Sejourne Concerto For Marimba And Strings

[Algernon Alcala]

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]

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 Lowell Chamber Orchestra, conducted by MCC faculty member Orlando Cela, will perform a variety of colorful works. Autumn Vistas by Martin Max Schreiner; Concerto for Marimba and Strings by Emmanuel Sjourn; Symphony for Violas and Basses by Julia Perry; and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta by Bla Bartk will be performed. Nikki Huang will be the soloist for the marimba concerto as the winner of the 2023 LCO Concerto Competition.

John Ferrillo, Principal Oboe of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Elizabeth Klein, Associate Principal Flute of the BSO, will join Carmen Rodrguez-Peralta, piano, for a program of works for oboe/piano, flute/piano, and flute/oboe/piano by Benjamin Britten, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles-Marie Widor, and Madeleine Dring. A short piano solo by Larry Bell will also be featured.

Guitarists Raley Beggs (MCC faculty member) and Carl Straussner will present an eclectic concert featuring western classical music and works by South African composers inspired by traditional African music. Duo du Sud seeks to revitalize and expand the guitar repertoire, performing concerts that are equal parts virtuosic and vibrant. Works by Robert Johnson, Johannes Kapsberger, Ali Farka Tour, and David Hewitt will be performed.

In a collaboration with Dracut Arts, MCC faculty members Carmen Rodrguez-Peralta, pianist; Orlando Cela, flutist, and Raley Beggs, guitarist, with MCC alumnus Nathaniel Abreu, cellist, performed a colorful program of music from Europe, the United States, Latin America, and South Africa.
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MCC faculty members Daniel Fridley, singer; Orlando Cela, flutist; Carmen Rodrguez-Peralta, pianist; Raley Beggs, guitarist; Todd Brunel, clarinetist/bass clarinetist, and Karen Oster, narrator, presented a lecture/concert featuring musical works inspired by literature from many countries. English faculty member Tom Laughlin read his poem Jazz while Todd Brunel improvised. This event formed part of the 2023 Lowell City of Learning Festival.
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Lowell Chamber Orchestra

Noted Peruvian cellist Jess Castro-Balbi joined MCC faculty members Carmen Rodrguez-Peralta, pianist, and Orlando Cela, flutist, for a colorful program of music from Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as a piece by a Peruvian-American.

MCC faculty member and noted guitarist Raley Beggs performed a program of colorful music for solo guitar by Francesco da Milano, Francisco Guerau, Isaac Albniz, Giulio Regondi, Maurice Ravel, and Johann Sebastian Bach.

The Lowell Chamber Orchestra, conducted by MCC faculty member Orlando Cela, presented works from the Baroque Era, combined with later pieces inspired by this era. The Double Concerto for Recorder and Traverso by Georg Philipp Telemann, featuring Aldo Abreu and Orlando Cela as soloists, and the Suite from Castor et Pollux by Jean-Philippe Rameau were performed. Suite Franaise aprs Gervaise by Francois Poulenc and the world premiere of Greyed Rainbow by Dana Kaufman reflected the influence of the Baroque.

MCC Music faculty members Todd Brunel, clarinetist; Orlando Cela, flutist; Johnny Mok, cellist; and Carmen Rodrguez-Peralta, pianist performed works for various combinations of instruments by Gabriel Faur, Mikhail Glinka, Manuel de Falla, Guillaume Connesson and Carlos Gardel. A piano solo by Larry Bell and Jazz improvisations for bass clarinet were also featured.

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