Aix-en-Provence

Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific... composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality. Darius Milhaud is to be counted among the modernist composers. Born in Marseilles to a Jewish family from Aix-en-Provence, Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre. He studied composition under Charles Widor and harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He also studied privately with Vincent d'Indy. As a young man he worked for a while in the diplomatic entourage of Paul Claudel, the eminent poet and dramatist, who was serving as French ambassador to Brazil. On a trip to the United States in 1922, Darius Milhaud heard "authentic" jazz for the first time, on the streets of Harlem, which left a great impact on his musical outlook.
more

Hélène Grimaud is a French pianist. Grimaud was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. Although her autobiography Variations Sauvages suggests a... Christian upbringing, Hélène is descended from Italian-Sephardi Jews from Corsica on her mother's side, and from Algerian Jews on her father's side. She has stated that as a child she was often "agitated". She discovered the piano at seven. She entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1982, where she studied with Jacques Rouvier. In 1985 she won first prize at the Conservatory, and the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros for her recording of the Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Sonata No. 2. In 1987, she launched her professional career with a solo recital in Paris and a performance with the Orchestre de Paris under Daniel Barenboim. In 1991, at age 21, Grimaud moved to Tallahassee, Florida, to be near a boyfriend who taught bassoon at Florida State University. In 1997, she settled in Westchester County, north of New York City. After some time spent in Berlin, she currently resides in Switzerland. She has a passion for wolves, which she studies and raises.
more

Joëlle Léandre is a double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation. In the field of contemporary music,... she has performed with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain, and worked with Merce Cunningham and John Cage. Both Cage and Giacinto Scelsi have composed works specifically for her. She gave an historic solo concert in "Jazz em Agosto" in 2007 . In this same top jazz festival, Léandre performed also in the "Quartet Noir", a quartet with quite rare live performances, with Marilyn Crispell, Urs Leimgruber and Fritz Hauser. She has also collaborated with some of the preeminent musicians in the fields of jazz and improvised music, including Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, India Cooke, Evan Parker, Irène Schweizer, Steve Lacy, Maggie Nicols, Fred Frith, Carlos Zingaro, John Zorn, Susie Ibarra, J. D. Parran, Eric Watson, Ernst Reijseger, Akosh S. and Sylvie Courvoisier.
more

Julia Zemiro is an Australian television presenter, radio host, actor, singer and comedian. Zemiro's father Claude was a French waiter and cook, and... her Australian mother Jane was a teacher from Queensland. In 1970, she moved to Australia at the age of two and a half. She attended Sydney Girls High School before studying for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney. Zemiro was accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts Drama School before completing her final year, and moved to Melbourne in 1992. Zemiro graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1993 and found work touring with the Bell Shakespeare Company. She has featured in short films including The Extra and Muffled Love, winning the Tropfest Best Actress award twice, in 1997 and 2000. She co-wrote, performed and directed Backpackers. Zemiro appeared as "Bronya" in Eurovision, the Musical , Euromax 7 The Musical and Eürobeat: Almost Eurovision . A long-time Theatresports veteran, Zemiro played at the Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney, for many years before her move to Melbourne.
more

Mylène Jampanoï is a French actress. Mylène Jampanoï was born on 12 July 1980 in Aix-en-Provence, France. She has a Chinese... father and French mother. She married Indian model and actor Milind Soman in Goa in 2006. They met during the shooting of their film Valley of Flowers. The two divorced in 2009. She is largely known by international audiences for her role in the controversial horror film Martyrs.
more

Andréa Ferréol is a French actress, officer of the Ordre national du Mérite . Her debut is in the 1973 film La Grande bouffe, which... made a big scandal at the Cannes Film Festival.
more