Nadia Ratsimandresy
Ondes Martenot / Composition / Performance
Soloist, composer, improviser and physical performer: Nadia Ratsimandresy embodies the figure of a complete artist in the sense of Gesamtkunstwerk, perceiving music performance and composition as 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 and London Sinfonietta, among others. Her more “traditional” repertoire includes the 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), and many others.
︎ Alex Fernandes
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.
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.
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. Ever in high demand for multi- and
cross-disciplinary works, as a sought-after improvisor, she has shared the
stage with the likes of Radiohead, and participated in a range of collaborative
projects together with dancers, actors and musicians. Her abilities as
improvisor, physical performer and co-director are much in demand for
interdisciplinary works.
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Upcoming projects include a new double concerto for ondes Martenot and cello by composer Seung-Won Oh which she will perform together with cellist Trey Lee and the Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, and a new piece by Grégoire Lorieux commissioned by Radio France, written for her to perform with the Arditti Quartet.
In 2020, she was appointed president of Futurs Composés, a national network for music creation, and has been co-directing with Annabelle Playe the AnA Compagnie since 2021. Nadia Ratsimandresy is Associate Composer of Les Scènes Croisées de Lozère - Scène Conventionnée for the seasons 22/23 and 23/24.
︎ Jacopo Baboni Schilingi
Upcoming projects include a new double concerto for ondes Martenot and cello by composer Seung-Won Oh which she will perform together with cellist Trey Lee and the Musicus Soloists Hong Kong, and a new piece by Grégoire Lorieux commissioned by Radio France, written for her to perform with the Arditti Quartet.
In 2020, she was appointed president of Futurs Composés, a national network for music creation, and has been co-directing with Annabelle Playe the AnA Compagnie since 2021. Nadia Ratsimandresy is Associate Composer of Les Scènes Croisées de Lozère - Scène Conventionnée for the seasons 22/23 and 23/24.
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.
