Biography
Emmanuel Séjourné is a musician of international renown who leads a triple career as a composer, percussionist and teacher. His career ranges from classical music to improvised music. He has been awarded prizes for Best Music for Drama at the Festival d’Avignon, the Prix de l’Academie du Disque Français, as well as the Repertoire Prize, awarded by the French Music Publishers, for his composition « Khamsin ». The percussionist Aurélien Gignoux wins the Victoires de la Musique 2021 by playing Attraction by E.Séjourné.
His music is rhythmic, romantic, energetic, inspired both by the Western classical tradition and by popular culture (jazz, rock, extra-Européan).
Many orchestras include his music in their repertoire : RadioSinfonieOrchester Stuttgart, Bamberg Symphonie Orchester, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg Nagoya Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, Sinfonia Toronto,Croatian Radio Television Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Italienne, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Camerata de Bourgogne, Sofia Soloists, Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre d’Auvergne, de Cannes, Nice, Pau, Mulhouse, Bochumer Symphoniker, Wurttembergisches Kammerorchester, Paris Brassband, as numerous additional ensemble.
Acclaimed by members of the percussion community, his works have been commissioned and recorded by many artists including Bogdan Bacanu et Wave Quartet (Genuin Classics 2016), Christoph Sietzen (Genuin Classics 2017) Alexej Gerassimez (Genuin Classics 2012) Gary Cook, Ju-Percussion group, Nancy Zeltsman, Marta Klimasara, Katarzyna Mycka, Adelaide Ferrière, Vassilena Serafimova.
His Concertos for percussion are a great success, whether for vibra and strings (1999) as his double-concerto for vibra, marimba & symphonic orchestra played since its creation in 2012 in Bulgaria, then in China, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Brazil, Turkey, Latvia, Korea and France.
His concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra, commissioned by Bogdan Bacanu, has since 2005 become an major work of the marimba repertoire, played more than 800 times with orchestra.
Far from being limited to the world of percussion Emmanuel Séjourné also composed many pieces for symphonic orchestra (Ketsana) as well as chamber music (commissioned by the Paris Opera and the Contrastes duet) as well as pieces for choir (commissioned by INECC European Institut for Choir).
Fascinated with the relations between various forms of artistic expression, he writes music for theater and television. He composed the music for the Ballet du Rhin’s performance « Les envahisseurs », played during the two thousandth anniversary of the city of Strasbourg, and in 2004, he wrote a musical comedy « School Boulevard » commissioned by National Theater Luxembourg.
Simultaneously, Emmanuel Séjourné makes a career as an instrumentalist.
As a soloist, as well as with the ensemble Accroche-Note, he has so far premiered over hundred pieces of music (Donatoni, Manoury, Fedele, Hurel, Dillon, Aperghis, Wood, Kerger…) including concertos, chamber music and solos.
He plays very regularly in duo with the percussionist Sylvie Reynaert.
Eager to share and communicate his passion, Emmanuel Séjourné is also Head Teacher of Percussion Department at the Strasbourg Superior Academy of Music & arts and Associate Professor at HEMU Lausanne.
His Master Classes are extremely successful all over the world. He is often invited to sit on jurys for numerous international competition: ARD Munich, Geneva, Tromp, Salzburg.
In tribute to his many activities, he is named « DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA » (2019) by the National Academy of Music of Bulgaria.
