Press Enter to search
The pianist and composer Jérôme Ducros is a multi-faceted artist, performing just as much as a soloist as in chamber music, with a very broad repertoire ranging up to today’s music, in particular through his own compositions.
A much sought-after chamber musician, he is the regular partner in both concerts and on records of Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Philippe Jaroussky, Jérôme Pernoo, or Bruno Philippe… He also appears on the greatest stages such as the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Berliniker Philharmoniker, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus of Vienna, the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Centre in London, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Mariinsky Theatre of Saint Petersburg, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall of Moscow, the KKL of Lucerne, or the Tokyo City Opera… He also works with Augustin Dumay, Michel Portal, Michel Dalberto, Nicholas Angelich, Antoine Tamestit, Paul Meyer, Gérard Caussé, Tabea Zimmermann, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Henri Demarquette, the Quatuor Ébèneor the singers Dawn Upshaw, Diana Damrau, Angelika Kirchslager, Ian Bostridge, Mojca Erdmann, Laurent Naouri or Nora Gubisch…
Still little-known a few years ago, the music Jérôme Ducros writes has little by little become known and recognised by a growing number of musicians, above all since the publication of his Trio for Two Cellos and Piano in 2006 (Billaudot, coll. Gautier Capuçon). Since then, his pieces have been played by numerous performers such as Sergey Malov, Sarah and Deborah Nemtanu, Alina Ibragimova, Gérard Caussé, Adrien Boisseau, Jérôme Pernoo, Henri Demarquette, Gautier Capuçon, Bruno Philippe, Georgi Anichenko, Raphaël Sévère, Nora Gubisch, Laurent Naouri or Antoine Tamestit… Thanks to a series of commissions, he has had the opportunity to write virtuosic works (Encore for cello and piano), chamber music (trios, a quintet), vocal pieces (La mort du poète, two poems by Verhaeren…), or symphonic compositions. In 2013, DECCA bought out the first CD devoted entirely to his chamber music. In 2016, a double concerto for cello, piano and orchestra premiered with the Orchestre de Pau, Fayçal Karoui and Jérôme Pernoo. He has also produced a number of more theoretical works about musical language and its evolution, in particular a lecture at the Collège de France, delivered in 2012 at the invitation of Karol Beffa, and which led to a great deal of debate in artistic circles.
Jérôme Ducros’s discography includes in particular Fauré’s works for piano and orchestra with the Orchestre de Bretagne, conducted by Moshe Atzmon (Timpani, 2008); “Capriccio”, a recital with Renaud Capuçon (Virgin Classics, 2008); “Opium”, French melodies, in company with Philippe Jaroussky, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon and Emmanuel Pahud (Virgin Classics, 2009); Beethoven’s works for piano and cello with Jérôme Pernoo (Ligia-Digital, 2009); Guillaume Connesson’s chamber music (Collection Pierre Bergé, 2012 – Reissued by Sony, 2017); “En aparté”, with his own chamber music (Decca, 2013); “Green”, French melodies with Philippe Jaroussky and the Quatuor Ébène (Erato, 2015); “Intuition”, pieces for cello and piano with Gautier Capuçon (Erato, 2018); or Rachmaninov and Miaskovsky, works for cello and piano with Bruno Philippe (Harmonia Mundi, 2019).
Born in 1974, Jérôme Ducros studied piano with François Thinat, Gérard Frémy and Cyril Huvé and took masterclasses with Léon Fleisher, Gyorgy Sebök, Davitt Moroney and Christian Zacharias. The winner of the Umberto Micheli International Piano Competition organised by Maurizio Pollini at la Scala in Milan, he has performed in a large number of halls throughout the world and as a soloist with such orchestras as the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, the Orchestre Français des Jeunes or else the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, with such conductors as Alain Altinoglu, Paul Meyer, James Judd, Emmanuel Krivine, Marc Minkowski, or Christopher Hogwood…
Roberto Fonseca is a Cuban pianist, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and bandleader. Havana-born and based, he has released nine solo albums, collaborated across genres, been nominated for a Grammy Award and toured the world several times over. Along the way he has achieved the aim with which he began his professional career in the early 1990s: “Wherever people are, I want them to hear my music and say, ‘This is Roberto Fonseca’.”
Born in Havana in 1975, the son of a drummer father and dancer/singer mother, Fonseca started playing drums aged four and the piano aged eight. His tastes were always eclectic: hard rock. American jazz. Funk and soul. Music made in Africa and Brazil. Classical music. Reggaeton, electronica, hip-hop. The music of Cuba: Fonseca’s deep AfroCuban roots underpin a sound that builds bridges between the ancient and modern and takes Cuban music – all music – forward.
Fonseca was 15-years-old when he made his live solo debut at the Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana. He graduated from the Institute Superior del Arte and joined award-winning jazz outfit Temperamento, his collaborators for 15 years.
Fonseca’s 1999 solo debut, Tiene Que Ver was followed by 2000’s No Limit: AfroCuban Jazz, and Elengó (2001). He composed the soundtrack for Black, a film by French director P. Maraval, and produced an album for hip-hop act Obsesión. In 2001 Fonseca joined that famed ensemble, the Buena Vista Social Club ®, taking over from Ruben Gonzalez (1919 – 2003) then touring with singer Ibrahim Ferrer (1927 – 2005) then with evergreen diva Omara Portuondo.
After co-producing and playing on Ferrer’s posthumously released Mi Sueño: A Bolero Songbook (2006), Fonseca unleashed his 2007 jazz-roots solo album Zamazu, a landmark work involving 20 guest collaborators. 2009’s Akokan featured Cape Verdean vocalist Maya Andrade and American guitarist Raul Midon. 2010’s Live in Marciac was recorded at the eponymous festival town in southwest France.
Tastemakers eyed him: iconic French designer Agnes B began kitting Fonseca out in sharp suits and his trademark leather Byblos hats in 2006. British-based impresario Gilles Peterson asked him to arrange and co-produce the groundbreaking 2010 Havana Cultura project. Fonseca’s music has graced several upmarket advertising campaigns.
In 2012 came his Grammy-nominated masterwork Yo, a turbocharged album aided by 15 musicians from Cuba, the US and Africa. Among them, Malian singer-songwriter and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara, with whom Fonseca embarked on an acclaimed live collaboration that resulted in 2015’s At Home, also recorded live at the Jazz in Marciac festival.
2016’s ABUC told the story of Cuban music past, present and future with a sprawling cast of over 30 guests, and was released in the same year that Fonseca became Artistic Director of the Inaugural Jazz Plaza Festival in Santiago de Cuba.
Fonseca’s headline live appearances have ranged from the world’s most prestigious concert halls to his twice-weekly residency at Havana jazz club Zorro y el Cuervo (Fox and the Crow). There Fonseca and his trio – drummer Raúl Herrera and double bass player Yandy Martínez Rodriguez – develop and explore new compositions, so shaping much of Fonseca’s new album Yesun.
Released on Wagram on 18 October 2019, Yesun features guests including Grammy-winning saxophonist Joe Lovano, lauded French-Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf and rising star Cuban rapper Danay Suarez alongside retro-modern keyboards, electronic beats and AfroCuban rhythms. Having long proved himself exceptional (in June 2019 he was awarded the distinguished Ordre des Arts Letters from the French Ministry of Culture), Roberto Fonseca is making the music he has always wanted to make.