...mikrokosmos

MIKROKOSMOS
France

A passion for contemporary music

Mikrokosmos was originally a mixed children's choir, then a girls' choir created by Loïc Pierre in 1989. Keeping its youthfulness but with the wish to enlarge its repertoire, Mikrokosmos became in 1997 a young mixed choir but with no less ambitious and passionate aims : to explore the best unaccompanied works of the 20th and 21st centuries and to enrich it with new compositions. They also contribute to the renewal and dynamic of French choral singing having commissioned notable contemporary composers such as Vélijo Tormis, Nicolas Bacri, Philippe Hersant, and Patrick Burgan.

A place to create, to heighten awareness, but also to teach contemporary repertoire, this choir of 38 young singers aged from 16 to 30 shares its emotions and talent with prestigious soloists like Michel Portal, Pascal Gallois, Cécile Daroux or Laurent Korcia. Mikroksmos is based in central France where they perform regularly and where most of the singers hail from, but they are naturally available for the rest of France and abroad : Châtelet Theatre in Paris, Villa Médicis in Rome, touring in Mexico and soon in the Baltic Countries.

Awarded three distinctions in 2002 by the international competition in Debrecen in Hungary, they have recently been generously rewarded at the 33rd Florilege Vocal in Tours 2004 (first prize in all categories, first prize for a mixed choir and Grand Prix from the city of Tours). They have achieved an exceptional standard in the interpretation of this century's music : with jubilation and command and with obvious pleasure the singers join their voices with instrumental intervention, for a result that is visually impressive and quite magical.

Loïc Pierre is multi-talented and is both the source and the heart of this choir. Always in search of a beautiful sound, he explores domains where the voice sometimes disappears - sound passing through industrial waste - or responds to the demands of visual images - music for silent films and musical theatre. The conductor often gives up his place to the producer and the composer, fascinated by the origin of sound and passionate about contemporary art. With Mikrokosmos, the Harmonium company and other ensembles, he is the originator of new commissions and encourages young french composers to concentrate on unaccompanied choral singing offering them with his choir an exceptional instrument.

Programme
- French music : Berlioz, Fauré / Branciard, Ravel/Gottwald, Hersant, Labarsouque.
- European and American music: Whitacre, Tormis, Rachmaninov, Kernis, Mantyjarvi, Stucky, Bernstein.

Gala Concert : Friday 29th October - 20h30 - Saint-Lô Ste Croix Church
Concert 1h00 : Saturday 30th October - 17h30 - Saint-Lô Ste Croix Church
Concert 1h30: Sunday 31st October - 20h30 - Church of Saint Pierre Eglise


http://www.mikrokosmos.asso.fr/