Nadia Ratsimandresy
Ondes Martenot / Composition /
Physical Performance
Soloist, composer, improviser and physical performer: Nadia Ratsimandresy embodies the figure of a complete artist whose work explores performance and composition as being inherently interlinked. In her own creative practice, Nadia has forged paths for the ondes Martenot, developing vast new soundscapes with live electronics and searching for inspiration from other fields. Woven through her work is her fascination with the notion of a “body performing” and the emancipation of social bodies, of repertoire, of sounds and textures, of languages, and of collaborative processes.
︎ Quentin Chevrier
As a soloist, Ratsimandresy has appeared with the Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, London Sinfonietta, and Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, among others. Her more “traditional” repertoire includes the key ondes Martenot works written by Olivier Messiaen (Turangalîla Symphony, L’Eau, Les Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine), André Jolivet (Concerto for Ondes Martenot, Les 3 Poèmes, Suite Delphique, etc.), Tristan Murail (Tigres de Verre).
︎ Alex Fernandes
As well as working with a myriad of contemporary composers, Nadia herself has created music for the theatre and dance, and produces many instrumental works, both with and without live electronics. Her exceptional abilities as improvisor, physical performer and co-director see her ever in demand for multi- and interdisciplinary works. She has shared the stage with the likes of Radiohead and participated in a range of collaborative projects together with dancers, actors and musicians.
She has performed as soloist at major contemporary music festivals including City Sonic Festival (Mons), UNESCO Week of Sound, Festival Electron (Geneva), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), Espace Gantner (Montbéliard), Festival Confluences (Paris), KLANG Copenhagen Avant-Garde Music Festival and venues in France, Belgium, Australia, Denmark, Italy and Sweden.
Recent
projects include a new double concerto for ondes Martenot and cello by composer
Seung-Won Oh which she premiered together with cellist Trey Lee and the Musicus
Soloists Hong Kong in Paris and Hong Kong, and a new piece by Grégoire Lorieux
commissioned by Radio France, written for her and the Arditti Quartet. In 2025
she begins a two-year residency with Musica Festival Strasbourg, creating an installation-performance
work with Rangalanga Tsilaitry Mboangy, exploring the contemporary effects of
Madagascar’s colonial history.
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In 2020, she was appointed president of Futurs Composés, a national network for music creation, and became co-director with Annabelle Playe of the AnA Compagnie in 2021. In 2025, she was appointed as Artistic Director of GRAME Centre national de création musicale (CNCM) in Lyon.
︎ Jacopo Baboni Schilingi
Born in
Paris, Nadia Ratsimandresy discovered at an early age her fascination with the ondes
Martenot in the class of Françoise Pellié and Tristan Murail in Evry, France.
After graduating from the Conservatoire de Paris in 2002, she focused on
chamber music and solo and interdisciplinary performance projects, keen to
develop new repertoire and forms of expression for her instrument.
In 2020, she was appointed president of Futurs Composés, a national network for music creation, and became co-director with Annabelle Playe of the AnA Compagnie in 2021. In 2025, she was appointed as Artistic Director of GRAME Centre national de création musicale (CNCM) in Lyon.
Links / Clips:
︎ artist website
︎︎︎Solo Album “Off the Beaten Track”
︎︎︎Portrait (in French with FR subtitles)
︎︎︎Pinta de cafe (video clip)
About the ondes Martenot:
Ondes Martenot is one of the oldest electronic instruments invented in the early 20th century by French inventor Maurice Martenot. Over time, it became widespread among modern and contemporary artists, including composers Olivier Messiaen and Edgard Varèse, and performers Thomas Bloch, Radiohead and Daft Punk.
︎ artist website
︎︎︎Solo Album “Off the Beaten Track”
︎︎︎Portrait (in French with FR subtitles)
︎︎︎Pinta de cafe (video clip)
About the ondes Martenot:
Ondes Martenot is one of the oldest electronic instruments invented in the early 20th century by French inventor Maurice Martenot. Over time, it became widespread among modern and contemporary artists, including composers Olivier Messiaen and Edgard Varèse, and performers Thomas Bloch, Radiohead and Daft Punk.
︎ Alex Fernandes