Grégoire Blanc (born in 1996) is a French

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

who plays the

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

and the

musical saw A musical saw, also called a singing saw, is a hand saw used as a musical instrument. Capable of continuous glissando (portamento), the sound creates an ethereal tone, very similar to the theremin. The musical saw is classified as a plaque frict ...

Biography

Early life

Born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Grégoire began studying

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

at the age of four alongside other musical instruments. At the age of 15, he heard about the theremin and developed a passion for the instrument. Encouraged to work on a playing technique by his cello teacher, he then published a few videos on YouTube which attracted the attention of a wide audience. In 2013, a video of him performing

Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

's ''Clair de Lune'' garnered more than 5 million views. Meeting renowned thereminists such as

Carolina Eyck Carolina Eyck (born 26 December 1987) is a German-Sorbs, Sorb musician and composer who specialises in playing the theremin. Biography Eyck was born in 1987, near Berlin, Germany. She is a member of the Sorbs, Sorbian community of East German ...

and

Lydia Kavina Lydia Evgenevna Kavina (; born 8 September 1967) is a British-Russian theremin player, based in Oxfordshire, UK. The granddaughter of Léon Theremin's first cousin, Soviet anthropologist and primatologist Mikhail Nesturkh, Kavina was born in ...

, helped him to go a step further. He graduated from

École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

in 2018. A year later, he decided to devote himself entirely to his musical career.

Musical style

As a classically trained musician, Blanc aims to contribute to legitimize the theremin, to "get audiences to appreciate the theremin’s tones as music, and not just a curiosity". He also mentioned his desire to escape from the classical repertoire. He frequently collaborates with other musicians including

pianists A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

, symphonic orchestras and

organists An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists. In addition, an organist may accompany congregational h ...

in public performances and online. His dexterity and intense musicality combined with his height and long fingers prove advantageous for the practice of theremin. In 2020, he was involved with

Moog Music Moog Music Inc. ( ) is an American synthesizer company based in Asheville, North Carolina. It was founded in 1953 as R. A. Moog Co. by Robert Moog and his father and was renamed Moog Music in 1972. Its early instruments included the Moog sy ...

in the development and marketing of a brand new model of theremin, alongside thereminists

Dorit Chrysler Dorit Chrysler, born Dorit Kreisler, is a renowned Austrian born composer, thereminist and sound artist. She has written music for films, TV and video art featured in museum collections such as the Guggenheim and MoMA. Dorit co-founded the New Yor ...

and Pamelia Stickney. In 2022, he released «À ses derniers pas, entrant dans la boue», an album of new music for theremin, piano and

continuum fingerboard The Continuum Fingerboard or Haken Continuum is a music performance controller and synthesizer developed by Lippold Haken, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, and sold by Haken Audio, located in Cha ...

by Canadian composer Aleks Schürmer. The album, released on the

Canadian Music Centre The Canadian Music Centre was founded in 1959 by a group of Canadian composers who saw a need to create a repository for Canadian music. It now holds Canada's largest collection of Canadian concert music, and works to promote the music of its As ...

's label, Centredisc represents Blanc's first recital album.

Discography

Album

* New York Theremin Society – ''Theremin 100'' (2020) * Aleks Schürmer – À ses derniers pas, entrant dans la boue (2022)

Film music

Source : Internet Movie Database * ''Holy Beasts'' (2019) * ''Es war einmal in Deutschland...'' (2017) * ''Ondes noires'' (2017)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanc, Gregoire Living people French classical musicians Theremin players 21st-century French classical musicians 1996 births