The Ensemble Court-circuit was founded in 1991 by Philippe Hurel and Pierre-André Valade. The impressive talent of its musicians drove the ensemble rapidly to the forefront of the contemporary music scene, along with premiers of works by a number of composers including Tristan Murail, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Leroux, Martin Matalon, Philippe Hurel, Mauro Lanza, Cecilia Ore, Knut Vaage, Christoph Saude, Daniel D’Adamo, Alexandros Markéas, Roger Reynolds, and Joshua Fineberg. Aside from concerts given in France (at Ircam, Radio-France, the Théâtre Châtelet, the Cité de la Musique, the Auditorium du Louvre, the CNSMDP, the Strasbourg Musica festival, Festival d’Aix en Provence, the 38èmes Rugissants, Aspects de la musique contemporaine in Caen, the Arsenal de Metz, the Maison de la musique de Nanterre, Château de Versailles, and the Collectif et Compagnie d’Annecy), the Ensemble Court-circuit is associated with the Bergen BIT-20 ensemble, and the Recherche ensemble from Freiburg, as part of the “Projet-Fondation3” international exchange programme.
The Ensemble Court-circuit appears as a regularly invited guest of several international festivals, notably those in Witten, Darmstadt, Oslo (Ultima), Bergen (MusicFactory), Helsinki, Trondheim, Vilnius (Gaida), Tallinn (Nyyd), Regio-Emilia, Vienna (Wien Modern), Warsaw (Warsaw Autumn), Rome (Roma Europa), Alicante, and Parma (Traiettorie). With recordings of works by Tristan Murail, Philippe Leroux, Thierry Blondeau, Gérard Grisey, Daniel d’Adamo, Philippe Hurel, and Joshua Fineberg to its credit, the Ensemble Court-circuit is currently recording a CD that brings together a number of pieces written in memory of Gérard Grisey.
The Ensemble Court-circuit is subsidized by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Île de-France (Ministère de la culture et de la communication). Its action is financed by the région lle-de-France as part of the assistance for artistic and cultural permanence. The Ensemble Court-circuit also receives support from SACEM, SPEDIDAM, CNM and MMC. SPEDIDAM is a collection and distribution company that manages the rights of performers in the recording, distribution and reuse of recorded performances.
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