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Sylvie Courvoisier
She has played and recorded with John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tim Berne, Joey Baron, Mark Feldman, Tony Oxley, Yusef Lateef, Dave Douglas, Joëlle Léandre, Herb Robertson, Butch Morris, Tom Rainey, Mark Dresser, Ellery Eskelin, Lotte Anker, Fred Frith, Michel Godard, Mark Nauseef among others.
She has been commissioned to write music for concerts, radio, dance and theater. Her works include:" Concerto for electric guitar and chamber orchestra" ; "Balbutiements" for vocal quartet and soprano ;"Ocre de Barbarie", a musical performance for metronomes, automatons, barrel organ, piano, tuba, saxophone, violin and percussion.
Commissions include the Vidy Theater of Lausanne, Pro Helvetia and Germany's Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival.
Her debut recording "Sauvagerie Courtoise" on Unit Records was released in 1994. Her second recording ''Ocre" on Enja Records (Music for barrel organ, piano, tuba, bass and percussion ) led to appearances on concert stages all over Europe. In the following years, Courvoisier released 6 CDs as a leader, and 10 CDs as a Co-leader, and more than 20recordings as a side person or as a guest.
Her latest releases as a leader are: "ABATON" with Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander on ECM Records (2004), "LONELYVILLE" with her new quintet on Intakt Records (2007) and a solo piano album, SIGNS AND EPIGRAMS, on Tzadik Records (2007).
Since 1995, she has been touring widely with her own groups and as a side person in USA, Canada and Europe including Jazz and New Music Festivals such as Berlin, Willisau, Donaueschingen, Banlieue Bleue, Saalfelden, Groningen, Visions NY, Nürnberg, Taktlos, London LMC, Bath Festival, Muenster and Victoriaville Festival, among others Sylvie is currently the leader of her own quintet "Lonelyville" and the Trio Abaton.
She is a member of "Mephista", an improvising trio with Ikue Mori and Susie Ibarra;" Herb Robertson Quintet" with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey and Mark Dresser; in Trio along with Ellery Eskelin and Vincent Courtois: John Zorn’s Cobra.
She also performs regularly in Duo with violinist Mark Feldman.
Photo Credit
Christian Ducasse
Awards
Awards include Switzerland's 1996 Prix des jeunes createurs and Zonta Club's 2000 Prix de la Creation.
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Sylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera
by John Sharpe
Even though pianist Sylvie Courvoisier has bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen on hand for Chimaera, the six-piece band is a long way from being merely the storied threesome, which made Double Windsor (Tzadik, 2014), D'Agala (Intakt, 2018) and Free Hoops (Intakt, 2020), plus added guests. As she explains in the liners, the music was originally commissioned for the 2021 Sons d'Hiver festival in Paris and was inspired by the surreal works of French Symbolist artist ...
read moreSylvie Courvoisier: Chimaera
by Troy Dostert
It says something about pianist Sylvie Courvoisier's current profile in creative jazz that she could assemble such a distinguished ensemble for her latest release, Chimaera. Augmenting her usual trio of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Kenny Wollesen are trumpeters Wadada Leo Smith and Nate Wooley, and with the always interesting Christian Fennesz completing the group on guitar and electronics, one would expect extraordinary results. And so they are--worthy of a lengthy, two-CD treatment, in fact. Courvoisier's work with ...
read moreSylvie Courvoisier / Cory Smythe: The Rite of Spring: Spectre d’un songe
by Karl Ackermann
Two daring jazz improvisers take on a cherished hundred-year-old classical ballet masterpiece with radical roots on The Rite of Spring: Spectre d'un songe. Igor Stravinsky was fresh off the success of his 1911 “Petrushka," which radiated with the artistic atmosphere of his Russia, when in 1913 he premiered “The Rite of Spring" at the opening of the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. The audience was divided into the Parisian elite in the boxes and the “bohemian" aesthetes scattered about the theater. Stravinsky's ...
read moreSolos & Duets: Dave Rimpus, Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson, Mingus and more
by David Brown
In a duo performance, musicians become instrumental equals. The interchange of ideas and flow of music is like a conversation. And for the artist who performs solo, there is no place to hide. Today, we present a smorgasbord of solo and duo performances from Coleman Hawkins to Colin Stetson, Sylvie Courvoisier & Mary Halvorson to Duke Ellington and Jimmy Blanton, Art Tatum to Satoko Fujii, Peter Brotzmann and Walter Perkins to Bill Evans and Edie Gomez and so many more. ...
read moreSylvie Courvoisier / Mary Halvorson: Searching for the Disappeared Hour
by Jerome Wilson
Here pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and guitarist Mary Halvorson come together for the second time on record in a set of amorphous, ever-changing music that combines their two distinctive approaches into something unique. The musicians' individual sounds are very complimentary as Halvorson's strums and swoops interlock tightly with Courvoisier's precise notes. Together they show a friskiness not often heard in their individual work. Their playing has a dreamy, disoriented surface that sounds like other-dimensional cocktail music and often embeds ...
read moreBrass And Ivory Tales
by Hrayr Attarian
Innovative saxophonist Ivo Perelman celebrates his 60th birthday with the release of a magnum opus, Brass And Ivory Tales. Recorded over a period of seven years, this nine-volume box set is impressive in both its depth and breath as it matches Perelman with a different piano master per disc. The improvised duets are usually the first documented meeting between the two musicians and the instant and rapidly evolving synergy is fresh and thrilling. Both remarkable and expected is Perelman's ability ...
read moreIvo Perelman: Brass And Ivory Tales
by Mark Corroto
Archeologists and cultural anthropologists theorize early humans had some form of music appreciation. They listened to the sounds wind made as it passed through trees. The breeze sounded different passing through oak than it did fir trees, and the sound was altered whether it was spring or fall. Then there were the bird songs, the first Lennon & McCartneys of the stone age. Early man replicated these melodies, with bones that could be whittled into horns or used to recreate ...
read moreJazz this week: Sean Jones, Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman, Roseanna Vitro, and more
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Even as presenters prepare to go into full holiday mode, it's going to be be a busy week for jazz and creative music in and around St. Louis, with visits from several major touring musicians in the next few days, plus special seasonal performances from a number of local favorites. Let's go to the highlights... Wednesday, December 2 Trumpeter Sean Jones returns to Jazz at the Bistro for the first evening of a four-night engagement in which he'll be recording ...
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StLJN Saturday Video Showcase: Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman
Source:
St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week, let's peruse some videos of pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman, who are coming to St. Louis to perform in a concert presented by New Music Circle on Friday, December 4 at The Stage at KDHX. The UK newspaper The Guardian in 2013 called them “both fine-tuned virtuosi whose projects sound like edgy classical chamber-music as much as improv or jazz." Courvoisier is a Swiss native, trained as a classical pianist with an early interest in traditional ...
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Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman Play National Concert Hall, Dublin, May 29
Source:
All About Jazz
Pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman will play the Kevin Barry Room at the National Concert Hall, jny:Dublin, May 29. Sylvie Courvoisier is a pianist, composer, sideman and band leader. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, Courvoisier moved to New York in 1998 and has lived in Brooklyn since that time. Courvoisier has led several groups over the years and has recorded over 40 records for different labels, notably ECM, Tzadik and Intakt records. She has performed and recorded with John ...
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Sylvie Courvoisier - Mark Feldman Quartet - To Fly to Steal (Intakt)
Source:
Master of a Small House
Partners in both music and in life, pianist Sylvie Courvoisier and violinist Mark Feldman share the marquee on their latest collaboration. Drummer Gerry Hemingway and bassist Thomas Morgan aren't just along for the ride and receptive to a deep rapport, the four create music of superlative communication and cohesion. Their configuration invites immediate chamber associations and much of the interplay leans closer to classical than jazz in general cast, but extemporaneous expression remains an integral element with starched-collar propriety left ...
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Cecil Taylor + 2: Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier Oct. 12 in Chamber Jazz Series
Source:
Kim Smith Public Relations
Kaufman Center Presents Chamber Jazz Series
CECIL TAYLOR + 2 MARK FELDMAN & SYLVIE COURVOISIER Merkin Concert Hall, Thursday, October 12, 2006 at 8:00pm
“...Cecil Taylor wants you to feel what he feels, to move at his speed, to look where he looks, always inward. His music asks more than other music, but it gives more than it asks." - Whitney Balliett
At 77 years of age, CECIL TAYLOR continues to stun audiences with ...
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"Courvoisier's playing is jaw-dropping at times, and there's an extended passage that features her working both inside and on the keyboard of the piano interacting with Rainey and the others in subtle combinations, and working up to a terrifying free jazz piano freakout that could make a person faint!" —Michael Anton Parker, 2005
Photos
Music
Golden Proportion
From: Searching for the Disappeared...By Sylvie Courvoisier
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