THOMAS BLOCH  

Thomas Bloch was born in 1962 at Colmar and lives near Paris. Before becoming a composer he won particular recognition as one of the leading players of rare instruments, the ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, cristal Bachet and waterphone. As a performer he has appeared in classical and contemporary music, opera, improvisation, chanson, rock, theatre, film music and advertising, and serves as both composer and producer. He has taken part in more than three thousand concerts in forty countries and has collaborated in over a hundred recordings.

Among his collaborations as a performer are: Radiohead, John Cage, Damon Albarn (Gorillaz), Tom Waits, Marianne Faithfull, Bob Wilson, Emilie Simon (La Marche de l’Empereur), Milos Forman (Amadeus), Thomas Bangalter/Daft Punk, Jean-François Zygel, Valery Gergiev, Myung-Whun Chung, Michel Plasson, Paul Sacher, Maurice Bourgue, Roger Muraro, Marcel Landowski, Philippe Sarde, Isabelle Huppert, Charles Berling, -M-, Yvan Cassar, Manu Dibango, Fred Frith, Phil Minton, Patrick Wolf, Lara Fabian, Arthur H, Zazie, Maxime Le Forestier, Yael Naim, Vanessa Paradis and others.

Thomas Bloch gave the world première, 150 years after its composition, of the original version with glass harmonica of Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) at La Scala, Milan. He was invited to appear as a soloist on the ondes Martenot for the centenary of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, and was the first to play, as a soloist, the complete Vexations of Erik Satie, a piano piece that lasts 24 hours.  He gives some fifteen premières every year.

Winner of the first prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (in the class of Jeanne Loriod) and with a Master’s degree in musicology at the University of Strasbourg, Thomas Bloch is professor of ondes Martenot at the Strasbourg Conservatoire, artistic director of the Evian Festival and responsible for events at the Paris Musée de la Musique. He is a laureate of the Classical Music Award (awarded by European critics at Midem), of several Choc (Le Monde de la Musique), Best of the Year (Audiophile), and of Victoires de la Musique, among other achievements.

Thomas Bloch records for the majority of companies, including EMI, Deutsche Grammophon and Sony, and has made several recordings as a soloist for Naxos since 1997: Music for Glass Harmonica, Music for Ondes Martenot, the Turangalîla-Symphonie of Olivier Messiaen (Classical Music Award 2002 for the best recording of a work of the twentieth century), Thomas Bloch: Works for male soprano, rare instruments and orchestra and appearances in Classical Chill, Classical Heat, Mozart: Life and Works, Naxos 15th Anniversary 1987 / 2002, Olivier Messiaen: La musique en couleurs and Varèse: Orchestral Works Vol 2.

Watch the sixth movement “Santus” of Missa Cantate [Naxos 8.572489]