Emmanuel Séjourné is one of the world's leading percussionists specializing in mallets instruments. In 1981, he founded the NOCO MUSIC ensemble. Its CD Saxophone et Percussion won the European Audio-visual Grand Prix awarded by the Académie du disque Français. To this date, he has premiered over one hundred works (Donatoni, Dillon, Manoury, Aperghis, Fedele, Pauset, Mâche, Barrett, Pesson, Dazzi, Toeplitz, Stäbler.) including concertos, chamber music, and solos throughout the world .

Emmanuel Séjourné has made solo appearances with symphony orchestras and given recitals in Europe , the Far East , and North America . In 1996, he played English conposer James Wood's Séance for soprano, midi-vibraphone and the New London Chamber Choir. This work marks the introduction of this new and innovative instrument and opens new perspectives for modern expression. Invited by marimba soloist Keiko Abe to be part of the jury at the World Marimba Competition 1999, he played duet concerts with her in Japan .

As soloist or with ensemble Accroche-Note, Emmanuel Séjourné has appeared in many festivals and musical events : Zurich , Archipel Genève, Ars Musica, Musica Strasbourg, Londres, Ultima Oslo, Valencia, Huddersfield, Bratislava, Biennale de Zagreb, Biennale de Venise, Musiques d'aujourd'hui Perpignan, Freiburg. many of which were broadcast by Radio France, BBC, WDR, RTA, and Norwegian Radio.

Aside from his activities in contemporary music, Emmanuel Séjourné also composes and plays improvised music. His First Concerto for Vibraphone and Strings was created en 1999 by the Orchestre d'Auvergne and his live show Planète des Claviers, written and composed for the Percussions Claviers de Lyon ensemble, begins its third touring season.

Head of the Percussion Department at the Strasbourg Conservatory, he teaches mallet instruments and has created the first advanced course of study for these instruments in France . Author of a vibraphone mathod book (Éditions Leduc), and several percussion pieces (Éditions Fuzeau, Lemoine, Combre, Aug Zurfluh, Alfonce, Zimmerman, Smith Publications), he was appointed Pedagogic Adviser to the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs for the preparation the 1994-1995 Percussion Aptitude Certificate. As a lecturer, he frequently visits the major music schools in Europe , Japan and North america.

Emmanuel Séjourné has made a number of recordings for different classical music labels : Montaigne, Accord Una Corda, Etcetera, Musifrance Erato, and for jazz label MFP Berlin. His latest CD on Christal Records, which includes the C. Kerger Concerto recorded with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg under the direction of Paul Polivnick, was received with great success.

In March and April 2003, Emmanuel Séjourné was in Sherbrooke and Montreal for a series of concerts and master classes. Robert Leroux conducted the interview that follows on April 4th 2003.

RL : Who were your principal mentors and what lessons did you retain from them ?

ES : There is a quote from singer Jacques Brel that I particularly like : « talent is wanting to do something ». I am not saying that I have talent, but I can definitely say that I want to do things. Of all the people I have met, there are certainly a few that have had a strong influence on me, like my piano and solfege teachers in my early years and, later, Jean Batigne my percussion teacher. All these people, with their own characters, were doing things, and also made me want to do things. They transmitted me some of their energy.

On the other hand, I would also add that later, some of the best lessons I had with Jean Batigne were given at the local café. These were not technical lessons. Of course, technical lessons are indispensable, one must develop a solid technique on percussion like on any other instrument. But there is also all the rest, there is the music. And at that point, I don't really care about the technique, it is only useful in helping me think better about the music. So Batigne, at the café between classes, taught me about music and music life, and shared his insights. Sometimes I did not understand immediately what he was trying to say, and then a few years later, it would click.

RL : In your professional career, you have definitely specialized in mallet instruments, as a soloist or as a chamber music player. How did you come to specialize in mallets, instead of becoming an orchestral percussionist for instance?

ES : I must say that I went through an unusual musical path. As a performer, I first played piano and violin. I started percussion much later, after having experienced a finger problem that made me quit piano. I completed my percussion training in three years and then Batigne quickly hired me as a mallets teacher.

In fact, when I first came to percussion as a student, I only wanted to play mallets. Batigne told me that it was out of the question, and that I should start off by working on the snare drum. Why? Because for him it was the basics. I insisted, saying that I had decided to enter the Conservatoire to work on mallet instruments. So he gave me a mallet part and told me that if I could read through it, he would also allow me to play mallets besides snare drum. I had a piano prize so I did not have too much problem reading. Batigne said "OK, you will learn to play snare drum because I think it is necessary for you, and you can also play mallets if you want, but I am not going to take care of that".

Why did he insist that I practice snare drum? Not to become a snare drummer, but to develop my wrists. According to Batigne, well responding wrists were essential for everything : timpani, mallets, and all percussion instruments. Working on the snare drum served me well later on. Unfortunatly, I think we are losing some of that today. There are people today who play the marimba and who have no wrists. Players must know how to do well controlled fast single and double strokes, and paradiddles - and it is even harder to play those on a marimba or vibes than on a snare drum because there is no bounce. But otherwise, there is no control, no detail. So that's the way it worked with Batigne.

After, by personnal preference, I concentrated on mallets, after having developped a general percussion technique and culture. I knew how to play timpani, snare drum and all that, but had an obvious ability for mallets. Fortunatly, I have always been offered work on mallets, mainly in chamber music. One of my close friends was a saxophone player. We recorded an album together and won the "Grand Prix du Disque" with it. We were 20 and it kind of launched our careers .

So I played a lot of chamber music, a lot of modern music and did a lot of touring. Then Jean Batigne offered me a job at the Conservatoire, which brought me financial security and enabled me to get involved in a lot of projects, like the "Accroche Note" ensemble with which I played a lot of contemporary music concerts. I also had a composition activity, always there, so I never lacked work.

RL : So your career was focused mainly on mallet instruments, in a chamber music setting. What about solo work?

ES : I don't really like solo mallets. One hour of solo marimba bores me, just like an hour of solo clarinet probably would. For me, vibraphone and marimba are chamber music instruments.

I must admit that I am bewildered be certain situations regarding mallets. Two years ago, I was invited to be part of the jury for the marimba competition organized by Keiko Abe in Japan . We heard around 90 candidates playing marimba, mostly women. Personally, I am interested in the people and in the music much more than in the instrument. So I wanted to know what made all these people concentrate exclusively on the marimba and how they saw themselves in the future. As a teacher, one of my objectives with students who want to become professionals, besides making them fully enjoy music, is to make sure they have what it takes to earn a living. So I asked these contestants what they thought they were going to do later on in their professional life. They all answered they wanted to play solo recitals and concertos with orchestras. I also found out that they only played marimba, that they did not know how to play vibraphone, nor play percussion or play a snare drum roll. As for repertoire, they had no knowledge of jazz and no interest in contemporary music. So one instrument, and one type of repertoire, solo marimba. No versatility.

Bewildering! And a good part of our actual percussion system cultivates that image of the solo marimbist. Personally, I don't even know one solo marimbist who earns a living doing just that, without having to teach. Not one! The only person I know that could earn a living strictly as a soloist would be Evelyn Glennie, but she does not only play marimba! So I think we should all stop having this virtual vision of percussion and stop having the younger generations believe in that. Of course, things are not all either black or white, and I don't want to go back to how things were in the 70s, because percussion has evolved. But I don't want to be part of a system in which we can't see reality.

I want to see people trained in what they want to do, in what they love, and to have some sort of multidiscipline, or at least to be musically open. And train them so they can earn a living. But on the other hand, I have nothing against opening new avenues.

RL : But we often hear that, the marimba technique having developped and become very sophisticated, a greater pressure is exercised on students who will not find the time to practice all percussion instruments at today's level, and might have to specialize much earlier in their training. Is it not creating a vicious circle?

ES : I don't think there is any vicious circle. At one time of our evolution we must make choices. You will very seldom find people who are "monsters" on the marimba and vibraphone, and at the same time great orchestral percussionists and top drumset or djembe players. I think we should have the tree vision: a good basis on percussion and the possibility to branch out in different specialized areas.

RL : Do you think contemporary music works have contributed to the evolution of the instruments, because of their rising difficulty levels?

ES : There have always been compositions that worked and others that have fallen in oblivion. I don't think it's up to the percussionists to judge. Having said that, works are actually more and more difficult to play and I ask myself why. I am thinking, for instance, at what is now known as the « new complexity », with composers such as Brian Ferneyhough. A good friend of mine, Steven Schick, plays a piece by Ferneyhough called « Bone Alphabet » which has very complex writing. Sometimes I ask myself if « too much writing » does not lead to « too much improvising ». Paradoxical as it might seem, at certain times I listen to contemporary music concerts where the music reminds me of certain free jazz pieces. Some of these piano pieces sound like Taylor. The player has to work months to play 80% of the notes, and the other guy just improvises…

Regarding the future of percussion, I think some of it will have to do with the mixing with other instruments, whether it is difficult or not and whether it contributes to the evolution of the instrument or not. The most fundamental criterion for me is whether or not the music is interesting and intelligent, not whether it advances the instrument or not. I don't really care if it makes the marimba or the vibraphone evolve, I just want to play interesting music. I don't really care if it adds something to the technique of the instrument.

RL : You use the Burton grip. There has been some debate between percussionists about the proper grip to use depending on the instrument and the repertoire. What is your take on that?

ES : I don't care about which grip one uses, as long as one can render the music in an interesting way. On the other hand, if a percussionist does not master his playing, if I find important technical problems, or physical pains, whichever grip is used, I will intervene. But as to which grip to use, I don't really care.

Today I think one can play vibraphone very well with a Stevens grip or marimba with Burton 's. If you play with the Stevens grip and work on melodic virtuosity, or Burton 's and work on rotation, you come up with pretty much the same results, there is not such a big difference, unless you want to get lost in the details.

RL : Let's talk about your composition work. You do write a lot. Have you started composing mainly to develop the marimba and percussion repertoire?

ES : Not at all, actually I do not write only for marimba. I have always loved composing and even if I did write a lot of percussion music, most percussionists know my Études, I do not write exclusively for percussion. For instance, my four latest compositions were a commission for the Luxembourg National Day, a concerto for three percussionists and brass band, a piece for choir and percussion commissioned by Gary Cook and John Pennington, and I just finished writing a piece for piano and percussion that was premiered a month ago. Upcoming are a musical for the "Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg " in 2004, a piece for a 12 percussionist group in Taiwan and a 50 minute show for choir and percussion in Marseille.

I must admit I prefer composing to playing, it brings me more satisfaction. I feel more pride out of music that comes from my imagination than from my know-how. A lot of percussionists have composed to develop the percussion repertoire, which is not really my case.

RL : But you did publish percussion pieces. Was it in reply to what seemed to you as a certain lack of available repertoire?

ES : More or less. I wrote a collection of keyboard pieces for 2 mallets, with an accompaniment on CD, that went around quite a bit, "Les Claviers Parcourent le Monde". In fact, it all started with another project commissioned by the « Ministère de l'éducation nationale » to four percussionists, Macarez, Geoffroy, Van Gucht and myself. We were asked to set up a list of percussion repertoire adapted to the different levels of training in the french system. I then went on with « Les Claviers Parcourent le Monde » followed by « Les 4 Baguettes Refont le Monde ». These collections are made up of small, fun to play not too hard pieces for students.

RL : To conclude this interview, I would like our readers to know a little more about the learning environment you and your colleagues have created at the Conservatoire de Strasbourg, where you teach?

ES : Batigne had at first decided to divide the percussion class in two, and not vertically. He would teach percussion, and I would teach mallets instruments. Students would have to study with both of us. This particular situation created a special dynamic and stimulated demand.

So we went from a class where Batigne had no more than 8 hours of teaching per week in 1980 to today's class where 5 faculty teach all together between 60 to 70 hours a week. We were very active at all levels and students came from everywhere. They soon realized that we had the time to look after them. Some stay in a core curriculum and go from one teacher to the other, and others who have a strong basis can specialize, like in mallets and chamber music with me for instance.

We have done a lot of projects in chamber music, with different composers like Steve Reich for instance. Some of the projects went on tour in Europe and Japan . Students also came from everywhere: Brasil, Chili , Japan , Poland , etc.

The five teachers really work as a team. There is one who concentrates on beginners, another that specializes in hand drumming, a third who is is an orchestra timpanist, another on snare drum and percussion and myself on mallets and chamber music. Supervision of the department is done in rotation. This is a unique situation in France and we have been very fortunate.

RL : Emmanuel Séjourné, merci!