The itinerary of eclectic percussionist Sylvain Lemêtre is shaped by his openness and insatiable curiosity towards musical explorations and encounters. His favourite field is the confines of contemporary creation, jazz, improvisation and traditional music.
Lemêtre began his training at an early age at the Conservatoire, winning a First Prize in percussion and chamber music with G. Sylvestre in Rueil-Malmaison and a First Prize in traditional percussion with C. Nicolas in Argenteuil. He has also always composed for and played the zarb with F. Bedel, trained in sound painting with V. Le Quang and practised piano with C. Stephan. Nourished by the teachings of his masters, he likes to describe himself as a “self-taught conservatory student”, defending a non-academic musical path, favouring listening, autonomy, analytical and critical sense, both towards written scholarly music and traditional and improvised oral music.
The question of theatricality in music and the presence of musicians on stage are very important to him in his approach to musical theatre. Today he invests himself with fervour in formations with extremely varied aesthetics: La soustraction des fleurs by Jean-François Vrod, Ensemble Cairn directed by Jérôme Combier, Surnatural Orchestra, Léger Sourire — musical theatre duo, Spring Roll and Printemps by Sylvaine Hélary, Saltarello by Garth Knox, Adieu mes très belles by Matthieu Donarier. Sonore Boréale, his solo, based on texts by Olivier Mellano, and La vapeur au-dessus du riz by Alexandra Grimal.
For several years he has performed with Antonin Leymarie’s Magnetic Ensemble, Marc Ducret’s Real thing #3 and Tower-Bridge, Fred Pallem’s Le Sacre du Tympan and now boasts a fine discography.
Most recently he has begun writing music and has taken on commissions, notably the state commission Borg et Théa for the Quatuor Béla, the Subtraction of Flowers and the Lyon Opera Maîtrise, as well as Entre chou et loup and L’ange du bizarre for Noémi Boutin and S. Hélary or L’énergie du plafond for Surnatural Orchestra Albert Marcœurand Quatuor Béla.
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