Reconnect with the elements and find your roots at the special concert La Nature Mystique, presented by IMAGO in the Grand Salon of the FEU. With its heavenly acoustics, enriched by the sound of the birdsong echoing from the FEU garden and Cité internationale’s park just outside, the Grand Salon will be host to an otherworldly concert conceived and created by IMAGO. Part of the FEU’s Art for Nature cycle this November (to include events such as Love Labo’s Arbre performance and the Art for Climate Exhibition), this series of events is a love letter to the nature that created us.
Ever since the earliest cave paintings, nature has been a crucial subject in innumerable human artistic creations. In the concert La Nature Mystique, Ensemble IMAGO explores the representation of nature as a metaphor for artists to convey deeply human experiences and sensations. Through poetry and music, the works that we have selected outwardly depict nature to awaken an inward sense of awareness and contemplation. The program is curated to contemplate the sky, water, and land, culminating in an original IMAGO creation composed by Sato Matsui, Six Tankas antiques, inspired by ancient Japanese poetry from the eight century, and which will receive its world premiere at the Fondation des États Unis.
~ IMAGO
About IMAGO
IMAGO is a modular chamber music ensemble founded in early 2021, consisting of core members Sato Matsui, Rieko Tsuchida, and Thomaz Tavares, specializing in original compositions and classical repertoire. The name IMAGO symbolizes the final stage of insect metamorphosis and means henceforth in Japanese, emphasizing music and art as agents of transformation. They’ve performed at various French venues such as Petit Palais and Salle Cortot, adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic with immersive virtual experiences, and collaborated with choreographers such as Gildas Lemonier, makeup artist Michel El Ghoul, and videographer Kadia Ouabi to create innovative performances like Trois apparitions de la nuit.
The musical ensemble has been in artistic residency at the FEU since 2021.
Practical Information
Date Tuesday, November 21 | Time 7:30pm | Facebook Event
Program
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Lark Ascending
Maurice Ravel
Jeux d’eau
Rabindranath Tagore
Ocean of Forms
Toru Takemitsu
Rain Tree Sketch II
Stéphane Mallarmé
L’après-midi d’un faune
Claude Debussy
Prélude l’après-midi d’un faune
Sato Matsui
Six Tanka anciens
About the Artists
Born in Chitose, Japan, Sato Matsui is a Paris-based composer and the Founder and Artistic Director of IMAGO. Her musical style draws influence from traditional Japanese sonorities as well as her training as a classical violinist. Matsui holds her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Juilliard School and her Bachelor’s degree from Williams College. Her recent projects include a commission for a flute concerto for Carol Wincenc, which was premiered at the 2023 National Flute Association Gala Concert at Symphony Hall in Phoenix, Arizona. In April of this year, Matsui’s Oiseau Lunaire received its U.S. premiere at Carnegie Hall by pianist Will Healy. Her trio Hanasaka Jiisan for oboe, bassoon, and piano was commissioned by Cornelia Sommer for the 2022 International Double Reed Conference in Denver, Colorado. Matsui’s large ensemble piece Kinokonoko, commissioned for the New Juilliard Ensemble, received its Lincoln Center premiere at Alice Tully Hall in 2019. A lover of interdisciplinary collaborations, Matsui has worked extensively with dancers and choreographers as well as other artists. In 2020, she was invited by the New York City Ballet to take part in the New York Choreographic Institute, where she collaborated with choreographer Jonathan Faulry. In 2017 was named the Resident Composer for the Creative Movement and Gestures Program at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada. In 2017, Matsui worked with librettist Sarah LaBrie to create and produce Hoshi, an opera that follows a young woman’s conflicting search for reconciliation with her estranged father. Her original scoring of Shakespeare’s play As You Like It was produced and directed by Ian Belknap in May of 2019 at the McClelland Drama Theater in Lincoln Center. In 2019, Matsui received a Fulbright Scholarship and moved to Paris in order to research the manuscripts of Erik Satie for her doctoral dissertation. She is the winner of the 2019 Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Born in New York and raised in Brazil, flutist Thomaz Tavares is currently based in Paris, where he leads an active solo, chamber, and orchestral performance career. He is flutist with the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle Europe under the baton of Maestro Nicolas Krauze, and is an occasional guest performer with Ensemble Calliopée, VociHarmonie, and the Open Chamber Orchestra of Paris. Tavares was previously the professor of flute at the Conservatoire Provinois in the medieval town of Provins, as well as guest professor at the Conservatoire Jean Baptiste Lully in Paris. An active and devoted pedagogue, Tavares has given numerous recitals, lectures, and masterclasses throughout France, the United States, and Brazil. Praised for his “innate sense of musical aesthetics in all styles” by Vociharmonie and for his “polished, lyrical and virtuoso” playing by the Virginia Gazette, Tavares has made numerous solo and chamber appearances at the historical Salle Cortot in Paris and the Château de Fontainebleau. He has performed at the Festival d’Auvers sur Oise, Journées de Ravel, Harmonies du Perche, the Festival de Fontainebleau, the Melodieuse in Luberon, the Dartington Summer Festival, and Talis Sarajevo, to name a few. Tavares holds his Bachelor’s degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he was the recipient of the Premier Young Artist Scholarship. He moved to Paris in order to study under the tutelage of the renowned international soloist Jean Ferrandis at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris, where he obtained his Diplôme Supérieur d’Execution with unanimous distinction from the jury and in 2020, followed by his terminal degree the Diplôme Supérieur de Concertiste. Tavares was a recipient of the 2019 Harriet Hale Woolley Fellowship at the Foundation des États-Unis, for which he undertook a dual performance research on the musical repertory of the French Belle Époque with Jean Ferrandis and the compositions of Yuko Uebayashi under advisorship of the composer herself.
Since her Carnegie Hall debut in 2011, award-winning pianist Rieko Tsuchida has performed internationally as soloist and chamber musician. Tsuchida made her professional concerto debut in 2011 performing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the California Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared as soloist with the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Domenico Orchestra. Among the many awards she has received are the 2016 SONY USA Foundation Virtuoso Salon Scholarship, the YoungArts NFAA Finalist Award and third prize in the IIYM International Piano Competition. She has also been invited to perform at other prestigious festivals and venues such as the Verbier Festival Academy, Salle Gaveau, and more. Tsuchida currently lives between New York and Paris. In October 2022, she released an album with London Opera cellist Tessa Seymour of Lera Auerbach’s 24 preludes for cello and piano, as part of a project funded by the Académie Musicale de Villecroze. She recently gave her first recital at Salle Cortot, at the Eiffel Tower, as well as concerts in Chicago, Washington D.C. and New York. Tsuchida also recently became artistic director of Classical Music Collection Japan (CMCJ), a project funded by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to promote the culture of classical music in Japan. She will make her Japanese concert debut with CMCJ this winter at Tokyo’s Oji Hall. Tsuchida received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky. She completed her Master of Music at The Juilliard School in the studios of Matti Raekallio and Joseph Kalichstein.