. His performance repertoire includes concertos, chamber music and solos.
He has given numerous recitals in Europe, Asia and North America and has performed with orchestras including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, with which he recorded Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra by Camille Kerger (1997). He has participated in many festivals, including "Archipelago" in Geneva, "Ars Musica" in Brussels, "Ultima" in Oslo and "Musica" in Strasbourg, the Huddersfield and Zurich festivals and the Venice and Zagreb Biennales. He has recorded for Universal, Fingerprint and Auvidis studios.
In his works, Sjourn varies the ensembles, composing for orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists. His music is eclectic.[14] His compositions include incidental music and musicals, as well as dance and film music. He also works as a composer for France Culture, German television networks ARD and ZDF and the Franco-German cultural television channel ARTE.[15]
His incidental music composed in 1984 won the award for Best Music at the Avignon Festival.[13] In 1988, on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary of the City of Strasbourg, he was invited to compose the music for The Invaders for the Ballet du Rhin. He wrote Planet Claviers (1998) for the ensemble Percussions Claviers de Lyon on a commission from Grame Festival. The work was performed more than 120 times between 1998 and 2001. In 2001, returning to his preference for a mixture of forms of expression, he composed Famim, a piece combining improvised, contemporary and popular music, commissioned and premiered by the jazz pianist Michael Borstslap and the Amsterdam Percussion Group. In 2004, at the request of the Luxembourg National Theatre, he wrote the musical School Boulevard.[16]
Sjourn composed concertos for percussion and orchestra, of which two attracted international attention. His Concerto for Vibraphone and String Orchestra, composed in 1999 and premired by the Orchestra of the Auvergne, has been well received by critics. The Luxemburger Wort wrote: "[The concerto] provides living proof of the tremendous growth of the percussion and the emergence of the process of creation in contemporary music ...".[17] The Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra (2006), commissioned and performed by Bogdan Bacanu accompanied by the Salzburg Soloists, became a standard work in the marimba repertoire.[18] Anne-Julie Caron, a Canadian percussionist, described it as "unique because it is one of the rare pieces to put the marimba in a romantic context".[19] After a performance at the Washington Square Festival in New York, a reviewer called it "gorgeously composed".[20] It was recorded on the album True Colors.[15]
Sjourn is supported in his work by many sponsors, including the cities of Arras, Aurillac, Strasbourg and Luxembourg City, the General Council of Bouches du Rhone, the European Institute of Choral singing, and the Paris Opera. He was commissioned and recorded by Gary Cook, John Pennington, Ju Percussion Group, Robert van Sice, Nancy Zeltsman, Marta Klimasara, Katarzyna Mycka, Sylvie Reynaert, and Amsterdam Percussion Group. His works are often included in orchestral repertoires, including the Nagoya Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, Sinfonia Toronto, Croatian Radio Television Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of Italian Switzerland, Camerata de Bourgogne, Bochum Symphoniker, Wrttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, Orchestre d'Auvergne, Cannes, Nice, and Pau.[21]
This section has been created to answer your questions by allowing you to find your way in this very complex world of percussions mallets. Hundreds of references are available on that site, and we are at your disposal to help you finding what suits you.
This model is precise, solid and develops a full, rich sound. These marimba mallets allow to play a large repertoire as a
soloist, with or without accompaniment. Sound projection is made easy through their conception and their pronounced, quite heavy weight. Very good articulation on the entire keyboard.
Emmanuel Sejourne has received awards for his incidental music for staged dramas, as well as musical comedies, film scores and ballets. He has taken part in numerous international festivals, several of which have commissioned works from him. One such work was commissioned by the marimba virtuoso Bogdan Bcanu, to whom it is dedicated, and who introduced it with the Salzburg Solisten at the International Marimba Competition in Linz in 2006.
The concerto, which was quickly taken up by marimba virtuosi and pedagogues, was originally written for a small string orchestra and comprises two movements, marked, respectively, Tempo souple and Rhythmique nergique. The wind orchestra transcription was adapted by Jordan Gudefin.
The marimba duet Departures by Emmanuel Sjourn is written in two distinct sections - a sad, lush chorale highlighting the medium-to-low range of the instruments, followed by a sizzling Latin dance full of dramatic flourishes and engaging rhythms. Emmanuel Sjourn's style of writing combines modular improvisation with jazz harmonies and clever rhythmic content, satisfying the musical needs of talented performers while entertaining a wide audience. He excels at writing licks that sound harder than they really are. Add this duet to your recital and you've got an instant show stopper.
Manuel Leuenberger was born in 1988 in Thun, and found himself fascinated with music from an early age onwards. At the age of six, he began to learn how to play the cello, but was soon intrigued by percussion. In early 2005, he discovered the marimba, and, thus, found the instrument that gave him the possibility to express himself musically. A year later and for the very first time, he performed as a soloist accompanied by an orchestra, and won the first prize with distinction at the 31. Schweizer Jugend Musik Wettbewerb.
In the autumn of 2012, Manuel Leuenberger was given the privilege to perform as the soloist accompanied by the Schweizer Jugend Sinfonie Orchester (SJSO) and hence debuted the commissioned piece 'Tides' for Marimba and Orchestra by Maurus Conte. During a second concert tour in the following year, he played concerts in Switzerland and Germany. He performed an arrangement of the famous piece 'Scaramouche' by Darius Milhaud together with the Swiss Saxophone Orchestra under the direction of Harry White.
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