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Artist
Lê Quan Ninh
12+ albums
percussionmusique concretecontemporary classicalfree improvisationelectroacoustic
about
Lê Quan Ninh (born 1961 in Paris, France) is a French percussionist active in contemporary music and free improvisation. He began studying piano at the age of 5, but turned towards percussion as a teenager. When he was 16, he entered the National Conservatory in Versailles. During this time he discovered free jazz. After graduating, he taught percussion for 3 years at a conservatory in Bondy, while performing with contemporary music, dance, and theater groups often using self-taught techniques and found objects in his improvisation. However, he still persisted with self-taught free improvisational techniques. Meeting with guitarist Jean-Christophe Aveline, clarinetist Misha Lobko and saxophonist Daunik Lazro, encouraged his improvisatory exploration. Ninh was already a big fan of Daunik's violence and lyricism expressed in a tribute concert to Charlie Parker organized by the photographer Horace in 1979. Together, Ninh and Daunik worked in Blois with the Compagnie du Hasard, directed by Nicolas Peskine. Michel Doneda joined the company during a 1986 tour in Poland, and the newly formed trio continued to work with the company and give numerous concerts in Europe before becoming Les Diseurs de Musique - a quartet with the poet Serge Pey. He is one of the members of the Quatuor Helios since 1986 - a percussion ensemble which premieres new pieces mixing percussion, theater, and new technology. In 1987, Ninh met bassist Peter Kowald during the Free Music Festival in Antwerpen.
