• education :

  Emmanuel Séjourné was born July 16th, 1961 in Limoges ( France).
  After classical music studies at the National Conservatory of Strasbourg ( piano, violin, music history, and analysis), he is introduced by Jean Batigne, Director and Founder of the Percussions de Strasbourg, to the world of percussion, particularly in contemporary and improvised music. After studying percussion, he specializes in keyboards percussions†: vibraphone and marimba.

Since 1981, he has been active both as componist and a performer.

 
  • the performer :
  Together with saxophonist Philippe Geiss, he founded the NOCO MUSIC ensemble. Their album, Saxophone et Percussions, won the European Audio-Visual Grand Prix awarded by the Academie du Disque Français. To date, he has premiered over one hundred works by Donati, Dillon, Manoury, Aperghis, Fedele, Mâche, Pesson, Toeplitz, Stabler, Kerger, including concertos, chamber music and solo perfomances.

  Emmanuel Séjourné has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra with which he recorded the Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra by Camille Kerger. In 1996, he created Séance, by James Wood, for Soprano, Vibra-Midi and the New London Chamber Choir. His very innovative use of the vibra-midi opened new instrumental perspectives.

  As a soloist or with the ensemble Accroche-Note, Emmanuel Séjourné has performed in numerous festivals : Zurich, Archipel Genève, Ars Musica, Musica Strasbourg, Huddersfield, Ultima Oslo, the Zagreb Biennale, the Venice Biennale.. and for concert broadcasts by Radio France, BBC, WDR, RTA, Norwegian Radio.

  He has recorded for various labels, including Montaigne, Accord, Una Corda, Musifrance Erato and for the MFP Berlin jazz label. His next CD, soon to be released by Biber Records, includes an original work by Steve Reich, “Electric Counterpoint For Mallets“.

   Emmanuel Sejourne plays Adams Vibes and Marimba.
  • the composer :
  Fascinated by the relations between music and other performing arts, M. Séjourné started composing stage music as early as 1984. He has written pieces for the Théâtre des Drapiers, the Wallgraben Theater ( Germany), the MAL/TJP Company, with which he won the prize for Best Stage Music at the Festival d’Avignon off in 1985 for the show La Légende Des Siècles, inspired by Victor Hugo’s work. In 1988, on the occasion of the Bimillenium of the City of Strasbourg, he composed the music for Les Envahisseurs for the Ballet du Rhin. He also collaborated to musical pieces for France-Culture and for TV channels, including ARD, ZDF and ARTE.

  Acclaimed by members of the percussion community, his works have been played by Bob Van Sice, Nancy Zeltsman, Marta Klimasara, Katarzyna Mycka, Jean Geoffroy, the Amsterdam Percussion Group, Drumming (Portugal). His passion for the stage has led him to write and compose Planète Claviers for the Percussions Claviers de Lyons, a piece commissioned for the Festival Gramme, directed by Nicolas Ramond. This wild and unusual show has been performed over 120 times between 1998 and 2001.

  His Concerto for Vibra and Strings Orchestra composed in 1999, was created by the Orchestre d’Auvergne and performed later by the Luxembourg Philharmonic, the Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine, the Kalisz Orchestra, The Kozsalin Philharmonic (Poland) and the Novosibirsk Orchestra ( Russia).

  Eager to bring together improvised, contemporary and popular music, he wrote Famim in 2001, for the famous jazz pianist Michael Borstslap and the Amsterdam Percussion Group.

  In 2002, he composed a Concerto for Three Percussionnists and Harmony (a commission from Adim for the Harmonie of Héricourt), which has since then been performed by the Orchestra of La Coruna ( Spain) and the Rundfunk Blasorchester Leipzig. Always fond of blending various genres, he composed the music for the fireworks for the National Celebration of Luxembourg in 2002. On a request from American percussionists Gary Cook and John Pennington, he wrote Book of Gemmes, a piece for mixed choir and two percussionists, created on November 20th 2003 in Louisville, USA.
  • the pedagogue :
  Eager to share and communicate his passion, Emmanuel Séjourné is also Head of the Percussions Department of the Strasbourg Conservatory, in charge of pedagogy. He teaches a class of keyboard percussions, the only advanced level course in this field in France.

   He is the author of a vibraphone method (Editions Leduc) and of several pieces for percussion (Edition Lemoine, Honeyrock, Combre, Zimmermann, Alfonce Percussions).   He was nominated Pedagogic Adviser to the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs, for the preparation of the 94/95 Teaching Certificate. His Master Classes are extremely sucessful in every major music conservatories in Europe, Asia an the USA.

  He is often invited to sit on jurys for numerous international competitions (Interpretation competitions of Geneva, Luxembourg Percussion Competition, Marimba International Japan Competition…)

  • projects :
  Emmanuel Séjourné is currently composing a work for the Taiwanese Ju Percussion Group (to be premiered on March 28th, 2004 in Taiwan) as well as a musical comedy commissioned by the Théâtre National du Luxembourg (opening in 2005).