updated 8 April 2016

Wilfried Wendling

French composer, stage director, electro-acoustic performer, and filmmaker, born 7 February 1972 in Neuilly-sur-Seine.

Wilfried Wendling studied music theory at the Reuil-Malmaison Conservatory and then at the Paris Conservatory (CNSMDP), before focusing on composition, which he studied with Georges Aperghis and Philippe Leroux.

Fascinated by theatre from an early age, in 1995 he founded the Compagnie Prométhée, for which he composed and directed numerous interdisciplinary performances which were notably presented at the Amandiers Theatre (near Paris), Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, le Centquatre, and the Maison de la Poésie in Paris, where, with support from the French Ministry for Culture and the SACEM, he was associate artist from 2010 to 2012. He has worked with artists such as Jacques Jouet, Luc Boltanski, and Olivier Cohen.

Along with Thierry Coduys, Wendling established the group “La Kitchen”, for which he was musical assistant and computer music designer on several projects, including with composers Ivan Fedele, Jean-Baptiste Barrière, and Pascal Dusapin.

His compositions have been performed in France in venues such as Césaré (Paris), Grame (Lyon), les Instants Chavirés (Montreuil), and La Muse en Circuit (Alfortville), as well as in several national theatres and festivals, such as Musique Action, Présences, and Extension du domaine de la note.

From 2000 to 2006, he worked with Ensemble Diffraction, a group dedicated to interdisciplinary performance involving text and electronics. The ensemble premiered several “sonic theatre performances,” including at the Nuit Blanche in Paris, Opéra Comique, Théâtre de la Cité Internationale, the Gaité Lyrique, and elsewhere in France and abroad.

Since 2008, he has been working as a composer, computer music designer, and video artist with Roland Auzet. The two have created numerous interdisciplinary projects, including Deux hommes jonglaient dans leur tête.

Wilfried Wendling has also created several sound installations which have been featured in various exhibitions, including at the Cube in Issy-les-Moulineaux.

From 2008 to 2010, he was a member of the KERNEL Ensemble, founded by Kasper T. Toeplitz. As an electro-acoustic performer, he has worked with Denis Lavant, Hélène Breschand, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Thomas Fersen, Jac Berrocal, Pablo Cuecco, David Jisse, Natacha Musléra, Philippe Cornus, Hélène Labarrière, Sylvain Kassap, and Jacques Tholot, among others.

In 2013, Wendling was named director of Muse en Circuit, a national centre for new music in France.


© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2016

Sources

  • Site personnel du compositeur (voir ressources documentaires).

 

  • Solo (excluding voice)
    • elec Alchemy - Regard en abyme for harp and electronics ()
    • elec Alchemy - Regard en résilience for percussion and electronics ()
    • elec Iliade for clarinet and electronics ()
    • elec ALICE show for harp, electronics and video with texts by Lewis Carroll and images by Max Ernst (2001-2002)
    • Eschatologie street parade device, for 30 megaphones and 15 percussions (2012)
    • elec Intolérance show around the film by D. W. Griffith, for piano, electronics, acousmatic device and video device (2013)
  • Chamber music
  • Instrumental ensemble music
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • Auto-portrait sur excalator for vibraphone, marimba and guitar on a text by Eric Hervé ()
    • elec stage Je me révolte donc nous sommes show for soprano, actor, guitar, bass, percussions and electronics, on texts by Nietzsche, Camus, Musset, Ramonet... (1995)
    • elec stage Contraintes show for 2 actresses/singers, harp and electronics, on texts by Queneau, Roubaud, Jouet and the OuLiPiens (2000)
    • elec stage Coeur révélateur show for prepared piano, actress, electronics and video, based on the short story by Edgar Allan Poe and the comic book by Alberto Breccia (2005)
    • elec stage Ce que disent les voix show for electric guitar, actor, electronics and video, based on a poem by Luc Boltanski (2007) [program note]
    • elec Un Coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard after Stéphane Mallarmé, for voice, electric guitar and electronics (2012)
  • A cappella vocal music
  • Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments
    • elec stage Henri Michaux – Fracture show for actor, dancer, electronics and video on texts by Henri Michaux (1998-1999)
    • elec stage Hamlet Machine performance for dance, video and electronics, based on the eponymous text by Heiner Müller (2003)
    • elec Square 1 et 2 real-time musical installations by La Kitchen collective (2002-2005)
    • elec stage Deux hommes jonglaient dans leur tête live electronics of a show designed and performed by Roland Auzet and Jérôme Thomas under the watchful eye of Mathurin Boze (2008)
    • elec Arkhéion #0 - Les mots/sons for amplified voice, electronics and video (2009) [program note]
    • elec Arkhéion #5 – Cioran multimedia solo (2012)
    • elec stage L'Histoire du Soldat electroacoustic and video device of a show designed and directed by Roland Auzet, to a text by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz and music by Igor Stravinsky (2012), 1 h 15 mn
    • elec stage Ursonata (Cathédrale de misère) live electronic part and video of a sound poetry performance after Kurt Scwhitters' Ursonate (2012)
    • elec Tropique sound part of an installation by the plastic artist Etienne Rey (2013)
    • elec stage Fileuse composition and sound scenography for an aerial solo designed by Cécile Mont-Reynaud on a musical poem by Laurence Vielle (2015)
    • elec Space Odyssey sound for an installation by the visual artist Etienne Rey (2015)
  • Unspecified instrumentation

Bibliographie

  • Charles SILVESTRE, « L’orage humain avec la voix de Denis Lavant », L’Humanité, 22/10/2012.
  • Pierre GERVASONI, « Puzzle multimédia à la maison de la poésie », Le Monde, n° 20293, 22/04/2010.
  • Matihias KUSNIERZ, « Écritures du désastre : Olivier Aude, Wilfried Wendling, Nicolas Senty », Citizenjazz.com, 27/04/2009.
  • Pierre DESCHODT, « Wendling sur les traces de Boulez », Le journal de la Culture, n° 3, avril 2003 (disponible sur le site du compositeur).

Liens Internet

  • Site personnel de Wilfried Wendling, www.w-w.fr (lien vérifié en avril 2016)