LARTIGAU Cécile

Cecile Lartigau is a singular artist, playing the ondes Martenot. She is fascinated by the John Cage’s philosophy which opens a way toward an emancipation of the performer. That creates and extends her triple vocation as performer, improviser and musicologist, three activities that merge into a single desire for creation. She is currently one of the most rigorous musician in respect of musical scores and asserting at the same time a powerful and recognizable artistic identity.

As an involved performer, Cecile plays the major works for ondes, in solo, chamber music, concertos and also the masterpieces of Olivier Messiaen. She likes to introduce the repertoire for her instrument in atypical and intimate venues as the Perm State Art Gallery (RU) or La Chapelle du Croisty (FR). She is invested in the microtonale music and realised the French Premiere and the first world recording for the Label Shiiin of the Fourth symphonic Fragment for Ondes Martenot and four pianos tuned in quarter tones by Ivan Wyschnegradsky.
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Searching new sounds, Cecile improvises and explores different ways alongside Alexandros Markeas, Vincent Lê Quang, Joëlle Leandre among others. Since 2018, she performs in Everything that happened and would happen, the new production of Heiner Goebbels. She is part of several bands including a trio drums-accordion-ondes and The Mayfield, the new band of Goebbels.
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Cecile has played all over Europe (France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Austria…) as well as United States and Russia with leading conductors as Teodor Currentzis, Kazushi Ono, Valentin Uryupin and Jean Deroyer. She performed with MusicAeterna, the orchestra of the Opera of Lyon, and also worked with the choregrapher Saburo Teshigawara. She has taken part of famous festivals as Festival Résonance (FR), RuhrTriennale (DE), Diaghilev Festival (RU), Transeuropa (IT).
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She is graduated of the Paris and Lyon Conservatoires, and supported by the Fondation de France, Fondation Meyer and Mécénat Musical Société Générale. She is the holder of a Master’s degree in ondes Martenot and in musicology, working on the indetermination in the musical pieces of John Cage. She gave lectures and wrote articles on contemporary music for several festivals.
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Recently, Cecile has rediscover the first work composed for the ondes by the Greek composer Dimitrios Levidis and she is currently the only one playing it throughout the world. It is a masterpiece for ondes and orchestra called Symphonic Poeme, and in a mixed aesthetic sometimes sounding with oriental colours, sometimes close to French early 20th music.