The soloists
Monica Jordan - Soprano
Founder of the Ensemble Aleph in 1983
After piano and musicology studies at the Bucharest Conservatory, Monica Jordan obtained a master’s degree in ethnomusicology, and she won the prize for excellence in musical analysis and aesthetics at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique of Paris. As a singer, she trained with Rita Streich, Sena Jurinac and Cathy Berberian.
A laureate of the Gaudeamus International Competition in Rotterdam, Jordan performs 20th century classics, including Berio, Scelsi, Cage, Kurtág, Xenakis, Aperghis and Stockhausen. She continues, in relation with composers, to research vocal techniques linked to electroacoustics and music theatre. Monica Jordan teaches musical analysis of contemporary music at the École nationale de musique in Créteil.
Dominique Clément - Clarinets, composer
Founder of the Ensemble Aleph in 1983
A clarinetist, composer and teacher, he co-founded the Ensemble Aleph in 1983. Dominique Clément has composed mainly chamber and stage music, though he also regularly works on pedagogical projects.
His musical language developed from reading poets and novelists such as Claude Simon, Georges Perec, Jean-Jacques Viton and Jacques Roubaud. His works have been performed at the festivals Musica, Présences, Musiques en scène, Musique action, 38e Rugissants, as well as in Finland, Brazil, USA, Germany, UK, etc. He has received several state commissions (Triptyque pour une corrida, Temps bleu, Tresette) in addition to commissions fromthe festivals of Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, Évreux, Musicades de Lyon and Cluny. He taught at the National music school of Chalon-sur-Saône from 1979 to 2000, and currently teaches at the CEFEDEM (Training programme for future teachers in music schools) and the Lyons Conservatory.
Website: www.dominiqueclement.org
Noëmi Schindler - Violin
Born in Zurich, Noëmi Schindler began studies on the cello in her hometown, before choosing the violin a few years later. She studied with Ami Flammer and Pierre Amoyal, and most influentially, Aïda Stucki- Piraccini. Schindler graduated with the Prix de Virtuosité (Lausanne), as well as the Soliste distinction (Winterthur). She distinguished herself at her public debut during the UBS des Jeunes Solistes competition, where she was awarded first prize. Since then, Noëmi Schindler has toured the world as soloist and chamber musician, performing both classical and contemporary repertoire. She has appeared as soloist with major orchestras including the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, the National Orchestra of the Pays de la Loire, the National Orchestra of Lille, the Swiss Chamber Orchestra, the Bohemian Philharmonic, the Orquesta Simfonica de Neuquén, and Filarmonica Marea neagra... Her recordings (on Harmonia Mundi and Abeille Musique) have been unanimously praised by the press. Many composers have writen for her, notably Bernard Cavanna who dedicated Fauve (solo violin), and the Concerto pour violon (winner of the 2000 Victoire de la Musique and the Unesco Prize) to Schindler, as well as the Double concerto for violon and violoncello. Noëmi Schindler has premiered more than one hundred works; many as a performer with the Ensemble Aleph (Paris), in duo with cellist Christophe Roy, and as a regular participant during the International Young Composers Forum. Noëmi Schindler teaches at the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Gennevilliers. She plays an Joannes Baptista Guadagnini violin.
Christophe Roy - Cello
Founder of the Ensemble Aleph in 1983
Christophe Roy studied the cello with Paul Boufil, Pierre Penassou and Maurice Gendron, as well as with the composer Dan Lustgarten. In 1994 he won the special cello prize at the International Gaudeamus Competition in Rotterdam (presided over by Siegfried Palm). As a performer of the solo repertory and chamber music he he has frequently collaborated with the Ensemble intercontemporain, The Ensemble Modern Frankfort and The Newt Hinton Ensemble. He taught the cello at the national music school of Évry, where in 2002 he founded the Centre for the practice of the contemporary cello. In this context, he made a CD in 2006 of music for cello ensemble and it was at once hailed by the press (Le Monde, Le Monde de la Musique). In 2007 this ensemble became the Ensemble Nomos, now very active with regard to creation. Since 1995 has formed a duet with the violonist Noëmi Schindler.
His passion for the contemporary repertory led him to prepare various recital programmes, and he became the preferred performer of composers such as Xenakis, Kagel, Globokar. As a soloist he has been invited by festivals both in France (Musicavoix, Musiques en scène, Musica Strasbourg, Présences, Musique Action, etc.) and abroad (USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Hungary, etc.). He has made several records, notably with the Ensemble Aleph (awarded a “Choc” by Le Monde de la Musique). His CD of solo works released in March 2000 by Grave-Disques Concord (works by Xenakis, Ballif, Aperghis, Kagel) was acclaimed by the press (“10” de Répertoire, “Diapason d’Or”, Le Monde, etc.).
Sylvie Drouin - Piano, Accordion
Founder of the Ensemble Aleph in 1983
From 1981 to 1988 she directed, in Issy-les-Moulineaux, the Atelier Musical (Musical Workshop), a training centre for working adults that provided training for teachers and programmes for employees’ committees. It was in this context that the Ensemble Aleph produced its first multidisciplinary events in collaboration with the museum, the centre for plastic expression, technological and communications
firms and the music conservatory of that city: Musique et Graphisme, Musique et Jeu, Musique et Arts plastiques, etc. Sylvie Drouin is a musician open to all forms of artistic expression. With the Ensemble Aleph, she prepares concert programmes linked to teaching activities that have been acknowledged fortheir high artistic and pedagogical quality. Sylvie Drouin seeks to combine her artistic work with an interest in social and political life. She has been a municipal councillor of a small village in Burgundy since 1989 and was its deputy mayor from 1996 to 2002. The Ensemble Aleph’s work in developing concerts that appeal to as broad a public as possible are directly linked to what is a crucial activity for Sylvie Drouin.
Jean-Charles François - Percussions, composition
A composer and percussionist, Jean-Charles François was involved with the Domaine musical and Musique vivante from 1962 to 1969; he also directed the Centre de musique in Paris, together with Keith Humble and Giuseppe Englert. François went on to teach in the Music Department of the University of California at San Diego, where he became Chairman. In 1975, he founded the experimental music group, Kiva. From 1990 to 2007, he was the director of the Cefedem Rhône-Alpes (a center devoted to the training of future music school teachers) in Lyon. In 1994, he joined the Aleph Ensemble as a percussionist. In 2007, he founded the improvisation ensemble PFL Traject with musicians from Lyon. The author of numerous articles on music theory, he published Percussion and Contemporary Music in 1991 (Klincksieck, Paris). His doctoral thesis (Paris VIII University, 1993) is on “The creative performer”.