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Hervé Sellin was born in 1957 in Paris. He started playing trumpet, then trombone and did classical piano studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris with Aldo Ciccolini. He obtained, in 1980, a double prize of piano and chamber music.
During the same period his father, great French trumpet player Pierre Sellin, introduced him into Jazz. So he started playing with great soloists such as Sonny Grey, Guy Lafitte, Gérard Badini, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Joe Newman, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Art Farmer, Barney Wilen, Clifford Jordan, James Moody, Chet Baker, Slide Hampton…
In 1984, he met Johnny Griffin and played in his European quartet for 15 years. Between 1986 to 1989 Hervé played with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater in many concerts and tours, and recorded with her the album Live in Paris.
In 1990 Sellin obtained the Django Reinhardt award from The French Jazz Academy for his activities as pianist, composer and arranger. In 1991 he met Branford Marsalis and recorded with him (Columbia/Sony Hervé Sellin Sextet featuring Branford Marsalis). From 1995 to 2000 Hervé toured with French drummer/composer Bertrand Renaudin playing on concerts and tours and recording three albums with him.
In 2001 Sellin recorded, live at the Bayonne Jazz Festival, a solo piano album, Thèmes et Variations. On occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Jazz in Marciac Festival in 2002, he performed a suite for ten musicians composed and arranged by himself. In 2003 Hervé played, with French accordionist Richard Galliano and a string quintet, on Piazzolla For Ever, an outake of the tango music of Astor Piazzolla, doing concerts, tours, a CD (2003 -Dreyfus Jazz) and a DVD (2006)
In October 2003 Hervé was invited by Wynton Marsalis to play two concerts at The Lincoln Center of New-York with his tentet.
In 2008 he released the album Marciac-New-York Express, by The Hervé Sellin Tentet (Crystal records/Harmonia Mundi), and got the award for Best French Jazz Album of the Year given by The French Jazz Academy.
Hervé works also full-time as a teacher at the Jazz and Improvised Music department of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.
Georgian theatre and opera director, arts manager and composer, David Sakvarelidze is internationally recognised for his innovative productions and for transforming the cultural life of Georgia.
After graduating from the Tbilisi Theatrical University, Sakvarelidze studied with Giorgio Strehler and Luca Ronconi in Milan; Peter Brook at the Royal National Theatre Studio in London; at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York and with Jennifer Tipton at Yale University.
Emerging on the international opera and theatre scene after Georgia’s independence, Sakvarelidze became the predominant figure in Georgian theatre during this period. Quickly establishing a reputation for championing contemporary writing, he founded the Caucasian Theatre/Lab to develop new writers. Sakvarelidze is credited with the emergence of a distinctive new creative language in Georgian theatre that became identified with the generation emerging in the newly independent Georgia.
One of Georgia’s most influential newspapers, Tbilisi, wrote of Sakvarelidze at this time “Dear readers, the future of Georgian theatre has been found.” This attention led to further invitations to direct across Georgia resulting in such acclaimed productions as Goldoni’s Marriage by Contest for Georgian Youth Theatre; Hanoch Levin’s Mouth Open for the Rustaveli State Theatre which won two Union of Theatre Worker’s Awards for Best Director and Best Performance of the year and Lysistrata which won three of Georgia’s most important theatrical awards the Duruji’s.
Opera has always been central to Sakvarelidze’s career and he was the first person to bring early music to Georgia with his Euridice by Peri and Rinuccini. Productions of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and numerous productions for the Georgian State Conservatoire followed.
During this period Sakvarelidze always composed, primarily for theatre productions, and through the popularity of these compositions he became a popular figure across Georgia.
His work in Georgia attracted international attention with the Times of London anointing him “At 28…already the godfather of an emerging generation of artists.” Such attention led to invitations to work at English National Opera in London; at the New York Theatre Workshop, where he directed Pinkowski’s Mint Juleps as part of his residency, and at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro Di Milano.
While in Milan he wrote a thesis on the future of theatre and opera in Georgia and the need to implement new working methods that would banish the old Soviet style of management and training. His advocating that only by adopting such contemporary practices could culture be improved in Georgia was sent by the Italian Ambassador in Georgia to members of the Georgian government who enthusiastically endorsed his proposals and appointed him general director of Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet Theatre. Productions of great operas such as La Traviata, Rigoletto and Tosca were mixed with productions of lesser known works such as Mozart’s Mitridate Re di Ponto and Verdi’s Attila.
Big scale public productions have included directing galas for Plácido Domingo, 60th birthday concert of Georgian opera star Paata Burchuladze in the Palace of Sports for 12,000 spectators and President George H. Bush’s visit to Tbilisi’s Freedom Square.
In 2017, Sakvarelidze founded the Tsinandali Festival that instantly became one of the world’s leading music festivals. In his role as general director he was instrumental in founding the Pan Caucasian Youth Orchestra that brings young musicians from across the Caucasian region together. Such work developing the talents of young musicians and actors from challenging places is also exemplified by his work as artistic director of the Sokhumi State Drama Theatre which consists of refugees.
Sakvarelidze is president of the Georgian National Center of the UNSECO International Theatre Institute. His awards include the Georgian Presidential Order of Excellence.
Anna Lucia Richter comes from a large family of musicians. A long-time member of the girls’ choir at Cologne Cathedral, she received singing lessons from her mother Regina Dohmen from the age of nine. She was subsequently trained by Prof. Kurt Widmer in Basel and completed her singing studies with distinction with Prof. Klesie Kelly-Moog at the Cologne Academy of Music. She received further inspiration from Christoph Prégardien, Edith Wiens and Margreet Honig. In spring 2020, the artist initiated a change of subject to mezzo-soprano under the guidance of vocal expert Prof. Tamar Rachum, who still mentors her and is now her authoritative teacher. An important step that opened up new opportunities for the artist worldwide. In March, for example, she gave a guest performance of Mahler’s Wunderhorn Lieder under the direction of Ádám Fischer in Düsseldorf at short notice.
Romanian Soprano Iulia Maria Dan’s “richly coloured, beautifully finished but still radiantly clear sound” (Sydney Morning Herald) has made her highly in demand in the most prestigious houses across Europe. This season, she makes anticipated company debuts with the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and the Opera National de Bordeaux and looking further ahead, she will make her debut with Malmö Opera and Opera de Versailles.
Dr. Hannah Chan-Hartley is a musicologist, active as a writer, program book editor, content producer, instructor, speaker, and researcher with various organizations, including Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, Detroit Opera, and the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In 2023, she returns to the Verbier Festival as Musicologist-in-Residence at the invitation of the Verbier Festival Academy and UNLTD, a role she also took on in 2018 and 2022. She was previously Managing Editor and Musicologist at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
Chan-Hartley is the creator of the award-winning, internationally acclaimed Visual Listening Guides (symphonygraphique.com)—a new kind of graphic listening guide for symphonic music. Since its initial development in 2015, hundreds of thousands in 22 countries worldwide have used and enjoyed the Guides—in print with concert program books (including in Canada, Australia, Finland, the UK, and the USA), through talks and workshops including at the Verbier Festival, and as available individual publications online. Hannah wrote a chapter about the Visual Listening Guide for The Oxford Handbook of Public Music Theory (2022), edited by J. Danny Jenkins.
Hannah holds a Bachelor of Music Honours in violin performance from McGill University, a Master of Philosophy in musicology and performance from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in musicology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has performed professionally as an orchestral violinist and loves to play chamber music. Hannah’s research interests include the social and cultural history of music and music institutions, focusing on the Europe–North America transatlantic context from the 19th century to the present day, as well as the performance and reception history of opera and orchestral music, about which she has written and presented at major conferences.
Born in 1956, Nils Landgren began playing drums at the age of six, before finally discovering the Trombone at age 13. Between 1972 and 1978 Nils studied classical Trombone at the music college in Karlstad with David Maytan , as well as at the University in Arvika with Ingemar Roos.
Meeting the legendary Swedish Folk-Jazz pioneer Bengt-Arne Wallin as well as the fantastic trombonist Eje Thelin persuaded Nils to move from strict classical studies to improvisation and to begin the development of his own approach.
After his graduation Nils moved to Stockholm to work as a professional trombone player.
He was soon touring with the most successful Swedish pop star of that time, Björn Skifs’ “Blue Swede”, who got to number 1 in the US pop charts with “Hooked on a feeling”.
In 1981 Thad Jones invited the Swede into his new big band project “Ball of Fire”, to take the lead-Trombone chair. Ever since that time Nils Landgren has been involved in most styles equally: Jazz and Rock, Soul and Hip-Hop, Big Band sessions, and by his own reckoning, hundreds of albums including such internationals stars as ABBA, The Crusaders, Eddie Harris, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Wyclef Jean and Herbie Hancock.
He recorded and released his first solo album in 1984 and made another four in Sweden before he was discovered and signed by Siggi Loch and the German label ACT in 1994, who today are the biggest independent Jazz Label in Europe. Since the first release “Live in Stockholm”, he has recorded and released 30 albums as a Leader and another 20 as sideman and/or Producer, all on the ACT Label.
1998 Nils started his long collaboration with the NDR Bigband in Hamburg, first as section Trombonist, then as Artistic Advisor, lasting until 2012.
2001 Nils was appointed Artistic Director for the prestigious Jazzfest Berlin, a position he held for five years with great success.
In 2007, Nils was also appointed Artistic Director for one of two Swedish Proffessional Bigbands, Bohuslän Bigband in Gothenburg, a position he held until 2015 when he decided to move on.
2009 he started the project “Funk for Life” together with his band Funk Unit, a unique collaboration with MSF- Doctors without Borders. This Project aimed at schools in the slums of Nairobi, Kayelitsha in Cape Town and Soweto Johannesburg, presenting them with musical instruments to bring joy and new possibilities to kids of all ages as well as raising funds for MSF and their tremendous work.
This project is a lifetime commitment for Nils and right now he is focusing on helping young men and women who are in need of financial support for their studies, for building a better future for themselves and their families.
2012 marks the start of a new era for the Jazz Baltica Festival, one of Germany’s top festivals ever since it started in 1991 led by founder Rainer Haarmann. Nils has been performing as a musician at this Festival ever since the start and in 2012 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Festival. Since Nils took over, the Festival has been the subject of relocating from Salzau near Kiel to Niendorf to Timmendorfer Strand, both at the Baltic Sea, and he has, together with his staff, managed to make the Festival grow from 6000 visitors in Salzau to 19000 in Timmendorfer Strand.
Nils has been decorated with two medals from King Carl Gustaf in Sweden, “Letteris et Artibus” and “Medaljen för tonkonstens främjande” and with the German “Bundesverdienstkreuz” by Bundespresident Frank Walther Steinmeier.
He is a Doctor (h.c.) at the University of Karlstad and Proffessor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg.
Nils Landgren: exclusive ACT Artist/Redhorn Music AB/Redhorn Talent/Redhorn Records.
After starting his career as a teacher, René-Claude Emery changed direction in 2002 and became an actor. He graduated from the Serge Martin Theatre School in 2005.
At the Teatro Comico in Sion, Les Artpenteurs and Le Pulloff in Lausanne, and the Théâtre des Osses in Fribourg, he has tried his hand at classics such as Le Roman de Renart, Le Fabuleux La Fontaine, Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Gorky’s Les Bas-Fonds, Shakespeare’s Macbeth, various Molière plays, Seneca and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex.
In a more contemporary vein, he has performed plays by Louis Calaferte, Blandine Costaz, Jean-Claude Blanc, Eric Masserey, Bastien Fournier, Julien Mages, Howard Barker and, most recently, Coline Ladetto and Jon Fosse. He has also taken part in a clown duo in a selection of classics of the genre.
In 2015, he staged his first professional production of Antonin Artaud’s radio play Pour en finir avec le jugement de dieu in the gardens of the Malévoz psychiatric hospital. At the same time, he writes for the theatre and has founded his own company: La Compagnie du CHARIOT-MIROIR.
Russian-American Soprano Erika Baikoff is in her second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. This season at the Met, she sings the roles of Xenia in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (debut), conducted by Sebastian Weigle; and Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, under the musical direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Other engagements this season include Marzelline in Fidelio with North Carolina Opera.
From 2018 to 2020, Erika was a member of the Lyon National Opera Studio, where her roles included Le Feu/ Princesse/ Rossignol in Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Juliet in Boris Blacher’s Romeo and Juliet. She was also featured as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s 4th Symphony with the Lyon National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Daniele Rustioni. Most recently, she sang the role of Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème, as part of the Verbier Festival’s Atelier Lyrique. In 2022, she will make her debut at Musikverein Graz as Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco.
Erika was a 2021 Queen Sonja International Music Competition Finalist and a 2020 Metropolitan Opera Competition Semifinalist. She is also the first prize recipient at the 2019 Helmut Deutsch International Lied Competition and the 10th Concours Nadia et Lili Boulanger with her duo partner, Gary Beecher. Other awards include the 2019 Career Bridges Grant, 2018 Mondavi Young Artist Founders’ Prize, and 2013 Bouchaine Young Artist Scholarship.
Erika holds a Bachelor of Arts in French Studies from Princeton University and a Master of Music from The Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Né à Hyères en 1999, Kim BERNARD étudie le piano dès l’âge de 5 ans avec Michelle MARY. Il rencontre début 2008 Bernard d’ASCOLI et Eleanor HARRIS et devient dès lors étudiant de “Piano Cantabile”. Il intègre parallèlement la même année le conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Toulon en troisième cycle dans la classe de Célimène DAUDET. En juin 2011, il obtient, à tout juste 12 ans, son D.E.M de piano à l’unanimité avec félicitations du jury. En mars 2012, il remporte le Premier Prix du Concours International de Montrond-les-Bains dans la catégorie des moins de 17 ans. Deux mois plus tard, il obtient le Prix “jeune talent” au Concours International d’Ile-de-France et remporte en août le Premier Prix du Concours National des “Nuits Pianistiques” d’Aix-en Provence, face à des concurrents deux fois plus âgés que lui. En mai 2015, il remporte le Prix Kurtàg au Concours International “brin d’herbe” d’Orléans. A l’automne 2013, a 14 ans il est admis avec dérogation au concours d’entrée du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon. Dans la classe de Florent BOFFARD Il obtient en juin 2016 sa licence puis en 2018 son MASTER II avec Laurent CABASSO. En novembre 2018, il entame un cycle concertiste au CRR de Paris avec Jérôme GRANJON et il est finaliste du concours CZIFFRA ou il obtient le 3ème prix ex-æquo. Il a joué au MuCEM de Marseille et a des festivals en pays varois cet été 2019, puis dans le cadre « Jeunes Talents » a Versailles (septembre 2019) et a l’auditorium du Petit Palais – Musée des Beaux Arts de la ville de Paris (octobre 2019).