Benoit Albert
As a solo guitarist, chamber musician and composer, French guitarist Benoît Albert is a unique and versatile presence in the world of classical guitar.
Benoît Albert grew up in Charente, in a Southwest region of France. As a very young man he was inspired by pop, progressive rock and classical music. Later, at the age of 14, he decided to study classical guitar. He acquired his formal education at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he graduated with top honors. His teachers were Olivier Chassain and Carel Harms for the guitar, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Christophe Coin, Christian Ivaldi, Jean-Guilhem Queyras and Laszlo Hadady for the chamber music, Frederic Durieux for musical analysis and Patrice De Faccio for the musical style studies and writing.
As a performer, Albert has toured Europe, Venezuela, the US, and Malaysia.
He has co-created productions involving modern dance (Laurène Albert, PM4 project), paintings (Paul Storey and Pierre Cambon), and chamber music (Les Frères Méduses, La Compagnie des Arts and Suonatori).
His solo concerts are crafted around historical guitars illustrating musical periods and styles : his « Guitar Triptych » project features a Stauffer romantic guitar from 1827, an american parlor Martin guitar from 1905 and a modern classical guitar built by Erik-Pierre Hofmann in 2013.
As a composer, Albert describes his musical language as modal with a broad rhythmical spectrum reflecting popular music influences from Eastern Europe and North/South America as well as French impressionistic music and electronic music. He began writing music for his ensemble « La Compagnie des Arts » in 2003 and continues to do so even today. His works include composition for solo instruments like english horn, violin, bass clarinet or guitar and for various chamber music ensembles with guitar. He also likes to create electronic music manipulating sound samples.
His compositions for solo and chamber music are published by Les Productions d’Oz (Canada).
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