Didier Aschour
GMEA – National Center for Music Creation of Albi-Tarn
— Presentation
Saturday, 26 Sept 17:00 / MX
What does it take to create the conditions for experimental music to exist — not only as a concert, but as research, production and long-term artistic work?
Founded in 1981, GMEA – National Center for Music Creation of Albi-Tarn is one of France’s National Centers for Music Creation, a network certified by the French Ministry of Culture. Based in Albi, in the Occitanie region, GMEA supports contemporary experimental sound practices through artistic commissions, residencies, the production of new works and research. Rather than focusing on a single musical language or format, the centre works across emerging and experimental forms, creating the conditions in which artists can develop new approaches to sound and music. Its activity also extends to education, mediation and transmission, connecting artistic research with different publics.
At SIMULTAN, Didier Aschour, director of GMEA since 2016, offers a view from inside this model: a chance to think about what artists need beyond the moment of performance, how institutions can make room for processes without predetermined outcomes, and what it means to sustain experimental practice over time.
Didier Aschour is a guitarist and composer, born in Paris in 1967. His compositional practice frequently crosses into other disciplines, developing acoustic devices that question the relationship between music and sound phenomena. Since 1996, he has directed the DEDALUS ensemble, dedicated to open scores and experimental contemporary music. He was a laureate of the Institut Français Hors les Murs residency in the United States and a resident at Villa Kujoyama in Japan. Since September 2016, he has directed GMEA – National Center for Music Creation of Albi-Tarn.