Nicolas Vérin (born 21 June 1958) is a French composer and professor of music. His many influences, from jazz to electronics, from American to French music, give him an unusual style, apart from the main trends of French contemporary music, combining energy and subtleness.Thion, Michel (1994). "La musique contemporaine en France en 1994", p. 67. Chroniques de l'AFAA no. 5, AFAA, Paris. Contemporary Composers Index
While rooted in electroacoustic music and its approach based on composing with sounds rather than notes, he also wrote many instrumental pieces and specialized particularly in music mixing live performers and electronics, whether fixed sound or live processing.Solomos, Makis (2000). "Die neuesten Entwicklungen der zeitgenössischen Musik in Frankreich", pp. 85–86. Musik und Aesthetik, vol. 4, no. 16, Stuttgart At the basis of his work are the musical gesture and the life of sound and its morphology.Classical Composers Index An improviser himself, his works often leave a creative space for performers, and he has collaborated on many occasions with famous improvisers.
Vérin received commissions from the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, INA-GRM, Studios, Festivals and Conservatories. He was composer in residence in the Midi-Pyrénées region and was awarded the prize Villa Médicis hors les murs. His music, published by Éditions Jobert and Éditions François Dhalmann, has been performed and broadcast worldwide.
Life and work
Beginnings Vérin was born 21 June 1958 in Saint-Omer, France. After initial studies with private professors of piano, at the Martenot School and the Brest Conservatory, he obtained his Diplôme de fin d'études from the Conservatoire National de Région de Saint-Maur in piano, studies in chamber music, harmony. At age 12 he started guitar and a year later founds and leads a pop music group. This was to be followed by jazz piano, which he learned mostly on his own, but also with teachers (Matias Pizarro, Jimmy Cheatham, François Couturier).
After his baccalauréat, he followed a summer workshop in Cordes, near Toulouse, by INA-GRM, during which he decided to become an electroacoustic composer. He then studied music and science at the Universities of Paris VI–Jussieu, Brest and Paris VIII–Vincennes, where he obtained a licence de musique (B.A.). During this time, he organized with a fellow student the first electroacoustic music concert in the city of Brest.Ouest-France, Rennes, 31 April 1977Le Télégramme, Morlaix, 31 April 1977 He later attended musical academies Acanthes (Aix-en-Provence 1982), and Darmstädter Ferienkurse (1992).Steenhuisen, Paul (2005). "Darmstadt 1992 – the Understory", p. 85, "Circuit: musiques contemporaines", vol. 15, no. 3, Presses de l'Université de Montréal
Thereafter, he entered the electroacoustic music composition class of Pierre Schaeffer and Guy Reibel at Paris Conservatory where he got his degree in 1979. Vérin went on to study 5 years at the University of California, San Diego, where he obtained a Master of Arts (1982)Master of Arts, UCSD and a PhD (1986)PhD Thesis, UCSD in composition and computer music. His main professors there were Roger Reynolds, Jean-Charles François, Joji Yuasa, Robert Erickson, F. Richard Moore, Bernard Rands, Gordon Mumma, Julio Estrada.Éditions Jobert
Main career Upon returning to France, Vérin collaborated as musical assistant with Pierre Henry, for studio work, recording original sounds, processing sounds, and concert performances in major Festivals in France and Germany. The pioneer of musique concrète invited him in his studio for a composition in 1988. Vérin is considered one of only two disciples of Pierre Henry.Pierre Henry, quoted in Gilly, Cécile and Samuel, Claude (1991). Acanthes An XV, Van de Velde, Paris. Chion Michel (2003). "Pierre Henry", p. 88. Fayard, Paris. and has performed his music in many occasions.Tousignant, François,"Une très grande interprétation". Le Devoir, Montréal, 11 November 1999Festival Futura 1998
In 1988, he was chosen by Jean-Claude Éloy to work at CIAMI (Centre d'informatique appliquée à la musique et l'image, Rueil-Malmaison) in charge of the MIDI studio and the cmusic/CARL environment.
In 1989 he joined the creation department at IRCAM, where he works as a tutor. This involved coordinating the productions of invited composers (Michael Jarrell,Congruences (1989) de Michael Jarrell, Elements d'analyse technique, by Nicolas Vérin, Francis Courtot, Michael Jarrell, IRCAM (Research institute : France) ed. IRCAM, 1990 (41 pages) Michaël Levinas,Levinas, Michaël and Castanet, Pierre-Albert (2002). "Le Compositeur Trouvère : écrits et entretiens (1982–2002)", pp. 94–97. L'Harmattan, Paris. Levinas, Michaël (1994). "Transients of Attack and Hybrid Sound: Toward a New Mixity", pp. 13–15. Leonardo Music Journal, vol. 4. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Frédéric Durieux, Hans-Peter Kunz) and teaching several courses of computer music (for the doctorate program of École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales and IRCAM's Computer Music Curriculum) as well as participating in the beta-testing of Miller Puckette's Max programming language.Puckette, Miller (1991). "Combining Event and Signal Processing in Max Graphical Programming Environment". Computer Music Journal, vol. 15, no. 3
In 1990, Vérin founded the association Ligys, which becomes a studio coop with composers Christine Groult and Jacqueline Ozanne, active in Paris for productions and a few concerts.Dallet, Sylvie, and Veitl, Anne (2001). "Du sonore au musical: cinquante années de recherches concrètes (1948–1998)", p. 43. L'Harmattan, Paris. After the dissolution of Ligys, he founds in 2007 the association Impulsion.
In 1992 Vérin was appointed Professor of Electroacoustic music at the Conservatoire National de Région of Chalon sur Sâone (Burgundy), where he is tenured in 1998. From 2002 to the present, he is Professor of Composition and Electroacoustic Music at École nationale de musique et de danse d'Evry (Essonne).
From 1992 to 1995, he is composer-in-residence in the Midi-Pyrénées Region. This includes a residence at LIMCA (Lutherie Informatique et Musique Contemporaine à Auch), where he realizes two compositions.Pistorio, Elisabeth."Croisements chorégraphiques et musicaux en Gascogne". no. 723, pp. 48–49, 6 January 1994Wernert, Marie-Laurence. Sud Ouest, 4 October 1993 He is appointed Musical Director for two editions of the Auch Danse/Musique Contemporaines Festival (in Gascony), involving the programming of 8 concerts, some in relation to dance companies. The residence also included studio work at GMEA (Groupe de Musique Electroacoustique d'Albi-Tarn), resulting in an electronic music piece, In vino musica,Thion, Michel. Révolution, no. 673, p. 40. 21 January 1993 given daily for the show Musique des Vignes from October through November 1992 at the Centre Culturel de l'Albigeois.Giral, Espérance. "Musique des vignes – le goût des sens". La Dépêche du Midi, 8 November 1992
In 2003–2004, Vérin is invited at IRCAM to do a new version of his work 11 avenue du Midi on the WFS system (sonic holography), installation presented at Nicéphore Days in Chalon 2004 (France), at IRCAM's Festival Résonance 2004IRCAM Festival Résonance 2004 and in Leipzig in 2005.
As performer Besides his compositional work, Vérin has also performed electronic music and improvisation.L'Alsace-Le Pays, 26 July 1999Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, 26 July 1999"Center for New Music and Audio Technology", UC Berkeley He founded Duo Alchemia with Julien Feltrin (recorder), touring in France. With the improvised music trio DSV (: flutes, Louis Sclavis: clarinets, Nicolas Vérin: electronics) he performed in FranceB. FZ. "La Perfection de l'improvisation". Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, 8 August 2011 (Festival Agora in 2002Dahan, Éric. "Sclavis électronique". Libération, 8 June 2002 ), in Russia and United States.Woodard, Josef. DownBeat, May 2002University of California, IrvineCenter for New Music and Audio Technology, UC Berkeley Since the untimely death of Cécile Daroux, the group remains as a duo and renamed itself Ensemble Cécile. He performed with Vinko Globokar as electronic musician in the latter's magnum opus Laboratorium, in concerts at UC San Diego, Witten, and Cologne.
Vérin appears also as improviser or electronic musician in several CDs (Xe symphonie by Pierre Henry, Préfixes by Michaël Levinas, Congruences by Michael Jarrell, Improvisations préparées with Mirtha Pozzi and Pablo Cueco) and performed with saxophonist Daniel Kientzy, actor Jean-Louis Jacopin, flutist James Newton, saxophonist Steve Coleman, pianist Anne-Marie Fijal.France-Musique concert and broadcast of 25 April 2007 He has performed the electronic part of mixed and acousmatic pieces by Pierre HenryZvonar, Richard (2005). "A History of Spatial Music". eContact! 7.4, Canadian Electroacoustic Community and many others."Trois-Epis : à l'écoute des sons". L'Alsace-Le Pays, p. 7, 26 July 1999."Larsen et Cerbère". Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, p. 30, 26 July 1999. As a pianist, Vérin was accompanist of choirs and singers, played in jazz groups (with François Moutin and Louis Moutin, Philippe Botta and others).
Awards
Prizes Villa Medicis Hors les Murs (Institut Français, CulturesFrance, 2001 and 2010)Agenda de la musique contemporaine, Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine, Paris, April 2010. Concours Luc Ferrari – Hörspiel 2, by and Radio France (1997)Jeux pour l'Oreille, 1997 edition CEDS (New London, Connecticut, 1991) selections in many competitions including Sond'Arte (Lisbon 2009),Sond'Arte Competition 2009 Bourges (1998, 1997, 1996, 1994, 1990), Olympia (Athens, 1989),Longchampt, Jacques. "Olympiades de composition à Athènes – Lumières d'Italie". Le Monde, p.22. 3 June 1989 Leonie D. Rothschild (USA), etc.
Commissions
French Ministry of Culture (1992, 1994, 1997, 1999, 2003)Commandes d'Etat on the CDMC's Website INA-GRM (1989, 1993, 2004, 2009)Gayou, Evelyne (2007). "GRM, le Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Cinquante ans d'Histoire", p.242. Fayard, Paris. Program notes of GRM's concert in Paris, 5 December 2009 Radio France (1991, 1996, 2004, 2012) Festivals (Dijon in 1996 and 2001,Lalitte, Philippe (2012). "Histoire d'un brise-glace : le festival Why Note et son public" in Festivals et sociétés en Europe XIXe-XXIe siècles, sous la direction de Philippe Poirrier, Territoires contemporains, nouvelle série – 3 - Perpignan 1995, Nancy 1999) Studios (Césaré Reims 2012, Centre Henri Pousseur (CRFMW) Liège 2009,Centre Henri Pousseur GMEA 1991, GMVL 1990) Conservatories (Bagnolet 2007, CEFEDEM Dijon 2006, Evry 2003...)
Works Vérin's catalog consists of more than 60 works, ranging from solo instrument to symphonic orchestra, through electronic music (fixed sounds or live), stage music for theatre, dance. Several of his pieces are published by Éditions Jobert-Lemoine (Paris) and Éditions François Dhalmann (Strasbourg).
Main compositions Opus 4 Solo violin piece I (7' – 1981)Olschofka, Felix J. (2009). "A comparative analysis of works for solo violin and violin with electronics", UCSD. Opus 7 Pleine Lune (26' – 1982) for electronics (four tracks) and projected images (by Dominique Piollet and Nicolas Vérin). Opus 8 Solo violin piece II (6' – 1983) Opus 10c Solo III (7' – 1998) Opus 12 Petites variations pour piano (10' – 1985–2004) Opus 13 Une nouvelle demeure pour Picasso (20', 1985) music for the documentary film by Edmond AgabraForum des Images Opus 14 Cirios (12' – 1986) for 14 instruments (picc, fl, cl/b. cl. b, t. sax, trpt, 2 trb, el. guit, synth, perc, vn, viola, vc. and cb.) Opus 15 La lueur et la fumée (1 hour – 1986–1993) Musical theatre for actor, synthesizer and 10 tracks to be mixed live on texts adapted from Charles Baudelaire's Le Spleen de Paris Opus 16 Suite pour Minnie (18' – 1986) for wind ensemble (20 musicians) Opus 17 Retornelo (8' – 1987) for wind quintet