Opus 43’s guest composer
Élise Bertrand,
Born in 2000, Élise Bertrand began playing the piano at the age of 5, the violin at the age of 8, and composition three years later, as a self-taught musician. After studying at the Toulon Conservatoire, she entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 14, where she studied violin with Suzanne Gessner and composition with Nicolas Bacri. She obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the CNSMDP in Roland Daugareil’s class, and continued her studies in the advanced writing classes at the same institution (harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, etc.). In 2022, she returned to the CNSMDP to study for a master’s degree in chamber music with the pianist Gaspard Thomas, and became Artist in Residence at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Augustin Dumay’s class. Since 2023, Élise has been supported by the Fondation l’Or du Rhin and performs on a violin by Joseph Gagliano, Naples 1796, on loan from the Fondation d’entreprise Société Générale C’est vous l’avenir. Élise is currently in her 3rd cycle of violin studies ( Artist Performer Diploma) at the CNSMDP, which enables her to perform as a soloist with the Conservatoire’s Orchestre des Lauréats. She will take part in the Académie de Villecroze (2019), the Seiji Ozawa and International Menuhin Music Academies in the summer of 2021 and 2022, the Académie Jaroussky (2021 and 2022) in the Tchaikovsky class, and the Stauffer Academy in Cremona with Gil Shaham in 2023. Élise has won numerous violin, chamber music and composition competitions. In autumn 2019, she won 2nd Prize in the Ginette Neveu International Competition and the Special Prize for the best interpretation of a contemporary piece. A month later, she won the 1st Prize and Special Prize at the Léopold Bellan International Competition. In 2022, she was awarded the 1st Prize of the Rotary Club Paris and a few months later the 1st Prize – Prix d’Honneur at the Concours International des jeunes talents en Normandie. As a violinist, she has been involved in numerous projects as a soloist and chamber musician (notably at La Roque-d’Anthéron, in recital at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and at La Roche-Posay, at the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, the Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise, the Palazetto Bru Zane in Venice) and in orchestras (Les Dissonances, OPRL, the Orchestre de Douai région Hauts-de-France, the Idomeneo orchestra, the Ensemble Les Apaches… ). The musician is keen to champion the lesser-known repertoire, both on the violin and in chamber music, as well as contemporary music, combining performance and creation. Published by Billaudot and Klarthe, her compositions have been commissioned by ensembles, eminent instrumentalists, competitions and institutions, and have been broadcast on France Musique, Radio Classique and ARTE Concert. In May 2022, Élise was invited to take part in the ClassicalNext international conference in Hanover, where she gave the floor to three female composers. The same year, her Sonata-Poem, Op.11 was awarded the medal of the Académie des Sciences, Lettres et Arts d’Arras. She has also been the subject of several articles in Classica, Diapason, Pianiste, Traversières Magazine and The Strad Korea. Her first CD, ‘Lettera Amorosa’ (on the Klarthe label), featuring her own works, was hailed by critics and the press. In September 2022, it was named ‘Contemporary Record of the Week’ by Emilie Munera and Rodolphe Bruneau Boulmier. For the 2023/2024 season, Élise joins the Ambassador Programme of the Classeek platform as a composer, and has been commissioned by the Quatuor Modigliani, the Maxence Larrieu International Flute Competition, the Festival les Inouies, the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, and the Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise, where she has been invited to be composer-in-residence.
Opus 43’s young talent in residence
Inna Kalugina,
Back in 2013, Inna Kalugina was not yet 20 when she won the ‘New Names of Ukraine’ competition and was awarded a scholarship by the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation in recognition of her commitment to her country’s culture. Inna Kalugina first attended the Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music in Kyiv (Kiev) as a free student, before joining Irina Semenenko’s singing class there in 2013. In 2019, she obtained her Master’s degree with the congratulations of the jury. Alongside her studies, she works as an actress at the theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk, her home town in western Ukraine. From 2017 to 2019, she also studied with Vladimir Chernov at the University of California (UCLA) and then in Austria, before joining his class at the École Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris. She also works with Matthias Rexroth and Olga Pasiechnik at the Teatr Wielki Opera Narodova in Warsaw. In 2020, she took part in the “Académie de la voix” in Treilles (France), where she received vocal guidance from Annick Massis. In 2017, Inna Kalugina made her stage debut at the Lviv Opera as the Countess Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro). In 2019, she performed the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Opera Studio of the Tchaikovsky Academy of Music in Kyiv, and in 2023 Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore at the Cluj Napoça Opera (Romania). In 2022, Inna Kalugina won 2nd Prize in the ‘European Community’ Competition at the Teatro Sperimentale Lirico in Spoleto, as well as the First Grand Prize in Opera at the Georges Enesco International Competition in Paris, where she was also awarded the ‘Opera Cluj-Napoca’ prize and the ‘Catalina Cortez’ prize. Noted for her timbre and the power and velvety quality of her voice, the Auvers-sur-Oise Festival Foundation awarded her a scholarship for 2023 to study at the George Solti Bel Canto Academy in Italy, giving her the opportunity to work with Barbara Frittoli, Richard Bonynge, Renato Bruson, Leo Nucci and Freddie di Tommaso.
Opus 43’s young talent in residence
Anne Slacik,
Anne Slacik was born in Narbonne in 1959. She lives and works both in Saint-Denis and in the Gard region of France.
Since 1981, she has had numerous solo exhibitions of her work, including the Centre d’Art de Gennevilliers, the Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, the Bibliothèque du Carré d’Art in Nîmes, the Musée Pierre André Benoît in Alès, the Bibliothèque Municipale in Strasbourg, the Musée de Gap, the Musée Stéphane Mallarmé in Vulaines sur Seine and the Musée de Melun in the Paris region. She received the Fénéon Foundation Painting Prize in 1991. In 2012, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Saint Denis, in association with the Musée du Cayla in the Tarn, organised a major exhibition of her work, with the publication of a monograph, including texts by Bernard Noël, published by IAC-Ceysson. 2013 saw several solo exhibitions at the Musée Ingres in Montauban, the Musée Rimbaud in Charleville Mézières and the Musée de l’Ardenne, as well as at the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Arcueil. In 2014, the Bibliothèque Forney, the historic library of the City of Paris, presented her painted books and a collection of paintings, and in 2015 seven exhibition venues in the Yvelines, including the Musée National de Port-Royal des Champs, came together to present different aspects of her work. To celebrate the occasion, a new monograph was published by IAC-Ceysson. In 2016 and 2017 her work was shown at the Maison de Victor Hugo in Paris as part of the exhibition “La Pente de la rêverie” and was the subject of a solo exhibition at the Musée de Périgueux. In 2018 the Paul Valéry museum in Sète organised an exhibition of her work, Petits Poèmes Abstraits, large paintings and painted books. In 2019 the Carré d’Art library in Nîmes exhibited her work, on the occasion of the acquisition of the collection of 130 manuscript-painted books, a solo exhibition at the Centre d’Art de Bédarieux. Her works on paper were exhibited in 2020 at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Collioure. In 2020-2021, the Manoir Michel Butor in Lucinges in Haute-Savoie devoted one of its very first monographic exhibitions to her major paintings, works on paper and painted books.
Her work is represented by the Convergences gallery, the Papiers d’Art gallery and the Olivier Nouvellet gallery in Paris, the HCE gallery in Saint-Denis, the Artenostrum gallery in Dieulefit, the Samira Cambie gallery in Montpellier, the La Manufacture gallery in La Rochelle, the Adoue de Nabias gallery in Nîmes and the Monos Art Gallery in Liège, Belgium, which regularly present her work in solo exhibitions. Colour is at the heart of her work, used in all its fluidity on large-format canvases, painted on books and painted manuscripts, like a possible coming and going between painting and books, between painting and poetry. Numerous encounters and friendships with poets such as Bernard Noël, Jean-Pierre Faye, Bernard Vargaftig, Claude Royet-Journoud, Michel Butor, Jacques Demarcq, JG Cosculluela, Gaston Puel, Bernard Chambaz, Adonis… have given rise to texts, nearly 400 books in the publishing field, and a collection of painted manuscript books of over 130 titles.
