Musical promenades - Mark Rothko exhibition by Max Richter

Max Richter stands as one of the most prodigious figures on the contemporary music scene, with ground-breaking work as a composer, pianist, producer, and collaborator. From synthesizers and computers to a full symphony orchestra, Richter’s innovative work encompasses solo albums, ballets, concert hall performances, film and television series, video art installations and theater works. He is classically trained, studying at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and completing his studies with composer Luciano Berio in Florence. “Memoryhouse”, Richter’s 2002 debut, has been described by The Independent, and Pitchfork Magazine as a “landmark”, while his 2004 album “The Blue Notebooks'' was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best Classical works of the century. “SLEEP”, his eight- and-a-half-hour concert work, has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Berlin’s Kraftwerk, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, and at the Barbican, London. In 2012 Richter ‘Recomposed’ the infamous Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, winning him the prestigious ECHO Classic Award, and an established place in the classical charts. In recent years Richter’s music has become a mainstay for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, including The Mariinski Ballet, La Scala Milan, The Joffrey Ballet, New York City Ballet, The Paris Opera Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Semper Oper, and NDT, while his collaborations with Wayne McGregor for The Royal Ballet have been widely acclaimed. His most recent collaboration was with Margaret Atwood and Wayne McGregor, based on Atwood’s Maddaddam trilogy of novels, premiering in Toronto in September 2022

Le Balcon was founded in 2008 by a conductor (Maxime Pascal), a sound engineer (Florent Derex), a pianist and conductor (Alphonse Cemin) and three composers (Juan Pablo Carreño, Mathieu Costecalde, Pedro Garcia Velasquez). Le Balcon adapts to its projects and concerts, not least the number of members, as well as the visual concept and its interaction with sound design and electronic music. The ensemble is named after the 1956 play, Le Balcon, by Jean Genet, which places the ensemble’s artistic and musical projects, much like the playwright, in the area of narration, language and representation.

The ensemble was initially located at the Église Saint-Merry, followed by the Théâtre de l’Athénée Louis-Jouvet, and gradually became a transdisciplinary collective, uniting an orchestra with a troupe of artists from many discipliness. Le Balcon creates productions from a repertoire spanning all eras of music history, with a particular focus on works from the 20th and 21st centuries. In its seven years at the Athénée Théâtre, Le Balcon produced numerous operas and plays, including Strauss’s Ariane auf Naxos, Eötvös’s Le Balcon, Levinas’s La Métamorphose, and world premieres such as Lavandier’s Le Premier Meurtre and Eldar’s Like Flesh.