RENDEZ-VOUS :
- Wednesday, March 29 - 8:30 p.m. - Artplexe 7
The filmmaker Marie-Hélène Panisset, an Academy Award nominee, invites us to a mesmerizing performance featuring the multi-instrumentalist and composer Charles Papasoff, and the talented artists Dawn Tyler Watson, Matt Herskowitz, Sam Favreau, Cedrick Bec, and Lévon Minassian, a musician from Marseilles known as one of the world's greatest duduk players. Together, they will cover the music of a dozen cinematic gems in an attempt to answer a question that many great artists have asked themselves for over a thousand years: does love prevail over power?
By revisiting the soundtracks of emblematic films, such as Baghdad Café, In The Mood For Love, Mon Roi, and Moulin Rouge, the artists from both sides of the Atlantic promise to captivate us during an evening that is bound to be magical.
Les participants
Charles Papasoff
Charles Papasoff is an artist with many talents : multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, producer and actor. His recent work include Captures d’audace, a series of height short musical films, each with his own personal touch and the music of Two Straight Girls @ a Queer Fest, the feature film directed by Marie-Hélène Panisset. He also recorded Contrebasse & marées II by Mathieu Désy and Darkly Bright, Conversations with Shakespeare and, as an actor, starred in Une Affaire criminelle and La faille III.
Dawn Tyler Watson
Full of a luxuriant energy, Dawn Tyler Watson’s voice embodies blues music. In 2017, she won the International Blues Challenge in Chicago and, ever since, she has roamed through many of this international scenes of this everlasting genre. Her last work MAD LOVE (or how to be reborn from your love wounds) won the JUNO for blues album of the year 2020. Thanks to her warm onstage personality, natural charisma and unique voice, Dawn’s performances are always a pleasure.
Matt Herskowitz
With a diploma from the renowned Julliard School of New-York City and the Curtis Institute of Music of Philadelphia, Matt Herskowitz has made a unique and personal voice for himself as a piano player, composer and arranger. As a classical musician, he was able to combine his technical skills with his jazz agility in a very singular way. His work has been heard on the famous stages of Carnegie Hall or even the Kölner Philharmonie. Among his admirers is the great Dave Brubeck who, when he was still alive, saluted Matt’s talent.
Sam Favreau
Sam Favreau is a self-taught musician and multi-instrumentalist who, since his adolescence, has had various experiences as a guitar, bass, drum player and composer. In the early 2000s, his encounters made him lean more towards double bass and jazz music. In 2006, he won the first prize of Marseille Conservatory’s Jazz class, as well as the SACEM prize. He is a very active bass and double-bass player in the local, national and sometimes international scene and participates in many musical projects as a sideman. He is often asked to play for touring musicians, which is how he ended up performing with André Ceccarelli, Arhie Shepp, Liz McComb, Yaron Herman, Stéphane Belmondo, Mike Casey, Max Ionata, Daniel Levi, Mama Ohandja...
Cédrick Bec
Cédrick Bec first started playing drums when he was fifteen. After being awarded, unanimously, the first prize of excellence at Serge Puchol drum school, he continued his studies at IMFP and Marseille’s CNR, from which he graduated with honors and the SACEM Prize in 2004. In 2008, and after winning many awards, he signed a deal with the brand Canopus Drums Company, then with Art Custom Drums in 2019. He performed in more than forty countries, in some of the most famous festivals and shared the scene with great names. He is one of the most active drummer of his generation and shares with the same enthusiasm a captivating game, always with a deep and inspired sound.
Lévon Minassian
Born and raised in a close-knit Armenian community in Marseille, Lévon Minassian discovered the doudouk at the age of 15. He immediately loved it and with perseverance he learned the doukdouk from the best players who usually only share their knowledge with initiates. From there on, he constantly practiced until he mastered the instrument. In 1985, he worked for the first time in cinema with Georges Garvarentz on the film Les mémoires tatouées and then with the renowned directors Henri Verneuil, Costa Gavras and Mel Gibson. Both of his albums made the doukdouk known to the public and gave him as an artist the title of a soloist. Lévon Minassian works with Peter Gabriel in 1992 for his album Us. This collaboration makes him a popular doudouguiste with musicians and signers such as Charles Aznavour, Hélène Ségara, Christophe Maé, Sting and Manu Katché.
Marie-Hélène Panisset
Marie-Hélène Panisset has a degree in journalism, classical dance and art history. Later in her career, she works as an artistic director, production manager, scriptwriter and director in the film industry. She was nominated for her film Marguerite at the Oscars in 2019. Both released in 2022, Coming home is the second installment of a trilogy about Vietnam and Two Straight Girls at a Queer Fest is an atypical feature film. Touring with dance and theater companies, she directs 8 short musical films for the series Captures d’audace.