Claude Delangle & Swedish Wind Ensemble
Biography Claude Delangle & Swedish Wind Ensemble
Claude Deliangle
Soloist, researcher and pedagogue, Claude Delangle, one of the greatest contemporary saxophonists, stands out as the master of the French saxophone. Privileged interpreter for classic works, he enriches the repertoire and encourages creation by collaborating with the most renowned composers, including L. Berio, P. Boulez, Toru Takemitsu, A. Piazzolla, and promoting the youngest. Since 1986, he is invited saxophonist in the Ensemble Intercontemporain, he also appears as soloist with the most prestigious orchestras (London BBC, Radio France, Radio of Finland, WDR Köln, Berlin Philharmonic, Kioi Tokyo) and works with D. Robertson, P. Eötvös, K. Nagano, E.P. Salonen, Miung Wung Chung, G. Bernstein and many other conductors.
He is also invited to important festivals such as the Zagreb Bienniale , Présences of Radio France or the Musica Nova Festival . The Festival Musica of Strasbourg invited him recently to offer the world premiere of the programme “ Tango Futur ”, interpreted afterwards at the Festival Aix en Musique and at the Theatre of the Palais Royal in Paris.
Passionate for his instrument, he goes beyond the work of the soloist and frequents the Musical Acoustic Laboratories of the University of Paris 7. The results of his research on specific acoustics of the saxophone will be for him a precious asset in his collaboration with composers.
His recordings for BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Erato and Verany bring out French music while revealing new musical horizons from the repertoire created by the brilliant Adolphe Sax to the avant-garde works or the popular repertoire.
After obtaining several outstanding Premiers Prix at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris , Claude Delangle was appointed professor in 1988, where he has created the most prestigious saxophone class in the world.
Pupils of all nationalities long to receive this education, which combines concerts with the possibility of studying with important composers and offers a large range of interdisciplinary activities. In Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Asia, Claude Delangle is requested for interpretation courses.
He is currently in charge of a collection at the Henri-Lemoine-Paris publications, where he works for the publishing of new repertoires and for the republishing of classic works, not forgetting, however, the publication of pedagogical works.
During this season 2003-2004 Asia will welcome Claude Delangle four times: in Japan he will perform in a tour with the Metropolitan Tokyo Symphony, in Hong Kong with the City Chamber Orchestra, in Singapore he will record for BIS the great concertos of the repertoire with the Symphonic Orchestra of Singapore and will give recitals in China. He is also planning the premiere of Trame 1 by Martin Matalon at the Arsenal in Metz, a tour of recitals in Central America in July and concerts with the orchestras of Saint Petersburg and Novossibirsk in September. The strong point of his Parisian season will be the Festival Agora in June, for which he has been given carte blanche by the IRCAM (Institute of musical acoustics research and coordination).
Swedish Wind Ensemble
In October 2005, Christian Lindberg performed his first concert as Chief Conductor of the Swedish Wind Ensemble. Having worked extensively with the ensemble over a number of years as guest soloist, the transition to conductor will see Christian Lindberg shape the group further through a number of carefully programmed concerts, tours and recordings.
“Sweden’s reputation for wind players is as good as for its tennis players,“ commented Christian Lindberg, who has certainly proven than the trombone swings just as well as a good tennis racket. “Together with the Swedish Wind Ensemble we intend to profile a whole wealth of music ranging from traditional classical wind repertoire, via cross-over music to contemporary Swedish. "I have championed the cause of the trombone and brought it centre-stage, and in the same way I hope to show that there are no limitations to what a wind ensemble can do.”
The Swedish Wind Ensemble celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2006 and is one of the oldest orchestras of its kind in the world today. Originally called Stockholm Spårvägsmäns Musikkår - funded by the tramway company SL - it was founded in 1906 with 6 members, most of them employed as bus and train drivers in the city of Stockholm. Today it comprises 40 of the best professional wind players in Sweden, 4 percussionists and one double-bass player. The Swedish Wind Ensemble has its own subscription series, and additionally perform a number of high profile annual events such as such as Last Night of the Proms (a tradition since over 20 years), a summer-night performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana in the main square of Stockholm’s Old Town and the famous St. Lucia concert in December in the Stockholm Globe Arena.
Since 1985, the ensemble has continually worked with the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and its young conductors, offering them the opportunity to work on a regular basis with a professional orchestra.
Setting their sights further afield, Christian Lindberg and the Swedish Wind Ensemble are intent on bringing Sweden’s famous wind sound to as wide an audience as possible. In 2006, the orchestra toured in Spain and in Sweden 2007 and 2008. A tour to Tallinn, Riga and St. Petersburg is planned for 2010.
Christian Lindberg´s
achievements for the trombone can only be compared with those of Paganini for the violin or Liszt for the piano. Having premièred over 300 works for the trombone (including more than 30 composed by Christian himself), recorded over 70 solo CD:s, and having an international solo competition created in his name in Valencia, Spain, Christian Lindberg is today nothing less than a living legend. At an early stage of his career he joined Yo Yo Ma and Gidon Kremer as the BBC Music Magazine’s soloist of the year. In 2000, together with Louis Armstrong and Miles Davis, he was voted by an international poll the greatest brass players of the 20th century. He was the first Swedish instrumentalist ever to be invited to perform as soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. And in May 2007 he was artist in residence at the Musikverein in Vienna – the ‘stronghold’ of traditional classical music. Christian Lindberg has worked with practically every major orchestra and conductor in the world today. For a trombonist to achieve all this before turning 50 is, to say the least, remarkable. Lindberg took up the trombone at 17 inspired by the jazz trombonist Jack Teagarden. At 18 he gained admission to the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and after having played for only two years he got a position as trombonist in the orchestra of the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm. At 20 he left the orchestra, and has since built up a unique and impressive career as the first trombone soloist in history, as well as embarking on two new enormously successful careers as conductor and composer. At the same time, Christian and his wife have raised a family of four children, now grown up youngsters with their own careers. Today Lindberg´s schedule is fully booked for years ahead. This schedule combines being chief conductor of the Nordic Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Wind Ensemble with guest conducting of orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Milan, working on composition commissions from ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Swedish Radio Choir; and continuing his solo appearances with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, the NDR Orchestra in Germany and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Orchestra. Parallel with all these activities, Christian Lindberg makes sure he can devote some valuable leisure time to his family of four youngsters and his wife at their country residence on a peninsula of the beautiful Stockholm Archipelago.
