Our regular listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:
Stephane Ginsburgh (b. 1969 — Belgium)
I first ran across this fine pianist a few years ago, while searching the web for information about Marcel Duchamp’s prescient, chance-based 1913 “compositions”, Erratum Musical — In 2001, Stephane recorded a number of his own interpretations of Duchamp’s score for the Sub Rosa label. A little of Stephane’s official bio:
Born in Brussels, after graduating from the Royal Music Conservatories of Mons and Liège in piano and chamber music he studied with Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, Pascal Sigrist and particularly Claude Helffer in Paris for contemporary music and Jerome Lowenthal in New York.
He has premiered many new pieces and been awarded the Pelemans Prize for his activity in promoting music by Belgian contemporary composers. He also plays with the Ictus Ensemble under George-Elie Octors. In 1998 he co-founded with composer Renaud De Putter “le Bureau des Arts”, an active group of artists dedicated to different types of expression and creation including music, dance and literature.
His two recent CD releases, Duchamp’s Erratum Musical and Morton Feldman Last Pieces were warmly reviewed by New York critics. As member of the le Bureau des Pianistes, he recorded three CDs with music by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Morton Feldman. Upcoming CDs for Sub Rosa include For Bunita Marcus by Morton Feldman and John Adams’ China Gates and Phrygian Gates.
Ginsburgh studies philosophy at the Free University of Brussels.
Stephane’s website has always featured some generous online listening to some deeply committed performances, of music from everyone from Beethoven to Bartok all the way up through Ligeti and beyond. Browse the CD links and you’ll find that many offer MP3s of selected tracks; browse the “Live” link to find even more sound files.