Jacques Burtin

• Name — Jacques Burtin • Birth Name — Jacques René Carlos Burtin • Born — 10 November 1955 • Birthplace — Paris, France • Genre — Contemporary classical, Ambient, Experimental music • Occupation — Composer, improviser, writer, film director, (experimental film, documentary film) • Label — Bayard Musique, Mara Productions, Studio SM

After studying Literature and Art at La Sorbonne (Paris), he was introduced to the kora by brother Dominique Fournier at the Abbey of Bec Hellouin (Normandy, France) and by brother Dominique Catta, composer and choirmaster of the Keur Moussa Monastery (Senegal). He began to compose for the kora, solo pieces as well as duets with Western instruments. His works are inspired by poets like Grace Schulman and Christian Bobin, spiritual authors like St. John of the Cross or Etty Hillesum, writers like Georges Simenon or Hermann Hesse, painters like Henri Matisse or Jean-Michel Basquiat, or photographers like Nan Goldin or Diane Arbus. He collaborates with artists, dancers and poets and conceives interdisciplinary performances. Jacques Burtin is also involved in improvised music and has given concerts based on improvisation with harpist Susan Allen, French panflute player Jean-Claude Mara, Japanese koto player Damien Harada, and French saxophonist Tullia Morand. In 1997, Jacques Burtin meets Susan Allen, harpist, professor of harp and improvisation at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts). From their meeting until Susan Allen's passing in 2015, they see each other on a regular basis to improvise, give performances and exchange on musical pedagogy. In 2007, they release the CD Renaissance. After the death of Susan Allen, Jacques Burtin pays tribute to the American harpist by creating a dedicated website with unreleased testimonies, musical creations specially written by composers of all horizons and unpublished videos of their Paris sessions (harp and kora improvisations). Between 2002 and 2012, Jacques Burtin gives seminars on Improvisation and Interdisciplinary Creation in the Faculty of Fine Arts School of the University of Basque Country, Bilbao, Spain, in collaboration with Spanish Choreographer Alicia Gómez Linares. In 2004, he is invited by the Paul Verlaine University (Metz, France) to participate to the Colloque sur l'Art du Peu (Seminar on the Art of the Few): he gives a solo kora performance based on haikus and writes an essay: La Tentation du peu (The Temptation of the Few). On 12 May 2006 his music is featured among the works of twelve composers from around the world in Sonic Channels, a concert hosted by the New School University and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Since 2006, Jacques Burtin also plays the gravi-kora and composes for this instrument. He gives kora and gravi-kora master classes and works on kora pedagogy. Jacques Burtin writes, produces and directs poetic and experimental short films as well as documentaries on contemporary artists. His films What damns me saves me and The Dialogue of Shadows were screened at the Festival de Cannes in 2011 and 2012. The Child of La République was screened at the Bilbao Short Film Festival Zinebi in 2015. Burtin is currently working on a multidisciplinary project based on the twenty-two Major Arcana of the Tarot of Marseille. An homage to his late colleague, harpist Susan Allen, this project explores the creative act via improvisation.

• Illustration — Kora sheet music (fragment of the score of One Thousand Sources, for solo kora, by Jacques Burtin). • Illustration — Jacques Burtin playing the gravi-kora, Ireland, August 2006 • 1986 – Ballade de l'île d'Yeu, for solo kora • 1988 – L'Annonce à Zacharie (The Announcement to Zacharias), for viola and kora • 1989 – Tant et tant d'amour (A Love so great, so deep), suite for flute and kora inspired by Georges Simenon's autobiography Mémoires intimes. • 1989 – La Passion selon saint Jean (The Passion according to Saint John), oratorio for tenor, kora and two narrators • 1990 – Le Maître du Haut Château (The Man in the High Castle), suite for piano, kora, saxophone and synthesizers inspired by Philip K. Dick's novel. • 1991 – Le Jeu des perles de verre (The Glass Bead Game), suite for flute, viola, guitar and three koras inspired by Hermann Hesse's novel. • 1992 – Ave Maria for soprano a capella • 1993 – Les Nus bleus (Blue Nudes), suite for solo flute inspired by the paper cutouts of Henri Matisse • 1996 – L'Amour – Musiques pour Thérèse (Love – Music for Thérèse), suite for kora, recorder, cello and koto • 1997 – Music for Michael Lonsdale's play Vous m'appellerez Petite Thérèse • 1998 – La Traversée de Bilbao, dedicated to Nan Goldin, for voice, saxophone and tapes. • 1998 – Music for Benoît Lardières's play Les sept vies d'Homère Petitbois (The Seven lives of Homère Petitbois) • 1999 – Où est ton coeur, est la musique (Where is your Heart, is Music), for accordion and kora • 2001 – Eloge de la Lumière (Praise for the Light) for kora, violin and electric guitar • 2001 – Apuntes de Eduardo Chillida (Eduardo Chillida's Notes), for a violin, a kora, a dancer and a narrator • 2001 – Six chants syldaves (Six Syldavian Songs), for cello and kora • 2002 – Music for Algis Arlauskas's film Carta a mi madre (A Letter to my Mother) • 2002 – Lumière du monde (Light of the World), improvised suite for synthesizer, sampler and a Tibetan bell • 2003 – Nouveaux chants syldaves (New Syldavian Songs) for viola and kora • 2004 – Your Shadow Will Shine – Requiem Notebook, electroacoustic music – a Tribute to Victims and Survivors of 9/11 and other terrorist attacks • 2006 – One Thousand Sources, for solo kora, dedicated to Susan Allen (musician). • 2006 – Days of Wonder, suite for solo kora, inspired by the Book of Poems by Grace Schulman • 2007 – L'Or jeté au fleuve (Gold thrown into the River), Kora Sonata No.1, in memory of Yves Klein • 2007 – Music soundtrack for seven art documentaries by Vincent Gille (on the works of Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Sophie Calle, Paul Klee, the Menil Collection...) • 2008 – Le Chant de la Forêt (The Song of the Forest), suite for kora, gravi-kora, flute and viola • 2010 – Une clarté, une voix, un parfum... (A Brightness, A Voice, A Perfume...), Kora Sonata No 2 • 2013 – L'Enfance de l'Art, Suite for Gravi-kora n°1 • 2015 – Le Silence après la pluie, Suite for Kora n°6, inspired by the work of Christian Bobin and dedicated to him • 2017 – Lazarus, for piano and soprano

• 1988 – Une Rosée de lumière – Neuf pièces pour kora, Monastère de Keur Moussa • 1994 – Le Chant intérieur – Pièces et suites pour kora, Editions Musicales Studio SM • 2006 – One Thousand Sources, dedicated to Susan Allen (musician) • 2006 – Diptyque du Bonheur, dedicated to Mary Ann Caws and Dr. Boyce Bennet (includes "Danseuse espagnole" and "La Vie lumineuse et lente") • 2010 – Joies soudaines – Oeuvres pour kora 1988–2010 • 2010 – Days of Wonder, dedicated to Grace Schulman • 2010 – L'Or jeté au fleuve, Sonata for kora n°1 • 2012 – Kora Noël, Eighteen Christmas tunes for kora • 2013 – Le Château de l'âme, Suite for kora n°1, inspired by The Interior Castle of Teresa of Ávila • 2013 – Une Clarté, une Voix, un Parfum, Sonata for kora n°2, inspired by the Confessions of Saint Augustine • 2013 – L'Enfance de l'Art, Suite for gravi-kora n°1, dedicated to Robert Grawi • 2013 – Le Fantôme de Haydn ou la Sonate sans fin, Sonata for kora n°3, dedicated to Philippe Sollers • 2016 – Le Silence après la pluie, Sonata for kora n°4, dedicated to Christian Bobin