Classique
Alexandre Souillart
Alexandre Souillart has become during his career one of the major figures in the musical landscape and a key player on the French saxophone scene.
Born in 1982 in Hauts-de-France, Alexandre Souillart studied in Paris. He has a degree in
Musicology from the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne and the CNSMDP. He holds three Master's degrees from the CNSMDP (Saxophone, Chamber Music and Pedagogy), a Teacher's Aptitude Certificate, and a 3rd cycle (DAI Soloist). He received several first prizes in international competitions (Societa Umaniteria-Milan; Cziffra Foundation) and distinguished himself in particular at the prestigious Adolphe Sax Competition in Dinant, Belgium, where he won in 2010.)
Since his “Adami Classical Revelation” in 2010, Alexandre Souillart has developed multiple projects and diversified his activity as a concert performer by blossoming as a soloist and also in several formations.
The fruit of a long-standing complicity with pianist Matthieu Acar, their compact disc Voyage Esquisse (2021, Label Paraty), brings together works of French neoclassicism from the first half of the 20th century.
In the field of creation, Alexandre Souillart participates in the development of the contemporary saxophone repertoire. His collaborations have led him to create works by Frédéric Durieux (Übersicht II for solo tenor saxophone, premiered in 2010), Philippe Leroux, Stefano Gervasoni (dedicatee in 2013 of Phanes II), Antonin Servière, Juan Arroyo or Alexandros Markeas in Five Bumbling Preludes, a work for four saxophones and audiovisual device, or in a musical theater production Une Autre Odyssée with the vocal ensemble La Main Harmonique created at the Arsenal de Metz. In 2018, he performed Pierre Boulez' Dialogue de l'ombre double for the first time in Taiwan and will be invited in 2022 to perform it again at the National Recital Hall in Taipei in an event dedicated to electronic music.
It is through the privileged relationship he has with the French composer Nicolas Mondon that he ensures the creation of a dozen works by the artist and that he creates the InSoliTus Ensemble directed by Javier Gonzalez Novales, a collective of musicians committed to the transmission and promotion of current works by working on new pedagogical vectors and an opening to other arts.
Performing on prestigious French stages (Cité de la Musique, Salle Pleyel, Théâtre du Châtelet, Auditorium du Musée d'Orsay, Arsenal de Metz), Alexandre Souillart is also a regular guest on international stages (Japan, Taiwan, China, Greece, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Finland, Spain, Ukraine, Peru, Colombia).
As a soloist, he has performed under the direction of Alexandre Bloch Résurgences by Michael Jarrell and recorded the Concertante by Marius Constant under his direction. He performed at the Cité de la Musique in Paris in Henri Tomasi's Saxophone Concerto under the direction of Graziella Contratto and more recently in Ukraine in Olivier Calmel's Concerto.
As a chamber musician, Alexandre Souillart has given numerous recitals in major French festivals (La Chaise Dieu, les Chorégies d'Orange, Festival d'Aix en Provence, Festival Pablo Casals-Prades, Musica-Strasbourg). He has performed with Parisian ensembles and orchestras (Ensemble Intercontemporain, L'itinéraire, Orchestre National d'Ile-de-France, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris).
His discography includes Voyage Esquisse (2021, Label Paraty), Monographie de Nicolas Mondon (2021 to be published, Initiale), Ténor, Quand tu me tiens (2011, Meyer, CNSDMP).
With a rich career as a teacher, he has given public courses on four continents as well as university lectures in Asia. His saxophone class at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental de Clamart (92) attracts students of many nationalities each year. A true crossroads of talents, the emphasis is on the development of identities through the practice of different types of current musical expressions via electronics and mixed music, composition, generative improvisation and openness to theatrical disciplines.
In 2012, he is the founder and director of the Académie Internationale de Saxophone de Bretagne, an intensive training where twelve students from all over the world meet each year with an international from all over the world meet with an international teaching team.
Excerpt of Voyage Esquisse to be released 9 July 2021
Photo credits: Mai Toyama
