Onceim is an orchestra of thirty-five musicians, all excellent instrumentalists, from a variety of musical backgrounds – improvised music (Hubbub, Zoor, Watt), jazz (Orchestre national de jazz, Umlaut Big Band), free jazz (The Fish, Die Hochstapler, Peeping Tom), classical and contemporary music (Ircam, Orchestre National de France, Ensemble intercontemporain, Le Balcon, Hodos, Dedalus, 2E2M, Links), experimental music and various other ongoing projects (Makhno, Cabaret Contemporain, Zombie Zombie-Lune d'argent) and experimental music. Onceim is also a collective that groups together smaller formations of the orchestra as well as its musicians’ satellite musical projects.
When he started Onceim in 2011, Frédéric Blondy sought to explore the contemporary research dimension of sound creation. With Onceim, it’s always about creating, innovating, freeing oneself from the limits sometimes imposed by instruments and classical music writing. Sound is seen as organic, matter to be moulded in several voices. In the individual and singular precision offered by each musician, then, everyone is at the service of the whole in order to produce a result that can never be known in advance and is necessarily collective. This new orchestral matter has been at the heart of what Onceim is about for more than ten years, with the common thread of experimenting with the possibilities offered by sound creation and the perpetual search for what can be done with music today, working tirelessly to discover new territories.
Among other venues, Onceim has played at Xavier Veilhan's Studio Venezia at the Venice Biennale, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Théâtre d'Orléans, MAC VAL, the Fondation Cartier and the following festivals: MaerzMusic in Berlin, Wiener Festwochen in Vienna, Sacrum Profanum in Krakow, Edition in Stockholm, Guess Who? in Utrecht, Moers Festival, Archipel in Geneva, VinterJazz in Copenhagen, Densities (Fresnes-en-Woëvre), Météo (Mulhouse).
After a decade-long artistic and curatorial residency (Les Rendez-vous Contemporains, CRAK festival) at the Saint-Merry church in Paris, Onceim has embarked on a new adventure since 2020. Now an itinerant orchestra, it is lending itself to repeated experiments with other places.
brass
Franz Hautzinger
Alexis Persigan
Jean Daufresne
Vianney Desplantes
Piano
Accordion
Guitars
Jean-Sébastien Mariage
Giani Caserotto
Percussions & drums
Antonin Gerbal
Julien Loutelier
Rémi Durupt
ElectroniCs
Frédéric Blondy, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
- After studying mathematics and physics, Frédéric Blondy entered the Conservatoire, where he studied harmony, counterpoint, analysis and composition. It is with constant curiosity that he explores contemporary and experimental, improvised and jazz, electronic and electroacoustic music. In his constant quest to explore music, sounds and all that is possible to do with them, Frédéric collaborates with numerous artists, including Joëlle Léandre, John Butcher, Otomo Yoshihide, Rhodri Davies, Lê Quan Ninh, Paul Lovens, Urs Leimgruber, Thomas Lehn, Daunik Lazro, Radu Malfatti, John Tilbury, Peter Evans and others. As a composer, he creates pieces in a variety of formats, from solo to orchestral, but always with a broad approach to instruments, techniques and writing. In 2021, he composed an opera for the Opéra national de Lille, the fruit of a state commission. He was resident at Villa Kujoyama in 2017. Describing himself as very contemporary in his relationship with the world, Frédéric Blondy created Onceim in 2011, with the aim of exploring the field of possibilities of sound today with the strength of a high-level musical collective.
Juliette Adam, clarinetS
- After obtaining a master's degree in clarinet and improvisation at the CNSM in Paris, Juliette became involved in contemporary music, collaborating with the creative music ensembles L'Instant Donné and 2e2m. In 2021, she joined the L'Itinéraire ensemble, working with composers Bastien David, Talia Amar, Michaël Levinas, Gérard Pesson, Jean-Luc Hervé and Martin Matalon. As an improviser, Juliette plays alongside Alexandros Markeas in Jean-François Peyret's play Le Petit Bréviaire, in the IFS trio with Quentin Conrate and Lucien Rapilly, in a duo with drummer Augustin Bette, and in ensembles combining improvisation and composition, such as Orchestre 2035 and the trio Les Certitudes with Léo Dupleix and Félicie Bazelaire.
MARTINE ALTENBURGER, CELLO
PRUNE BÉCHEAU, VIOLON
- Classically trained, she became interested in the Baroque repertoire and improvisation at an early age. As part of her Master's degree in "Lettres, Arts, Pensée contemporaine", she wrote a dissertation on the notion of the work and the place of popular music in the work of J.-S. Bach. Since 2011, she has been developing specific instrumental research work on the baroque violin and its gut strings: extension of bow uses, microtonality, sub-harmonics, timbral polyphony, etc. She is also a member of the Urs Graf Consort, Pancrace, Nope and la Peuge groups.
SÉBASTIEN BELIAH, double bass
- Graduate of the CNSMDP (Paris), jazz department, teaches double bass, jazz and improvisation at the Conservatoire de Reims; artistic director of the Hodos ensemble, producer of the Umlaut Records label, has been developing his work as a composer for several years, writing pieces for the Hodos ensemble, for the WARK jazz quartet, and for Onceim.
PATRICIA BOSSHARD, VIOLON
- Trained in Montreal, Geneva and Lausanne, she is a Swiss composer and violinist with a background in both jazz and electronics. In addition to numerous productions on the free improvisation scene, she is currently working on a project based on MRI sounds with sound artist Simon Grab; she also founded the Compagnie Dynamo (video, acrobatics and sound) with video artist Nicolas Wintsch.
CYPRIEN BUSOLINI, ALTO
- After training as a classical violist, he performed with the Dedalus and Diagonal ensembles, and with the Swiss ensemble Fratres, dedicated to music on early instruments; at the same time, he became involved in improvised music, where he found a wider field for experimentation and expression; he works in particular along two axes: the production of "multiple sounds", combinations of pitches and noises, and the exploration of the boundaries between silence and extremely soft sounds.
GIANI CASEROTTO, GUITAR
- Holder of five first prizes from the CNSMDP (Paris), in guitar, generative improvisation, harmony, counterpoint and 20th-century writing, he has also studied orchestration and Indian music; improviser and composer, he works on the relationship between writing and improvisation, learned and popular music; he performs as a guitarist, soloist or in several groups, in contemporary, improvised and even rock music; he teaches guitar at the CNSMDP (Paris).
PIERRE CUSSAC, ACCORDION
- First prize in accordion and improvisation from the CNSMDP (Paris); deeply involved in developing a new repertoire for his instrument, works closely with composers, ensembles (Aleph, Le Balcon, 2e2m) and orchestras (Philharmonique de Strasbourg, National d'Île-de-France, Opéra de Reims), as well as musical theater companies; performs on the finest stages in France and abroad.
JEAN DAUFRESNE, EUPHONIUM
- First prize for saxhorn at the CNSMDP (Paris), specializing in contemporary and improvised music; member of the WARN!NG chamber music group and the Opus 333 quartet, has premiered works by Alexandros Markeas, Benjamin Attahir and Claude Barthélémy; also works for musical theater with Frédéric Stochl and dance with Didier Silhol.
BERTRAND DENZLER, TENOR SAXOPHONE
- Franco-Swiss musician, great improviser, has played with hundreds of musicians and artists from other disciplines in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Middle East and the Far East; notably a member of Zoor, Trio Sowari and Hubbub, has released over 30 CDs on labels such as Potlatch, Matchless, For4Ears, Creative Sources, Leo and Ambiances Magnétiques; is also a composer.
VIANNEY DESPLANTES, EUPHONIUM
- A graduate in saxhorn and euphonium from the CNSMDP (Paris), he also took courses in ethnomusicology at the CNSMDP and the Sorbonne; an alboka player and musician in several traditional music groups, his literary training and taste for the stage lead him to collaborate regularly with actors and dancers from all horizons.
BENJAMIN DOUSTEYSSIER, ALTO & BARiTON SAXOPHONES
- A saxophone graduate of the CNSMDP (Paris), winner of the Concours national de jazz de la Défense in 2007, 4th soloist prize at the Fribourg international competition in 2008, he also won 1st prize for group and composition at the Keep an eye Jazz award with the group Actuum in 2010, and teaches saxophone at the Conservatoire du Blanc-Mesnil; composes for a variety of formations, from trio to symphony orchestra.
JEAN DOUSTEYSSIER, CLARINET
- Clarinet graduate of the CNSMDP (Paris), keen to multiply approaches to his instrument and diversify his compositional practices, is a member of Watt, pAn-g, Post K, Mico Nissim, The Coquettes; in 2013, he joined the Orchestre national de jazz conducted by Olivier Benoît.
BENJAMIN DUBOC, double BASS
- Improviser and composer of electroacoustic music, teaches musical improvisation at Sciences Po Paris; multiplying playing contexts (music, dance, theater, image), with a pronounced taste for literature and especially poetry, works around notions of the present, limits, fluidity and dilution, complexity and simplicity, developing a playing of remarkable expressive intensity.
RÉMI DURUPT, PERCUSSIONS
- First prize in percussion from the CNSMDP (Paris), winner of several international competitions including the Geneva competition in 2009, he performs solo and in various groups, both in France and abroad; a "sound scout", constantly seeking to develop his instrument, his playing and the repertoire, he takes part in the creation of numerous contemporary works (F. Bedrossian, A. Corrales, P. Jodlowsky, V. Cordero, J. Tejera, etc.).
ÉLODIE GAUDET, ALTO
- Trained at the Haute École de Musique de Genève with Nobuko Imai, then with Miguel Da Silva and Garth Knox, she has collaborated with l'Intercontemporain under the baton of P. Boulez and A. Altinoglu, and teaches at the Conservatoire de Clamart. Altinoglu, and teaches at the Conservatoire de Clamart; has taken part in early music academies, is a member of the Links and Hodos ensembles, and in 2012 founded the Europa quartet, focusing on 20th-century music.
ANTONIN GERBAL, drum
- Graduated in drums from the CNSMDP (Paris), teaches jazz at the Conservatoire de Rueil-Malmaison; influenced as much by the jazz tradition as by contemporary music, both written and improvised, moves between musical lines and categories; performs notably with Peeping Tom, Zoor, R. Mutt and Megaton; also organizes artistic events in Paris with the Umlaut collective.
JEAN-PHILIPPE GROSS, ELECTRONIC DEVICEs
- At the crossroads of electronic and instrumental music, Jean-Philippe Gross develops a physical relationship with sound, playing with ruptures and acoustic phenomena. He works for dance and performance, and regularly collaborates with Stéphane Garin (Dénombrement), Jean-Luc Guionnet (Angle), Clare Cooper, Camille Mutel, eRikm, Marc Baron, Jérôme Noetinger... Founder of the Fragment association in 2001, programmer from 2001 to 2010, he created the Eich label in 2019.
FRANZ HAUTZINGER, TRUMPET
- An assiduous collaborator with improvisers from the London scene (John Russel, Steve Noble, etc.), he asserted his language and his highly personal research, culminating in 2000 in a solo disc - Gomberg - which was considered a masterpiece by the specialized press. Using a quarter-tone trumpet acquired in 1997, he presents a cosmos of sounds hitherto unheard on a trumpet.
CARMEN LEFRANÇOIS, BARiTON SAXOPHONE
- First prize for saxophone at the CNSMDP (Paris), winner of several international competitions, she performs as a soloist and with groups such as the Opéra de Rouen, the Ensemble intercontemporain and l'Itinéraire; co-artistic director of the WARN!NG collective, she works with composers (Alvarado, Bedrossian, Durupt, Leroux, Mantovani, Pesson, Singier, etc.).
CLARA levy, violin
JULIEN LOUTELIER, DRUM & PERCUSSIONS
- First prize winner in drums, jazz and generative improvisation at the Paris Conservatoire, he embraces all genres and aesthetics, without preconceptions; his projects and compositions express themselves as much on the improvised scene as in jazz (Actuum, COAX, Jukebox) or contemporary and contemporary music (Cabaret Contemporain, Luna Maze).
JEAN-SÉBASTIEN MARIAGE, GUITAR
- Trained in improvisation by Patricio Villaroel, he develops new techniques and materials that allow his instrument to evolve, transcend and open up to unexpected sounds and unsuspected music. He performs solo and in various free improvisation, free rock, free jazz and noise bands, including Hubbub, Chamaeleo Vulgaris, Baise en Ville, Wiwili, X_Brane, Zoor and Oort.
FRÉDÉRIC MARTY, double BASS
- After winning first prize for double bass at the Conservatoire de La Roche-sur-Yon, he went on to study jazz, before devoting himself to improvisation. He then developed a personal language, based primarily on listening, with an emphasis on working with his instrument as a whole, both solo and as part of various duos and trios, or with contemporary or butô dancers.
ANAÏS MOREAU, CELLO
- Master's degree from London's Royal College of Music, performs mainly in contemporary music ensembles (since 2006 Nomos cello ensemble and Laborintus, since 2016 IMPACT and WARN!NG), collaborates with various composers (Tomas Bordalejo, Stefano Bonilauri, François Rossé... ), takes part in multidisciplinary encounters (text and video in the show Confession d'un pin maritime, Mouvement with the IMPACT quartet, musical theater in Kagel's La Trahison orale), teaches cello at the CRD de Pantin and leads workshops on contemporary music.
ALEXIS PERSIGAN, TROMBONE
- Began playing the trombone in 1997 at the Conservatoire de Nantes, where he gained his first musical experience in orchestras and chamber music ensembles. He passed his DEM in 2004. After a year at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatoire, he joined Jazz à Tours in 2006 and obtained his jazz DEM from the Tours Conservatoire in 2009.
STÉPHANE RIVES, SOPRANO SAXOPHONE
- A graduate in classical music from the École normale de musique de Paris, he devotes himself to saxophone and experimental practices; he plays with an electronic device based on the diffusion of his recordings, environmental sound recordings and feedback; he is also a composer and performer for dance; as a sound engineer, he worked at INA as a sound archive restorer and sound recordist for film and documentary; living mainly in Lebanon for the past ten years, he took part in the regional experimental art scene as a musician and technician, before returning to Paris in 2013.
JULIA ROBERT, ALTO
- Graduate in contemporary repertoire from the CNSMD in Lyon and in generative improvisation from the CNSMDP (Paris), she plays viola and viola d'amore. Member of WARN!NG, soundinitiative. Composer with Théâtre des Silences. Founder of the IMPACT quartet. First recording, Leonard for Tzadik, with Garth Knox. Prepares and transforms her instruments, with a particular interest in new music.
JORIS RÜHL, CLARINET
- A clarinet graduate of the CNSMD in Lyon, he works primarily in the field of contemporary music, both written and improvised: with ensembles such as l'Instant Donné or Hiatus, or in the company of improvisers such as Michel Doneda, Eve Risser, Antez, etc.; particularly interested in sound research, he explores the sonic possibilities of his instrument in minute detail; he is also a video artist.
DIEMO SCHWARZ, ELECTRONICS
- A composer and performer of electronic music, as well as an experienced improviser, he is a researcher and developer of real-time musical interactions at Ircam (Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique); he divides his time between composition and live broadcasting of acousmatic works, and improvisation, in duo or small formation; he also composes for dance and plastic and sound installations.
ALVISE SINIVIA, PIANO
- Graduated in piano from the CNSMDP (Paris); performs regularly as a soloist and in chamber music ensembles, while participating in several improvisation projects, with an inclination for the multidisciplinary; co-founder of the WARN!NG collective, has also produced music for several films, documentaries and live performances; resident in 2017 at the Villa Médicis.
DEBORAH WALKER, CELLO
- A graduate of the Reggio Emilia Conservatory (Italy), she is active in the field of contemporary and experimental music, both written and improvised; she has collaborated with Joëlle Léandre, Markus Stockhausen, Yannick Guédon, Philip Corner, Frantz Loriot, Tom Johnson and Wilfried Wendling, among others; she has been a member of the Dedalus ensemble since 2007; she recently premiered Occam viii, a piece by Éliane Radigue for solo cello.
Former Onceim members
Pierre-Antoine Badaroux, Félicie Bazelaire, Xavier Charles, Jean-Brice Godet, Louis, Laurain, Arnaud Rivière...
Onceim is supported by the association Babbel, which takes care of the administration, the financial, logistic and artistic management of the project.
ARTISTIC & MUSICAL DIRECTION
Frédéric Blondy
GENERAL COORDINATION & ADMINISTRATION
Clémentine Decraene
DEVELOPMENT & CONSULTING
Françoise Lebeau
DISTRIBUTION & PRODUCTION
Nicolas Emery
COMMUNICATION
Loli Melon
STAGE MANAGER
Aron Olah
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