English version
Biography : Bloch Thomas
 Participation in the festival :
Biography : Thomas BLOCH Glass harmonica Thomas Bloch was born in 1962. He his known as one of the best performers on rare instruments : the glass harmonica, the ondes Martenot and the Baschet crystal. He also is a composer and a producer. His realm of action encompasses classical and contemporary music, opera, improvisation, music hall songs, jazz, rock, plays, film music, dance and world music. He has played in more than 2,500 concerts, in 30 different countries and has recorded more than 80 discs, for instance, the original sound track of "Amadeus" by Milos Forman (long version in 2001), "Vampires" by John Carpenter, with the British group Radiohead, in a tour with Tom Waits, Bob Wilson and Marianne Faithfull (The Black Rider), with the composer John Cage, the conductors Paul Sacher and Myung Whun Chung, in recital at the Scala de Milano or at the Pablo Casals Festival, as a guest soloist with conductor Antoni Wit, on the occasion of the centenary of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, with Marcel Landowski, Michel Redolfi, Michel Plasson, Arturo Tamayo, Jean Fournet, Manfred Honeck, Philippe Sarde, Manu Dibango, Lara Fabian, Emilie Simon (in the movie “La Marche de l’Empereur”), Thomas Fersen, Marie Laforêt, Zazie, CharlElie Couture, Arthur H, at the Opéra de Paris, in New York, Tokyo, Prague, Mexico, Bogota, Madrid, Brussels, Budapest, Bonn, Lisbon, Helsinki, Stockholm, Boston, Sydney, London, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Montreal. He teaches the ondes Martenot, at the Strasbourg Conservatoire, acts as artistic director of the Evian Festival and the Glass Music International Festival, collaborates to various musical works. He ensures the demonstration of his instruments at the Paris Musée de la Musique since its inauguration. Every year, he writes and creates a dozen of new musical works. He has been distinguished with a score of awards, at the Colmar and Strasbourg conservatoires, a First Prize of ondes Martenot, at the Paris C.N.S.M., in the class of Jeanne Loriod and he holds a master in Musicology. He has won the Classical Music Award 2002, granted by European critique, at the Cannes MIDEM, Victoires de la Musique and the Prize of the Académie Charles Cros, with Arthur H and the Bachibouzouk Band, four times prized as a sound track composer, at the World Festival of Underwater Image, in Antibes, Best of the Year 2001 by Gramophone and Choc du Monde de la Musique for his interpretation of Messiaen. Thomas Bloch has been the first pianist ever, to entirely play Erik Satie’s Vexations, a piece that last for 24 hours, alone and non-stop. He has played it several times, since 1984. He has in view a show with comedian Isabelle Huppert, about the crystal instruments and another one with soprano Natalie Dessay, at the Paris Opéra . Thomas Bloch has recorded under Columbia, EMI, Erato, Harmonia Mundi, Philips, RCA, Sony Classical and Toshiba labels. Since 1998, he has been contracted by Naxos and has released several discs as a composer and a performer : Music for glass harmonica, Music for ondes Martenot, Turangalîla-Symphonie by Olivier Messiaen, Classical Chill, Classical Heat, Mozart : Life and Works. He will soon record a Missa Cantate, of his own composition, for a male soprano (Jörg Waschinski) and symphonic orchestra, that is already a best-seller in several countries and is widely used as a sound track model by many TV and radio programmes. | |
