Fabrizio CASSOL

Belgian saxophonist, jazzman and composer Fabrizio Cassol regularly collaborates with choreographers such as Alain Platel (with vsprs, based on Monteverdi’s Vespers; pitié!, based on Bach’s St Matthew Passion; Coup Fatal, a mix between Congolese and Baroque music; and the choral project Coup de Chœurs ), Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (Rosas), the Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio (MAU), and the Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula (Studios Kabako). In opera, he has worked with composer Philippe Boesmans and stage director Luc Bondy; and for theatre, with the South African stage director Brett Bailey and the group Third World Bunfight for Macbeth, and with TJ Stan.

He worked for several years with KVS / Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels under the direction of Jan Goossens, followed by a residency at La Monnaie / De Munt under the direction of Bernard Foccroulle. From 2012 to 2015, he was in residency at the Fondation Royaumont outside of Paris, where he pursued his study of world cultures: his creations there included ‘Aka Balkan Moon’, with Bulgarian musicians Nedyalko Nedyalkov and Stoyan Jankulov, and ‘Alefba’, with Egyptian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Turkish musicians. His interest in non-European music was sparked by a major journey among the Aka Pygmies of Central African Republic in 1992, after which he also developed a close relationship with Asia (mainly India) and Africa: he has worked with the Malian diva Oumou Sangare, the griot Baba Sissoko and Black Machine, the Indian master drummer U.K. Sivaraman, the Senegalese percussionist Doudou N’Diaye Rose, and with artists from the improvisational music scene such as Mark Turner, Robin Eubanks, David Gilmore, Magic Malik, Marc Ducret and Joe Lovano.

Photo credit: Clément Vial