Thomas Bloch (born 1962 in Colmar, France) is a classical musician specializing in the rare instruments ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, and Cristal Baschet. [1]
Receiving a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (with Jeanne Loriod) and a master's degree in Musicology at the University of Strasbourg, Bloch has performed over 2500 times and appeared on over eighty recordings.[ citation needed ] Notable collaborations (concerts or recordings) include Radiohead, [2] John Cage, Daft Punk, Damon Albarn / Gorillaz, Philip Clemo, [3] Marianne Faithfull, Tom Waits and Bob Wilson
Bloch obtained a master's degree in musicology at the University of Strasbourg where he studied with Marc Honegger. He currently lives in Paris, France. He is acknowledged as an expert in the following rare instruments: the glass harmonica, [4] the ondes Martenot and the Cristal Baschet. [5] He has given thousands of performances in forty countries and taken part in more than eighty recordings all over the world. He performs in genres that span classical, contemporary, jazz, rock, ballet, world music, theatre and film score/soundtrack. As a soloist of rare instruments, he plays the complete classical and modern repertoire (including Messiaen, Varèse, and Richard Strauss) and also ten to fifteen premieres from contemporary music each year (Michel Redolfi, Regis Campo, Étienne Rolin, and others) and popular music composers (Jonny Greenwood, Damon Albarn). He also performs in many recording sessions.
Bloch has taught ondes Martenot at the Strasbourg Conservatoire since 1992, is responsible for presentations of instruments at the Paris Musée de la Musique, and is a musical director for music publishers, for the Évian Music Festival (France) and for the Glass Music International Festival 2005 in Paris Cité de la Musique (France).
Bloch has performed for numerous movies and is a member of various ensembles. Among his many appearances and performances are the following: Amadeus (for the 2001 DVD edition), soloist in Milan La Scala (where he gave the first performance of the original version with glass harmonica of The Mad Scene from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor ) during a recital, and a tour with Tom Waits, Bob Wilson and Marianne Faithfull in The Black Rider (2004–2006). [6]
Thomas Bloch has been the recipient of some fifteen Conservatoire awards at Colmar, Strasbourg, including a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (with Jeanne Loriod). He was praised by critics in several music magazines and also in international composition competitions. Among other awards, he has won: the Classical Music Award 200 given by European critics in Cannes Midem, Victoires de la Musique and Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, four times best soundtrack during the World subaquatic Movies Festival in Antibes, The Choice of Gramophon, Best of the Year 2001 in Audiophile, and Choc in Le Monde de la musique for his interpretation of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Messiaen.
Bloch has recorded for a number of labels including Columbia, EMI, Erato Records, and Deutsche Grammophon. Since 1998, he has recorded for Naxos. His recordings include:
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex. Harmonically and melodically, he employed a system he called modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from the systems of material his early compositions and improvisations generated. He wrote music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, voice, solo organ, and piano, and experimented with the use of novel electronic instruments developed in Europe during his lifetime.
Yvonne Louise Georgette Loriod-Messiaen was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod.
The glass harmonica, also known as the glass armonica, glass harmonium, bowl organ, hydrocrystalophone, or simply the armonica or harmonica, is a type of musical instrument that uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction. It was invented in 1761 by Benjamin Franklin.
The Turangalîla-Symphonie is the only symphony by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). It was written for an orchestra of large forces from 1946 to 1948 on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky in his wife's memory for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Along with the Quatuor pour la fin du temps, the symphony is one of the composer's most notable works.
Gilles Tremblay, was a Canadian composer from Quebec.
The Cristal Baschet is a contemporary musical instrument developed in 1952 by the brothers Bernard and François Baschet. Models of the crystal organs range from 3.5 to 6 octaves and are made of 56 chromatically tuned glass rods. To play it, musicians rub the rods with wet fingertips.
Maurice Louis Eugène Martenot was a French cellist, a radio telegrapher during the first World War, and an inventor.
Jeanne Blanche Armande Loriod was a French musician, regarded as the world's leading exponent of the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument.
Monkey: Journey to the West is a stage adaptation of the 16th century novel Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en. It was conceived and created by the Chinese actor and director Chen Shi-Zheng along with British musician Damon Albarn and British artist Jamie Hewlett.
Philip Clemo is a British composer, musician, producer, sound artist, filmmaker and visual artist, described by Propermusic.com as one of contemporary music's most innovative artists.
Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine is a cantata by Olivier Messiaen for women's voices, piano solo, onde Martenot, percussion battery, and small string orchestra, in three movements. Its libretto was written by Messiaen himself, who composed the work from 1943 to 1944.
Ginette Martenot (1902–1996) was a French pianist, and an expert and leading performer on the twentieth-century electronic instrument the ondes Martenot, which was invented by her brother Maurice. At the age of sixteen, she entered the Paris Conservatory, where she studied counterpoint and fugue with the composer Arthur Honegger. She gave the first performance as solo ondist in Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, with Yvonne Loriod taking the solo piano part.
Georges Savaria was a Canadian pianist, composer, ondist, college administrator, and music educator. His compositional output consists of a 1951 piano concerto, several songs and works for solo piano, and music for theatre, television, and radio. Some of his music was published by the periodical Le Passe-Temps.
The ondes Martenot or ondes musicales is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player of the ondes Martenot is called an ondist.
French electronic music is a panorama of French music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production.
François Weigel is a French pianist, conductor and composer.
Lorraine Vaillancourt, is a Canadian pianist and conductor living in Quebec.
Guy Morançon is a French composer and organist.
Augustin Viard is a French musician who plays the ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument developed in the 1920s.