After his diploma of composition with Michael Jarrell in 2006, Brice Catherin willingly stepped away from the contemporary music institutions in order to develop very freely a few activities: multi-instrumental cellist, improviser, composer and art performer. These activities fed into each another, so that beyond his multidisciplinary shows and improvised concerts, Brice Catherin has never stopped composing and premiering written pieces. These works often enjoy an unusual mensuration: long pieces (between 30 minutes and 10 hours!); original instrumentations, such as free ensemble mixing classical, jazz and improvisation musicians (all playing written music for these occasions), or pieces for an ?one-man band?, which ask one soloist to play between 10 and 35 instruments.

Next to these formally unusual premieres, Brice Catherin composes using traditional forms in pieces like: a series of concertos (for cello, for violin, for piano, for bassoon) with free ensemble, chamber ensemble or philharmonic orchestra, with a more usual duration (12 to 40 minutes); solo pieces with or without electronic (for cello, for violin, for harp, for baritone saxophone, for bass clarinet, for tuba, etc.); chamber pieces, with or without electronic; purely electroacoustic pieces, to be played either on a two or four tracks installation, or on specific acousmoniums.

These pieces were all premiered in Switzerland (festival akouphène, Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, Théâtre du Grütli, Théâtre de l?Usine, etc.) and played in both Switzerland and France (Centre Pompidou, Paris). Some of them are available on various labels (la Cafetière, France; Audioton, Poland) and a netlabel (Pan Y Rosas, USA).

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“Brice Catherin, the master of the quack-quack that goes tutut.”
Marc Olivetta.