Gérard Fernand Marcel Marc Frémy (12 March 1935 in

Bois-Colombes Bois-Colombes () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department, in the northwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. International companies such as Colgate-Palmolive, IBM and Aviva have their French headquart ...

- 20 January 2014 in

Haguenau Haguenau (; or ; ; historical ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Bas-Rhin Département in France, department of France, of which it is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture. It is second in size in the Bas-Rhin only to Strasbourg ...

) was a French pianist and composer.

Biography

A student with

Yves Nat Yves Philippe Avit Nat (29 December 1890 – 31 August 1956) was a French pianist and composer. Biography Nat was born in Béziers and showed an early aptitude for both piano and composition. By the age of seven he was allowed to improvise each ...

at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

, Frémy ended his studies by winning First prize at sixteen. He was designated by

Marcel Dupré Marcel Jean-Jules Dupré (; 3 May 1886 – 30 May 1971) was a French organist, composer, and pedagogue. Early life and education Born in Rouen into a wealthy musical family, Marcel Dupré was a child prodigy. His father Aimable Albert Dupré ...

and the Association française d’action artistique ( Culturesfrance) as a Soviet government scholarship holder. For three years, he studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow with

Heinrich Neuhaus Heinrich Gustav Neuhaus (, , Genrikh Gustavovič Nejgauz, 10 October 1964) was a Russian pianist and teacher. Part of a musical dynasty, he grew up in a Polish-speaking household. He taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1922 to 1964. Neuhaus ...

and then rubbed shoulders with

Sviatoslav Richter Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time,Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his interpreta ...

Emil Gilels Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (19 October 191614 October 1985, born Samuil) was a Soviet pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. His sister Elizabeth, three years his junior, was a violinist. His daughter Elena ...

, etc. Forty concerts in the USSR and recordings for the state radio will punctuate his stay in Russia. He then performed with equal success in most European countries, the United States and Japan, and participated in some of the most important festivals. He was soloist in ensembles such as Ensemble Ars Nova, Ensemble 2e2m and Musique Vivante, and played as part of

Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

's group at

Expo '70 The or Expo '70 was a world's fair held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, between 15 March and 13 September 1970. Its theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind." In Japanese, Expo '70 is often referred to as . It was the first world's fair ...

in Osaka (1970). His extensive repertoire extended from J.S. Bach to

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

. Gérard Frémy was perhaps the closest French performer to

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and Extended technique, non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one ...

's universe, known, in particular, for his interpretation of the ''

Sonatas and Interludes ''Sonatas and Interludes'' is a cycle of twenty pieces for prepared piano by American avant-garde composer John Cage (1912–1992). It was composed in 1946–48, shortly after Cage's introduction to Indian philosophy and the teachings of art hi ...

'' and ''

Music of Changes ''Music of Changes'' is a piece for solo piano by John Cage. Composed in 1951 for pianist and friend David Tudor, it is a ground-breaking piece of Indeterminacy (music), indeterminate music. The process of composition involved applying decisions ...

''. Frémy became an expert at preparing the piano, after performing the ''Sonatas and Interludes'' dozens of times, a process which took up to 4 hours when he first started. After the death of Maro Ajemian in 1978, dedicatee of ''Sonatas and Interludes'' (which she recorded in 1948), Cage told Frémy that, “There was Maro Ajemian, now there is you. Remarkably familiar with contemporary creation, Frémy gave many world premieres of some of the most important composers of the time, including

Luc Ferrari Luc Ferrari (5 February 1929 – 22 August 2005) was a French composer of Italian heritage and a pioneer in musique concrète and electroacoustic music. He was a founding member of RTF's Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRMC), working alongside c ...

's ''Und so weiter'' (1965), ''Si le piano était un corps de femme'' (1966) and ''Société II'' (1967);

's ''Pôle pour deux'' (1970); and the ''24 Préludes pour piano'' from

Maurice Ohana Maurice Ohana (12 June 1913 – 13 November 1992) was a French composer. Ohana's output includes choral works, string quartets, suites for ten-string guitar, a ''Tiento'' for six-string guitar, and operas. Life and career Ohana was born in Casa ...

(1973). Composer Michèle Bokanowski dedicated ''Pour un pianiste'' (1973-1974) to him.pour un pianiste
(YouTube) From the mid-1960s and throughout the 1970s, Frémy was an active member of the Groupe d'Etude et Réalisation Musicales (GERM), founded by Pierre Mariétan in 1966, alongside

Jean-Yves Bosseur Jean-Yves Bosseur (born in Paris, 5 February 1947) is a French composer and writer. Bosseur studied composition with Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Cologne Courses for New Music, from 1965 to 1968, at the ...

, Michel Amoric, Philippe Drogoz, Bernadette Val, Martin Davorin-Jagodic, Costin Miereanu, Horacio Vaggione, and others. As part of the GERM he recorded

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist music, minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his work became notab ...

's ''Keyboard Study 2'', released on LP on BYG Records in 1970. In the 1970s, Frémy was romantically involved with composer

Éliane Radigue Éliane Radigue (born January 24, 1932) is a French composer. She began working in the 1950s and her first compositions were presented in the late 1960s. Until 2000 her work was almost exclusively created with the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer and ...

. Radigue's piece ''Geelriandre'' (1972) was dedicated to Frémy, and featured him on prepared piano. Among Frémy's favourite composers were J.S. Bach,

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

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 ...

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

, and

Cage A cage is an enclosure often made of mesh, bars, or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal or person in captivity, capturing an animal or person, and displayi ...

Teaching

An important part of Frémy's career has been devoted to pedagogy, as he taught in the Music Department of the Université Paris-VIII-Vincennes (alongside

Daniel Charles Daniel Paul Charles was a French musician, musicologist and philosopher. He was born on 27 November 1935 in Oran (Algeria) and died on 21 August 2008 in Antibes (France). Biography He was a student of Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservator ...

, Éveline Andréani,

Daniel Caux Daniel Caux (21 October 1935 – 12 July 2008) was a French musicologist, essayist, journalist, music critic, radio producer and organizer of musical events. He was a member of the Académie Charles-Cros. Biography After studying plastic arts a ...

and Costin Miereanu) from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. He then teached piano and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

classes at the Conservatoire National de région de Strasbourg from 1975 to 1985 and later at the

. Among his pupils were Cédric Tiberghien, , Nicolas Horvath, Cândido Lima, Dimitri Vassilakis, Nicolas Stavy, Klaus Steffes-Hollände, Sodi Braide, Stéphane Seban, and Bernard Geyer.

Selected compositions

* ''Fantaisie pour violon et piano'' (1956) * ''Duo'' * ''Autobiophonie'' (1973) * ''Eine kleine Freundschaftmusik'' (1974) * ''Easyroad'' (1990)

References

External links

Official website

Interview
on (4 November 2001)
Hommage à Gérard Frémy
(Conservatoire de Paris) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fremy, Gerard 1935 births 2014 deaths Place of birth missing 20th-century French male classical pianists 20th-century French classical pianists 20th-century French composers Conservatoire de Paris alumni Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris 21st-century French male classical pianists 21st-century French classical pianists French male composers 21st-century French composers 21st-century French male composers