piano
Kenji Ouellet is a pianist, media, and performance artist born in Quebec City,
Canada, and based in Berlin. He studied piano performance at Laval University,
Quebec, and Hunter College (C.U.N.Y.) with Edna Golandsky, graduated in Digital Art at the University for Applied Arts in Vienna, and in Experimental Media Design (Film) at the University of the Arts in Berlin, where he became Meisterschüler in 2009.
After being introduced to the Taubman Approach by Robert Durso, he studied its application and pedagogy with Edna Golandsky, cofounder of the Dorothy
Taubman Institute of Piano and of the Golandsky Institute. He teaches a wide
range of pianists (classical and jazz players, from young students to professionals and recording artists). One of the few teachers in Europe with an extensive training in the Taubman Approach and its pedagogy, he has more than 25 years of experience helping piano players solve technical or musical problems, recover from playing injuries, and train in the Taubman approach.
He has given workshops and conferences on piano technique and pianists’ health for universities and piano schools in Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., and Canada.
Ouellet’s interdisciplinary practice encompasses films, video art and performance, where composition and sound design play a central role. His video work has been shown and received distinctions internationally, including the Bremen Video Art Award, the Cast & Cut Film Grant, and prizes at international film and video festivals in Lisbon, Moscow, Toronto, London, and Yerevan, among others. His work has been presented at various festivals and institutions across Europe and beyond, including the European Media Art Festival (Osnabrück), the Zendai Museum of Modern Art (Shanghai), the Weserburg Museum of Modern Art (Bremen), L’Etrange Film Festival in Paris, the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, and the Mois Multi (Québec).
https://www.kenjiouellet.net/en/biography/
klavierspiel.org
Workshop: Music and the moving image
(Kenji Ouellet)
Music in film or moving image works is a central component in the construction of meaning, not merely a background element.
It can be argued, along the lines of Michel Chion, that in any kind of moving image work, sound, music, speech, and image form a single perceptual unity, where all elements mutually influence each other and are not experienced separately by the viewers.
In other words, the meaning or effect of music or an image on its own is different from when they are combined, even when they aim only to reinforce each other.
This workshop is open to musicians of all styles, including improvisers, performers, and composers. Together, we will explore and experiment with a range of possible relationships between music and images and/or a soundtrack elements: from the concrete to the abstract, from the formal to the emotional, from amplification to contradiction, spanning moods from horror to humor to meditation. The analytical and aesthetic tools introduced will draw not only from my own artistic practice and selected works by specific artists but also from key ideas in film and sound theory.
Structure
1.2.3.4 A lecture-style presentation will introduce a range of possible relationships between music, sound (including voice), and image—both in narrative and non-narrative contexts—accompanied by illustrative examples.
A selection of short scenes from various genres (narrative, non-narrative, documentary, and fiction) will be provided. These may contain voices or non-musical sound elements. Participants will choose one or more scenes to work with. The music can be played, improvised, or be a new composition.
In subsequent sessions, participants will improvise, perform, or compose music for their selected scenes, trying out different and contrasting approaches. This can be done individually or in groups. Each session will include group feedback, analysis, and discussion.
If participants wish, the workshop may culminate in a final presentation of selected works. However, the emphasis throughout will be on maintaining a safe space for experimentation and creative exploration.