Center Henri Pousseur

Violist and composer Vincent Royer is a native of Strasbourg, France. He attended the conservatory there before completing his musical studies in Germany. Early on Royer became interested in exploring new forms of musical expression and together with the pianist Paulo Alvarès founded the Alea Ensemble in Cologne – a forum for musicians to meet and experiment with collective composition and improvisation. In conjunction with comedians, dancers and mimes Royer and the ensemble generated numerous performances and set music to silent films shown in Europe and South America.

In 1995 as an artist in residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada, Royer recorded a repertoire of sounds on the viola, which he then used as the basis for several instrumental compositions with electronics.

During his stay in Canada Royer met visual artist Bob Verchueren and computer composer Gerhard Eckel and discovered a shared taste for the exuberant expansion of musical limits. Together in Europe they composed works based on the sounds of plants and vegetables as well as the piece “Traverse” for viola and computer, which was selected to be performed in Berlin at the International Computer Music Conference in 2000.

Vincent Royer has been invited to perform at numerous international music festivals throughout Europe and America. He has a particular interest in the works of Scelsi, Radulescu, Grisey and Murail. These composers of spectral music have all had lasting influence on Royer’s own work.

His meeting in Chicago in 2001 with Luc Ferrari, composer of musique mix and musique concrète, led to a close friendship and an intense artistic collaboration. Ferrari wrote three works for the duo Royer and Belgian pianist Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven, who have been performing together since 1998.

The duo Royer and Collard-Neven, with the support of the Centre de Recherche et de Formation Musicales de Wallonnie, the electronic studio of Liège, Belgium, premiered works by numerous other contemporary composers such as Suzanne Giraud, Fabrizzio Cassol, Michael Riessler, David Shea, Jean-Luc Fafchamps and Vinko Globokar.

Vincent Royer has received the “Prix Xenakis” in Paris and the “Bourse Lavoisier” from the French Ministry of Culture. He is soloist and member of several ensembles, including the European Union Chamber Orchestra and the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne. He also teaches chamber music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Liège.

His latest CD, recently released by Sub Rosa, features the complete works for viola by Horatiu Radulescu and received outstanding reviews in the Belgian musical journal “Crescendo” and the French journal “Le Monde de la Musique.”

(Source : vincent-royer.com)

• Quatre contre sept (2011) Quatre contre sept for viola & electronics
  
  Premiere on 15.10.11 at the Théâtre de Namur by Vincent Royer, viola

• Street Music (2009) For viola and live electronics
  
  Premiere in Köln in October 2009 by Vincent Royer

• Leere Mitte (2004) Leere Mitte for viola and electronics
  
  Premiered on 23.11. 2007 in Liège by violist Vincent Royer
  

• Métamorphoses parallèles (2004) Métamorphoses parallèles for viola, piano and live electronics
  
  Premiere : Bruxelles, Festival Ars Musica, 13 March 2005