BIO

Fabrizio Cassol

Composer and saxophonist with the group Aka Moon for 30 years, the saxophonist, jazzman and composer Fabrizio Cassol regularly collaborates with choreographers such as Alain Platel (vsprs, based on Monteverdi’s Vespers; pitié! based on the St Matthew Passion by Bach; Coup Fatal, a blend of Congolese and baroque music; Requiem pour L. and the choral project Coup de Chœurs), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas), Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio (MAU), and Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula (Studios Kabako). In opera, he has worked with composer Philippe

Boesmans and director Luc Bondy; in theatre, with South African director Brett Bailey and the group Third World Bunfight for Macbeth, TJ Stan and Lisaboa Houbrechts (I Silenti). From 2005 to 2016, he collaborated with the KVS / Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels under the direction of Jan Goossens; between 2000 and 2007, he was in residence at La Monnaie / De Munt, Brussels’ opera house, under the direction of Bernard Foccroulle. From 2012 to 2015, he was in

residence at the Royaumont Foundation, where he continued his study of world cultures. Since 2014, he has been associated with the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, under the direction of Julie Chenot. He has been artistic director since 2015 at the Aix-en-Provence Festival of Lyric Art, for the oral traditions section of the OJM. His interest in non-European music emerged from a stay with the Aka Pygmies of the Central African Republic in 1992, after which he also developed a close relationship with Asia and Africa. He has notably worked with Malian diva Oumou Sangaré, griot Baba Sissoko and the

Black Machine, Indian master percussionist U.K. Sivaraman, and Senegalese artist Doudou N’diaye Rose. With DJ Grazzhoppa, he created the first big band of fourteen DJs and, with instrument maker François Louis, participated in the design of the Aulochrome, the first chromatically polyphonic wind instrument. His practice of combining oral and written traditions, from chamber music to symphonic works, leads him to regularly give workshops and masterclasses around the world.