3 October, 2022-1 January 2023 — Music

Gilles Grimaître
Photo credit: Didier Jordan

Gilles Grimaître is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, performer and curator active in the field of contemporary creation, based in Bienne, Switzerland

As pianist he is a member of the ensembles Collegium Novum Zürich, L’Imaginaire, Ensemble Lemniscate, Duo Orion and performs regularly with international ensembles and orchestras. He also founded HYPER DUO with the percussionist/drummer Julien Mégroz. The duo explores as much stylistic contrasts, the search for new forms of performance as intimate collaborations with artists from extramusical backgrounds. Passionate about improvisation and electric music, he develops a personal  instrumentarium made of analog synthesizers, and samplers, which he uses within HYPER DUO but also in his own compositions.

As a composer, his musical approach combines on the one hand elegant sound textures and immersive soundspace, and on the other hand the exploration of complex structures in an unbridled, marginal music, close to art brut.

He studied piano with Pierre Sublet, organ with Pascale Van Coppenolle and composition with Xavier Dayerat at the Hochschule der Künste Bern. He was scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt/Main for the academic year 2013-2014. He won the first prize at the Nicati Competition 2013 in Bern for the interpretation of contemporary music.

Read more about his residency here.