Cypres-records.com

Search:

Français

MERNIER Benoît (°Brussels, 1964)

Benoît Mernier was born in Belgium in 1964. He entered the music world as an organist, studying first under Firmin Decerf and later at the Conservatoire Royal de Liège where he was awarded numerous First Prizes and the Diplôme Supérieur d'orgue in the class of Jean Ferrard, whose assistant he was for several years at the conservatoires of Liège and Brussels. This was followed by two years' advanced study under Jean Boyer. Benoît Mernier devotes part of his time to the organ, both as teacher and performer. He teaches musical analysis at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Liège and organ at the Institut supérieur de Musique et de Pédagogie (IMEP) in Namur. He also regularly appears as a soloist in Belgium and abroad (Europe, Canada, Japan). He has recorded several CDs, one of which was awarded the Académie Charles Cros Grand Prix du Disque. He discovered contemporary music in Liège, through his contact with Claude Ledoux, Henri Pousseur, Bernard Foccroulle, Célestin Deliège and Philippe Boesmans, with whom he subsequently studied composition. In 1995, he studied at IRCAM. His works, which are played and often created within the framework of festivals such as Ars Musica, Présences, Wien Modern and Gaudeamus, have been performed by such musicians and ensembles as Michaël Schönwandt, Pascal Rophé, Bertrand de Billy, Lorraine Vaillancourt, Pierre Bartholomée, Patrick Davin, Georges-Elie Octors, Quatuor Arditti, Ensemble Modern, Quatuor Danel, Trio Fibonacci, the ensembles Oxalys, Ictus, Musiques Nouvelles, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Choeur de Chambre de Namur, the Vienna Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre du Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orchestre National de Belgique, etc. His works have won prizes both in Belgium and in other countries: Artifices pour orgue in 1990 from "La Tribune Internationale des Compositeurs" sponsored by UNESCO; Blake Songs for voice and chamber orchestra from the Académie Royale de Belgique in 1995. In 1999, his Clarinet Quintet received the Prix Paul Gilson de la Communauté des Radios Publiques de Langue Française. His Cinq Inventions pour orgue were selected by the Societé Internationale de Musique Contemporaine (SIMC) for the 2003 edition of its festival. These works are featured in several CDs released on the Cypres label (CYP4612 / CYP4613 / CYP1637), one of them having won the Snepvangers Prize awarded in 2001 by L'Union de la Presse Musicale Belge. Benoît Mernier is also a Fondation Spes prizewinner. Composer in residence at the Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels) during the 2002-2003 season and at the Austrian Carinthischer Summer Festival 2004, he has been commissioned to write an opera for Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, due to be staged in March 2007. His music is often characterised by a rhetoric of movement and agility, as well as its powerfully expressive and discursive style, coupled with a constant striving for gestural and temporal perception. Benoît's work as a composer is intimately associated with his activities as an instrumentalist. --- Updated: January 2006 ---

http://www.pelleas-artists.com/artistes/mernier.htm

Discography on Cypres

Benoît Mernier | Frühlings Erwachen (Ref.: CYP4628)
This double CD and DVD celebrates Benoit Mernier’s fourth project on Cypres and the actual publication of his first opera, created with huge success at La Monnaie/De Munt (Brussels) in March 2007. For his first opera, Benoît Mernier has selected a play by Frank Wedekind, who also inspired Alban Berg’s Lulu. Frühlings Erwachen’s tagline pictures the difficult moments of adolescence and the struggle between the illusions of youth and the rigidity of the adults.
» more info... |

Benoît Mernier | An die Nacht (Ref.: CYP4624)
Here we have a composer of impeccable, rock solid craftsmanship, a Romantic-inspired musician-poet with an instantly recognisable style. The programme for this CD, directly inspired in poems by Novalis and William Blake, includes two major works for voice and orchestra, punctuated by an interval of remarkable chamber music.
» more info... |

Benoît Mernier | Les Idées Heureuses (Ref.: CYP4613)
Jean-Michel Charlier clarinet - Quatuor Danel - Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles - Fabian Panisello conductor - Ensemble Ictus - Georges-Elie Octors conductor - Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France - Michaël Schonwandt conductor (CD - 2001)
» more info... |

Benoît Mernier | Missa christi regis gentium (Ref.: CYP4612)
Choeur de Chambre de Namur - Capella Sancti Michaelis - Olivier Opdebeeck conductor - Xavier Deprez organ - Benoît Mernier organ (CD - 2001)
» more info... |