Andy Emler MegaOctet
Biography Andy Emler MegaOctet
Andy Emler
A French composer, pianist, organist, improviser, conductor born March 12, 1958 in Paris.
A pianist by training, with a very early taste for improvisation, Andy Emler appears with rock and pop groups. After traditional studies at the Paris Conservatory, he pursued his first aspirations and launched into all kinds of experiences with musicians such as Antoine Hervé, Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, Woody Shaw, Trilok Gurtu…
In 1989 he founded the Andy Emler MegaOctet, an ensemble showcasing improvising musicians coming from a classical background as well as jazz and rock. He has played with many ensembles, and in 2000, with Thierry Virolle, he created the company Aime l’air.
While accepting the constraints of written composition (pieces based on the fundamental note E in E total, an obsessive rhythmic swaying in triple time in Obsession 3…), he likes to create free play within a defined framework (Ciel de sable, concerto for improvising pianist and orchestra, 2015). Often virtuoso, his output bears the influences of all 20th century styles of music (Du slam à l’Atlas for 5 soloists of the MegaOctet and 5 Moroccan musician-singers, 2011). A catalyst for encounters, he responds to the compositional demands of all formats of orchestras or the mixing of professional and amateur musicians (Le fun des oufs for 4 soloists and 4 wind bands, first performed at the Musica festival in 2015; Triple concerto, a été malmené for jazz trio and symphony orchestra, 2015).
Also a teacher, Andy Emler trains teachers at the Conservatory in improvisation, encouraging the creation of passageways between classic music and jazz.
