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musician performer of rare instruments "Thomas Bloch is unquestionnably a virtuoso and a musician" The New York Times GLASS HARMONICA ONDES MARTENOT CRISTAL BASCHET NEW ! WATERPHONE - THEREMIN CELLO |
BIOGRAPHY |
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Notes : - shorter
biographies (medium size, 125 and 250 words) and high quality pictures are
available in the press
kit
- videos are
available here but also on those dedicated to the instruments
(glassarmonica,
ondes
Martenot, cristal Baschet)
THOMAS BLOCH
(born 1962 in Colmar, France - www.thomasbloch.net) is a french
musician who lives in Paris. He is a worldwide prominent classical
solois specializing in the rare instruments (ondes Martenot,
glass harmonica, cristal Baschet). His performances range from classical
and contemporary music to songs, rock, theatre music, opera,
improvisation, film music, world music, ballet music. He is also a
composer and a producer.
Receiving a a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (with Jeanne Loriod) and a Masters Degree in Musicology at the University of Strasbourg, Thomas Bloch has performed over 3000 times in 40 countries and appears on over 150 recordings, as well personal or as an invited performer. Notable collaborations (concerts or recordings) include : Radiohead, John Cage, Gorillaz / Damon Albarn (Monkey: Journey to the West, after 2007), Tom Waits / Marianne Faithfull / Bob Wilson (The Black Rider / 2004 - 2006), Emilie Simon / Luc Jacquet (The March of Penguins), Milos Forman (Amadeus - long version "the director's cut", 2001), Daft Punk... He teaches ondes Martenot at the Strasbourg Conservatoire since 1992. He is a musical director for the Evian Music Festival (France) and for the Glass Music International Festival 2005 in Paris Cité de la Musique, he writes articles for various musical books and is responsible for presentations of his instruments at the Paris Musée de la Musique since its opening (1997). As a soloist of his rare instruments, Thomas Bloch plays the complete classical and modern repertoire (Messiaen, Varese, Honegger, Jolivet, Bussotti, Mozart, Donizetti, Hasse, Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, Beethoven, Richard Strauss...). He also plays 10 to 15 premieres each year, from avant garde music (Michel Redolfi, Regis Campo, Etienne Rolin, Bernard Wisson, Jan Erik Mikalsen...) to popular music composers (Jonny Greenwood, Damon Albarn, Tom Waits...) and performs in numerous recording sessions. He has been part of more than 200 TV and radio programs. |
Thomas Bloch playing the
onde Martenot
Formule / T. Bloch (excerpt) |
Thomas Bloch has played in 40 countries.
He gave the
first 20th century audition of the original version of the Mad Scene (Lucia di Lammermoor
by Donizetti) in Milano Scala. He played ondes Martenot as a soloist for the Warsaw Philharmonic
Orchestra centenary.
He often plays in all concerts hall in Paris (Theatre des Champs-Elysées, Salle Gaveau, Opera, Olympia, Salle Pleyel, Theatre du Chatelet, Auditorium du Louvre, salle Cortot, chateau de Versailles...) and in Amsterdam Concertgebouw, in Zurich Tonhalle, in St Petersburg Mariinski Theatre, in Tokyo, New York, Mexico, Hong Kong, in Los Angeles Music Center, in Sydney, San Francisco, Budapest, Osaka, Bogota, Helsinki, Prag, Tel Aviv, Seattle, Reykjavik, Brussels, Boston, Mexico-City, Berlin, London, Philadelphia, Madrid, Lisbon, Riga, Tallinn, Sofia, Oslo, Stockholm, Geneva, in Prades Pablo Casals Festival, in Luzern Festival, in Salzburg Festival, in Kuhmo Festival, in La Chaise Dieu Festival, in Edimburgh Festival, in Presences Festival (Paris), in Musica (Strasbourg), Maggio Musicale (Firenze), in Stresa Festival, in Bourges (Printemps and electronic festivals), Beethoven Festival (Bonn), GRM... He also toured for Jeunesses Musicales de France (J.M.F.) during 7 years. |
Thomas
Bloch playing the glassarmonica
Rondo K.617 (quintet) / W.A. Mozart (excerpt) |
Among others, Thomas Bloch plays with :
He was one of the first musician who played alone and
without stop the complete Erik Satie's Vexations,
a 24 hours piano piece. He played it three times : in Galerie d'Art
Jade
(Colmar, 1984), in Satie's appartment in Montmartre (Paris, 1985) and
with John Cage during Holland
Festival (Amsterdam, 1988).
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Thomas Bloch is the recipient of some ten
Conservatoire
awards, at Colmar, Strasbourg, including a First Prize for ondes
Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de
Musique (with Jeanne Loriod). He obtained a Master’s Degree
in
Musicology at the University of Strasbourg where he studied, among
others, with Marc Honegger. He has received the Classical Music Award 2002
given by European critics during Midem
(Cannes) together with The
Choice of Gramophon
magazine, Best of the
Year 2001 in Audiophile
and Choc
in Le Monde de la
Musique for his interpretation of Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie
(Naxos) with Antoni Wit (cond.) and François Weigel (piano),
Victoires de la
Musique, Prix
de l'Académie Charles Cros and four times best
soundtrack during the World
Subaquatic Movies Festival in Antibes.
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Thomas
Bloch plays the cristal Baschet
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Thomas Bloch has recorded for most of major
labels (Columbia, EMI, Erato, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia
Mundi, Philips, RCA, Sony Classical, Toshiba, Naïve,
D&G, K.617...).
Since a few years, he appears in about 10 personal recordings on Naxos, mainly as a performer of his rare instruments, sometimes as a composer: Music for glassharmonica (8.555295), Music for ondes Martenot (8.555779), Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie with François Weigel (piano) Antoni Wit (cond.) and the Polish National Radio Orchestra (8.554478-79), Classical Chill (8.520101), Classical Heat (8.520102), Mozart : Life and Works (8.558061-64), Edgard Varese's Ecuatorial (8.557882), Thomas Bloch's Missa Cantate (8.572489 - to be released in January 2011)... |
Thomas Bloch also gives numerous performances for specials
and
privates events, alone, in duet with the male soprano Patrick Husson or
with various ensembles : 150th Luis Vuitton Cup - America's Cup
anniversary (Tokyo), Canal + (TV) 20th anniversary, Andersen
Consulting, General Electric, EMC2, KPMG (Holland), BNP - Paribas
(Paribas Foundation 10th anniversary), Marinha Grande Glass
Exhibition (Portugal), Comme des Garçons (Paris, Tokyo),
Christofle
(New York, Frankfurt), Orange, Pernod-Ricard, Corning Museum of Glass
(opening of the
scientific district - USA), Sunderland Museum of Glass (GB),
Disneyland Paris (opening of the district dedicated to the future),
Versailles castle, Musée d'Orsay (exhibitions, Paris), 15th
Industrial Crystal Glassblowers International Meeting organised by Arc
International, Cibavision / Novartis, Potel et Chabot, Caisse d'Epargne
/
La Compagnie 1818, Atelier BNP Paribas...
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Thomas
Bloch (ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, cristal Baschet),
Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz) and David Coulter during "Monkey: journey to the West" preparation (BBC - Endemol / England) |