BENJAMIN DUPÉ

Rendezvous: Il se trouve que les oreilles n’ont pas de paupières, June 18, 19, 20

Born in Normandy in 1976, Benjamin Dupé studied music at the Nantes Conservatory (guitar and composition), then at the Paris Conservatory (Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique). His teachers included guitarist Alberto Ponce, composer and improviser Alain Savouret, and producer Georges Werler.

After he graduated from the Paris Conservatory in 1999, he chose to devote himself entirely to musical creation, developing a polyvalence in the skills he uses: instrumental and electroacoustic writing, improvisation and performance, realization and programming of technological devices, etc. Being close to the live performance scene also facilitated a reflection on the question of the representation of contemporary music and the invention of new forms distinct from that of the traditional concert.

Benjamin Dupé © Agnès Mellon

Benjamin Dupé © Agnès Mellon

With such issues in mind, in 2000 he co-founded the “musical invention group” Sphota with composers Benjamin de la Fuente and Samuel Sighicelli; together they created seven shows. He also worked for theater producers (Declan Donnellan for Le Cid at Avignon Festival in 1998, Renaud-Marie Leblanc in 2010 for Erich Von Stroheim by Christophe Pellet at Le Merlan scène nationale in Marseilles) or choreographers. He worked closely with choreographer Thierry Thieû Niang on several dance shows. In 2007 they created A bout de souffle, with elderly people at La Friche la Belle de mai in Marseilles. And, during the 2008 Marseilles Festival they performed Au bois dormant, a show about autism, with the collaboration of writer Marie Desplechin and producer Patrice Chéreau.

In 2009, he created Comme je l’entends (lit. As I Hear It), a solo performance dealing with the issue of the audience’s perception of contemporary music. In 2010, he composed a radio version of Comme je l’entends for seven instruments recorded by musicians including Pascal Contet and Bruno Chevillon. In 2012, he created Fantôme, un léger roulement, et sur la peau tendue qu’est notre tympan (lit. Ghost, light rolling, and on the taut skin of our eardrum), a show played on the opening night of the Les Musiques Festival in Marseilles. Performed by a group of remote controlled mechanical instruments and resonant objects, freely inspired by the myth of Orpheus, this piece for an audience of fifty people – made comfortable amid a stage designed musical device – offers them a sensorial experiment in the wonderful and ghostly. From 2012 until 2014, Benjamin Dupé will be associate composer at Le Phénix scène nationale in Valenciennes, within the framework of a residence supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sacem.