aKousthéa
Cie Alexandre Levy
Founded in 2003, the aKousthéa musical company offers a wide range of musical creations. Known for including a live show dimension to its offerings, it produces installations around which the company’s artists interact directly with the public.
Located in Marne-la-Vallée, France, the company receives financial support from the French Ministry of Culture (through the DRAC Île-de-France and DGCA culture-promoting public organizations), the General Council of Seine-et-Marne, the DICRÉAM (Multimedia creation-supporting national public organization), the Fondation Malakoff-Médéric (Branch of a pension organization supporting creation in favor of handicapped people), the SACD and SACEM (national royalty-collecting organizations), the Fondation Beaumarchais (a non-profit organization allocating grants to encourage artistic creation), among others.
aKousthéa
Cie Alexandre Levy
Alexandre Lévy studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (CNSM), where he was awarded five first prizes, and worked with Édith Lejet and Michèle Reverdy, before going on to study composition and electroacoustic music with Michel Zbar, at the Conservatoire Régional (CRR) of Boulogne-Billancourt.
Finding musical creation to be a means of better getting to know oneself, as well as better learning to listen to others, Alexandre Lévy has taken to weaving into his works subtle links between musical creation and transmission, invention and interaction. Getting the audience to interact in the creations is definitely a strong point of his work, which combines the act of sharing with that of creating.
This naturally leads him to develop a musical world open to new forms, mixed works, vocal and instrumental pieces and stage productions, including some operas, and to extend his scope to electro-acoustic and interactive forms. Teaming up with artists from other horizons (Sophie Lecomte, Pedro Pauwels, Élisabeth Prouvost, et al.), he creates “In Situ” (European network for artistic creation in public space) installations, bringing an architectural and patrimonial dimension to his work.
This is how he weaves yet a third link between musical creation and his audiences, one related to living areas, downtown areas, parks and natural environments: Alexandre offers a poetical approach to these everyday places by projecting on to them a musical composition that they inspired in him.
His works are recognized and represented in the official context of French contemporary music public organizations, such as: the Multiphonies initiative of the Groupe de Recherche Musicale (GRM), the Musiques en scène festival of the GRAME (National electronic music research group) in Lyons, the Rencontres Internationales de musique contemporaine in Cergy, the Festival de Musique contemporaine in Enghien, the Académie Ravel in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and the Concours International de Mélodie in Toulouse, etc.
Further, his talent for artistic propositions bridges domains and attracts the attention of audiences from interdisciplinary contexts, including, for instance, the Domaine Régional de Chaumont-sur-Loire, the Musée Gadagne in Lyons, the Metaphore in Hénin-Carvin, the Fondation La Borie in the Limousin region, the Parc Floral in Paris.
His diversified artistic paths have led him to create plays for young audiences; the perfect opportunity to develop an interactive approach with children.
He created music for the theater for the AMK Company between 2008 and 2014. His creations have been internationally staged, often through the mediation of the Val-d’Oise Theater Festival, in events such as: the Rotterdam Festival, the Salzburg Theater, the Acta European Festival, among others.
His projects have come into being thanks to various creative residencies where he could interact with the public and work within public living spaces, including: the GRAME (CNCM) in 2012, 2013, 2015, the Muse en Circuit (CNCM) in 2014, the Métaphone in Oignies in 2014 and 2015, the CRR of Cergy-Pontoise in 2008 and 2009, the Nord-Pas-de-Calais French region in 2007, and the La Péniche Opéra houseboat, to name a few.
To ensure the continuity of an artistic and technical team to work with such an original mix of musical creation, transmission and public places, he has created his own artistic company, aKousthéa, through which he has produced cross-disciplinary works such as “Désordres,” “Jardin de sensations,” “Radeaux,” all live labs of musical forms that can be extended to other artistic disciplines.