Gréco Casadesus

Gréco Casadesus (born 13 August 1951) is a French composer specialized in film scores. Born in Paris from a large family of artists (musicians, conductors, performers, actors, composers, painters, and writers), he has composed more than a hundred of musical creations for television, cinema, performances, and theatre.

Gréco Casadesus
Background information
Born(1951-08-13)13 August 1951
Paris, France
GenresFilm score
Occupation(s)Composer
Producer
Artistic Director

In his early years, he started out as an artistic director for EMI Classics, then set out to create music for the stage (1983-1997). From 1984 on, he started writing music for TV and cinema, with a style combining the elegance of orchestral music and the effects of electronics (synthetizers and computer music).

Greco Casadesus composed soundtracks for very diverse productions, such as Divertimento, with Kellan Lutz, Torrey DeVitto, Ola Rapace, Götz Otto by Keyvan Sheikhalishahi, The Climb, a fiction movie by the American director Bob Swaim, the animated film Babar,King of the elephants, adapted from the classic French comic by Jean de Brunhof, or the TV series Jesus by Serge Moati. He even wrote seven hours of music for the restored version of the 1921 masterpiece Les Trois Mousquetaires, by Henri Diamant-Berger.

Fascinated by the genius of Etienne-Jules Marey (1830-1904), inventor of the first moving images, he wrote in 2008 the symphonic suite Sept Mouvements de Vie, performed by an orchestra as images by Marey were projected on a film screen. More recently, he composed the music score for several documentary films, such as La Guerre d'Hollywood, Jack London, une aventure américaine, or the TV series Jusqu'au dernier.

In 2002, he founded the Union des Compositeurs de Musiques de Films (UCMF), a lobbying group defending the interests of music creators. He remained its president until 2005, and then its honorary chairman. In 2003, Greco Casadesus was nominated "Personality of the year" by the trade journal Musique Info Hebdo. In 2012 he was awarded the Henri-Langlois Award.

Biography

Early life and education

Gréco Casadesus grew up in a family of artists..[1], his father, Marius Casadesus (1892-1981), being a violinist and a composer, and his mother, Gladys Thibaud (1928), a pianist. As an heir of generations of artists and musicians, he started studying music with his parents, learning the violin at age 3 with his father, and piano at age 5 with his mother.

He grew up in Montmartre (Casadesus Square), in Paris, and from 9 years old, studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, training 8 hours a day, which earned him the First Medal in theory, as well as a Prize in piano at the Versailles Conservatory.

He started his career at age 22 as an artistic director at EMI Classics[2], where he had over 200 albums recorded, with masters such as Mstislav Rostropovitch, Leonard Bernstein and Georges Prêtre. While in contact with these artists, he broadened his musical language and orchestration style.

By age 30, he wrote and recorded his first album, Voyage immobile[3], but after his second album, Les Oiseaux de rivière noire (1982), he decided to focus on what he liked best, music scores for cinema and for the stage.

Composing for the stage and for images

Greco Casadesus then got interested in the way music can influence the process of writing and directing a film or a play. His first experiences in theatre and the strong working relation he enjoyed with the two stage directors allowed him to explore new sounds, for example using new electronics sounds and synthetizers that had just appeared in the 1970s and 1980s. Between 1983 and 1997, he composed no less than 22 musical creations for the stage, mainly for Jean Danet's Les Tréteaux de France theatre company and the Théâtre du Marais of Jacques Mauclair. In particular, he composed the music for the classic Molière play L'Avare, which was awarded a prestigious Molière Award in 1989 for the direction by Mauclair[4]

Greco Casadesus was then contacted by the American film director Bob Swaim, who hired him in 1997 to replace the famous composer John Barry and write the soundtrack for his feature film, The Climb, with John Hurt, Gregory Smith and David Strathairn.[5]

In 1998, he innovated by composing the very first original soundtrack for Marie et le vin, a book by Claire Huynen published by Éditions du Cherche-Midi[6]. The following year, Greco Casadesus wrote the soundtrack for the cartoon Babar, King of the elephants, by Canadian director Raymond Jafelice[7]. In 1999, he wrote the score for an important TV project, Jésus, directed by Serge Moati. It was a huge success, reaching an audience of 10 million viewers during its unique broadcast, on Dec. 25 1999, on France's main television channel.[8] In 2001, he wrote seven hours of music for the restored version of the 1921 film Les Trois Mousquetaires, an adaptation of the great French classic by Alexandre Dumas. Following this experience, he produced a live performance designed for children, entitled Les Trois Mousquetaires font du Cinéma, a production mixing theatre, cinema and musical theatre.[9]

Leading large projects

Being so passionate about his trade, Greco Casadesus gained some leadership among French composers, which lead him to found in 2002 the French association of composers, Union des Compositeurs de Musiques de Films (UCMF). He spearheaded it until 2005, with an aim to promote and protect a profession in a changing environment.[10] Nowadays, he is UCMF's Honorary Chairman, along with Bernard Grimaldi. Greco Casadesus then founded the production and publishing company Opus Millésime, and produced a film and a CD as a tribute to his cousin, the pianist and composer Robert Casadesus (1899-1972). In January 2004, he was nominated "Personality of the year" by the music magazine Musique Info Hebdo.

During the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Greco Casadesus' symphony Sept Mouvements de Vie, dedicated to the life and work of the photographer Étienne-Jules Marey, was played by the Orchestre Régional de Cannes Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, conducted by Philippe Bender. Still inspired by Marey's chronophotographies, he wrote the missing movements of his symphony in 2008. The resulting « concert of images », using Marey's antique photos edited by director Sylvie-Jeanne Gander, was performed at the Dijon film festival, Rencontres cinématographiques de Dijon. This symphonical suite was published by Cezame Music Agency with the title Movements of Life, and a series of three films about the Marey project was released the following year[11]. This project initiated a vibrant collaboration with the music label Cezame, run by Frédéric Leibovitz and Françoise Marchesseau, resulting in the publication of over 200 of his music tracks over the years[12].

Composing for documentary films

Greco Casadesus entered a new phase of collaborations, with the composition of soundtracks for various documentary films in France, in particular for directors Christian Zerbib (En terre étrangère and Nos ancêtres les Gauloises), Michel Viotte (La guerre d'Hollywood et Jack London, une aventure américaine), and William Karel (Jusqu'au dernier : La destruction des Juifs d'Europe). This last project was inspired by the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau's Nazi camp[13]. For this project, he composed several orchestral scores to be played the famous American clarinetist David Krakauer.

"Shouting the infinity and never hearing it. Shouting an intimate pain, in silence. Giving a chance to hope, even if it is slim. Translating an unspeakable feeling that neither words nor images can express. Keeping a low profile. This was I was after[14]," Greco Casadesus said when his work was published in the album, David Krakauer plays Greco Casadesus. His work with Krakauer was also followed by a show at the French radio studios, France Musique. Both the soundtrack for the three TV films produced for this documentary project, and the Krakauer album, were published by Cézame[15]

Training the next generation

Greco Casadesus was awarded the Henri-Langlois Award for his career in 2012[16], and as a reference in the field of scoring, and he is often requested to speak about the specificity of composing for images. "As a foundation for this complex mix between image and music, the composer has a tremendous power that is balanced by a potential and terrible sanction : as beautiful as the music he just wrote can be, if it doesn't fit the director's purpose, it will be discarded ! " he says during his lectures, master-classes and training workshops[17].

One example of this training activities is the Music Score Lab ("Le laboratoire de musique de films"), which he created in 2013 along with Cristal Productions and the La Rochelle TV film festival (Festival de la fiction TV de La Rochelle). This yearly training allows selected composers to compose a soundtrack for a film sequence, and gives way to a small concert, with an orchestra playing in front of an audience the music composed by the trainees, synchronized with the images.[18]

From 2013 to 2015, Greco Casadesus has also been heading the Sacem's TV Commission (Commission de l'Audiovisuel).

Works

Greco Casadesus has written a hundred of original scores for theatre, film, television, concerts and other stage performances. He also has ventured into film production.

Albums

Thanks to a solid classic training and a passion for recording techniques and new technologies[19], Greco Casadesus a developed his own style, mixing acoustic instruments and electronic sound effects. During his career, he has focused on recording, in collaboration with his friends in the publishing world, Jean Claudel, founder of the label Amplitude, and Frédéric Leibovitz, founder of Cézame Music Agency. Since 2008, he has contributed to various albums from Cezame's catalogue (Marines, Seascapes, American Road Book, Paysages avec cordes, Motivation & Inspiration, Historical Heritage, 1914 : La grande guerre, Sense and Sensibility, Inspiring Cinematic Choirs, Western, Scandal & Gossip, Freaky Frolics)

  • 1980 : Voyage immobile
  • 1982 : Les oiseaux de rivière noire
  • 1986 : Carte blanche à Greco Casadesus
  • 1995 : Projections
  • 1997 : The Climb
  • 1998 : Marie et le vin (Un roman et sa musique)
  • 1999 : Babar, king of the elephants
  • 2003 : Symphonic Nirvana
  • 2005 : Les Trois Mousquetaires
  • 2009 : Suppléments d'âme
  • 2015 : David Krakauer plays Greco Casadesus
  • 2016 : Movements of Life

Theatre

Greco Casadesus dedicated 14 years of his life to the stage, and has made a great contribution to theatre, thanks to his collaboration with theatre directors Jean Danet and Jacques Mauclair, respectively founders of Pantin's company, Les Tréteaux de France, and the Théâtre du Marais.

Television and Film

From his friendship with Roger Boutry, conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Republican Guard, appeared in 1984 an opportunity to compose for a TV series on the French gendarmerie. This first experience led to numerous TV projects for all French channels : SFP, TF1, A2, FR3, France 3, France 5. His film career includes a large diversity of genres, feature films, series, documentary films, as well as short films. His meeting with directors such as Bob Swaim, Etienne Perier, Serge Moati, Jérôme Diamant-Berger and others, have expanded his skills in film scoring.

He composed the first third movies of young French filmmaker Keyvan Sheikhalishahi, Vesper with Götz Otto, Nox with Matt Passmore and Brigitte Millar, and Divertimento, with Kellan Lutz, Torrey DeVitto, Ola Rapace, Götz Otto, Christian Hillborg, Ellie Heydon.

1984 - 1985 : L'homme au képi noir (TV series)

1984 : André Moleux, peintre, by Gérard Sergues

1985 : Maestro, by Serge Korber

1985 : Tant qu'il y aura des cerfs, by Laurent Charbonnier

1986 : Fred Connexion, by Serge Korber

1986 : Les conquérants de l'impossible : portrait de groupe, by Bernard Choquet and Bernard Dumont

1986 : Chinook, by Christian Zuccarelli

1987 : Cordée canine, by Christian Zuccarelli

1987 : Nuit d'enfer, by Philippe Guillaume

1988 - 1989 : Mystères et bulles de gomme, by Bernard Dumont (TV series)

1989 to 1994 : Intrigues, mésaventures, passion, côté cœur (TV series)

1990 : Appelez-moi Tonton, by Dominique Baron

1992 : La montée au pouvoir des femmes, by Ghislaine Guide

1992 : Cérémonie religieuse, by Bernard Dumont

1992 : Le passage du Nord-Ouest, by Bernard Dumont

1993 : Le poids du corps, by Christine François

1993 : Les dératisseurs, by Bernard Dumont

1993 : Meurtre à ciel ouvert, by Jean-Marc Seban

1994 : Meurtre à l'université, by Jean-Marc Seban

1995 : Le silence de Lesbos, by Ghislaine Guidez

1995 : Les louves, by Jean-Marc Seban

1995 : Un mort sur le pavé, by Jean-Marc Seban

1995 : Le Match de notre vie. by Gareth Davies

1996 : So It Is (If You Think So), by Luigi Pirandello

1996 : La Rumeur, by Étienne Périer

1996 : La passe-montagne, by Jean-Marc Seban

1997 : The Climb, by Bob Swaim

1998 : Babar, King of the elephants, by Raymond Jafelice

1998 : Les legs, by Bernard Dumont

1998 : Le dernier fils, by Étienne Périer

2000 : L'Enfant de la honte, by Claudio Tonetti

2000 : Que reste-t-il..., by Étienne Périer

2000 : La vie à plein temps, by Serge Moati

2001 : Jésus, by Serge Moati

2001 : Les Trois Mousquetaires, by Henri Diamant-Berger

2009 : En terre étrangère. by Christian Zerbib

2010 : Petit creux (série TV, 104 épisodes)

2011 à 2013 : Le quiz de Zack (TV series)

2011 : Nos ancêtres les Gauloises, by Christian Zerbib

2013 : La Guerre d'Hollywood, by Michel Viotte

2014 : Jusqu'au dernier, by William Karel

2015 : Ta Mère! by Touria Benzari

2016 : La face, by Marc Rivière

2017 : Vesper, by Keyvan Sheikhalishahi

2019: Nox by Keyvan Sheikhalishahi

2020: Divertimento, by Keyvan Sheikhalishahi

References
  1. "Les Variations Casadesus" (PDF).
  2. "Gréco Casadesus : la direction artistique". www.greco-casadesus.com. Retrieved 2017-01-14.
  3. "Greco Casadesus – Voyage Immobile".
  4. "Le théâtre : un univers singulier".
  5. "The Climb".
  6. "Marie et le vin".
  7. "Babar, le roi des éléphants".
  8. "Deux mille ans plus tard Jésus plutôt que le Christ".
  9. "Les trois mousquetaires font du cinéma".
  10. "L'Union des Compositeurs de Musiques de Films (UCMF)".
  11. "Gréco Casadesus: Hommage à Étienne-Jules Marey".
  12. "Greco Casadesus".
  13. "Blanche Finger : "La voix des survivants s'éteint"".
  14. "Jusqu'au Dernier - Musique originale de Gréco CASADESUS (CEO2026)".
  15. "David KRAKAUER plays Gréco CASADESUS (CCB1020)".
  16. "Les Lauréats des Prix Henri-Langlois 2012 @ Vincennes, France (2)".
  17. "Musique et cinéma : comment composer la musique d'un film et traduire des émotions".
  18. "FESTIVAL DE LA FICTION TV".
  19. "Les studios d'enregistrement".
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