Originally published in The Clarinet 51/2 (March 2024).
Copies of The Clarinet are available for ICA members.
The Clarinet Choir
by Margaret Thornhill
An Interview with Alexis Ciesla
English Version
Clarinetist and composer Alexis Ciesla is professor of clarinet at the Conservatory of Saint-Priest, a town in the Metropolis of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alps region in Southeast France. Alexis studied clarinet in Lyon, Geneva, and Paris, and received the premier prix in clarinet and bass clarinet. In parallel, he was clarinetist in the Orchestre Francais des Jeunes and soloist in the Orchestre Mondial des Jeunesse Musicales. Drawn to teaching, he received his Diplome d’Etat and also his Certificat d’Aptitude and has taught at the Conservatory of Saint-Priest since 1992. He has participated in many chamber music and orchestral projects, and has written pedagogic works as well as pieces for orchestra clarinet ensembles, musical theater, and soloists. His compositions are published by Robert Martin, Da Camera, Advance Music, Billaudot, IMD, and others. Passionate about improvised and traditional music, he founded the Doumka Clarinet Ensemble with whom he recorded four albums praised by critics. In January of 2024, Alexis was elected co-president (with Sylvie Hue) of the new French Clarinet Association.
Alexis Ciesla in June 2023
In December 2023, we had a conversation about his life and work.
MARGARET THORNHILL: Alexis, you are a prolific composer! I own many of your pieces for clarinet choir published by Advance Music, (Klezmer Suite, Seven Sparks, Concerto for Clarinets, the quartet Tarnov Suite) but until I started listening to your YouTube channel, I had no idea of the variety of other commissioned works you wrote for the clarinet choirs of Sandnes (Norway), Calamus (Italy), and France: Finistere, Colmar, Langues de Bois, and the Collectif du Rhône. How can interested readers obtain scores/parts for some of these unpublished works?
ALEXIS CIESLA: I’m in the process of putting together a website that will list all my music with its characteristics, where to listen to it, and how to obtain it, etc. It’s true that not all my music is published. Publishers have to make choices and that’s understandable; some music wouldn’t sell much if it were published. For others, I think it’s a shame, but I’m not giving up hope of finding ways of distributing them!
Thessalonique-Istanbul (for clarinet or saxophone choir) is a very recent piece, and I have high hopes of publishing it.
Orient express! (for two solo clarinetists and clarinet choir) will soon be published by Editions Robert Martin.
Le Bal Russe (scored for woodwind quintet and clarinet choir)—I think it’s a fine piece and I’m hoping to publish it.
Bublitchki (clarinet quartet) is published at EDRMartin.com.
Plitsch-Platsch (for clarinet quintet or clarinet choir) is one of the pieces I send directly to people who ask me for it.
Breizh’Mer Variations (for clarinet choir) is a more difficult piece to propose to a publisher, as its content is quite specific. The same goes for Indrahanush (scored for clarinet choir and Indian musicians) and Décisif (scored for accordion and clarinet choir).
MT: I admire your clarinet playing very much! You are classically trained, but you have a deep knowledge of klezmer, Balkan, and other Eastern styles (Turkish, Indian…). How did you first learn these musical styles and when did you start playing and composing in them?
AC: I had a very classical training with my teachers indeed. But very soon after I finished my studies, I began to take a closer interest in all kinds of music where the clarinet was present. Klezmer music is one of them, along with jazz, traditional music from Central Europe, and improvised music. I quickly realized that my curiosity and my appetite for discovery would not allow me to delve deeply into all of them. So I decided to play and write my own music, drawing freely on these influences.
There’s no doubt that my 15 years with the Doumka Clarinet Ensemble (1995-2000) were an incredible laboratory for discovering this music, learning some of it and, above all, realizing that I could compose music myself, even though I was purely self-taught!
Doumka Clarinet Ensemble and Youval Micenmacher in Morocco in 2003
MT: I’ve listened to many of Doumka’s tracks, and the inventiveness and variety of the music is stunning. The combination of three clarinets with percussion (often middle Eastern) is an unusual choice but it really works. What made you decide on this instrumentation?
AC: The end of my classical studies and the discovery of traditional Eastern European music and klezmer, etc., resulted in the desire to open up my field of play; friendship with two other clarinetists (Hervé Bouchardy and Franck René) sharing the same profile did the rest. We made four discs in formats where the three clarinetists, who can play EÌ, BÌ, alto, and bass clarinet, collaborated in turn with the accordion, oriental percussion, drums, and double bass. Initially, the accordion brought us the “traditional” color, which is what we were looking for. But quite quickly, we put this instrument aside, keeping only the percussion (tof, zarb, bendir…). This allowed us to not lock ourselves into an aesthetic that was too clearly identifiable.
MT: The album La Coquille et le Clergyman is “way out.” One website (Cezanne) says it knows “no boundaries”!
AC: After the album Café Rembrandt we actually worked on a film concert project around films from the surrealist movement. The resulting album The Shell and the Clergyman is in fact a form of UFO, but this is a reflection of Germaine Dulac’s films… Subsequently, we moved towards a slightly more jazz aesthetic, with the addition of double bass and drums for the album Afar, and it is this album which definitively determined my desire to move to the side of composition rather than (just) that of playing. Each of these four recordings, as well as other projects, including one with a symphony orchestra and a Yemeni singer, gave rise to concerts and tours, of course.
MT: Looking over your publications and your video output, I really admire the way your musical life is so integrated. Your composition, teaching, and performing seem to feed into each other.
AC: I admit that my life is, in general, very musical! It is rich in three axes which do not go without one another. After a stint with the World Musical Youth Orchestra and the French Youth Orchestra, I came very close to joining the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), which was a real disappointment at the time. But subsequently, I was able to measure the positive values that the combination of concerts, teaching, and composition brought me. And indeed, these three disciplines feed off each other.
MT: You write delightful music to perform for and with your students—the Duo Etudes, for example—and you give concerts where you are featured but which include your conservatory studio (such as the “Carte Blanche” Concert in 2019). Is “teaching by example” an important part of your pedagogy?
AC: I have been passionate about teaching for over 35 years, regardless of the level of my students. It’s an incredible challenge to pass on your passion, music, and the joys of the clarinet. I try to be as open as possible to aesthetics and to different composers, but it is true that my clarinet class is an extraordinary field of experimentation! Am I missing a piece for a particular strength? Other teachers must want it too! Right? So I write for this duo, this quartet, this student, my entire class… and I find it really interesting that other clarinetists can benefit from it!
It is also important that our students see us in a playing situation; I invite them to my concerts, and when possible, we perform on the same stage, as equals. And teaching by example continues by taking my students to concerts. We went to see Yom, Martin Fröst, David Krakauer, Giora Feidman, Philippe Berrod, Shirley Brill, etc., and each time, there are lessons in music, questions, wonder, and curiosity that nourish the desire of my students.
Alexis Ciesla, Concert Carte Blanche, with his students and faculty colleagues
MT: You’ve also created several theater pieces that include the clarinet ensemble, spoken word, singing, and staging, which have socially important story lines. Loin du Garbo is literally about exile; Halb is about being “the other half of the world” and the transmission from generation to generation; and When Malka was Dreaming—with choreography, text, singing and orchestra—is about a Jewish family with too many children and too little money in a long-ago village in Poland (the Yiddish folktale where the father is advised to bring each of the animals into the house to show “It could always be worse!”). What was it like for you collaborating on these productions?
AC: At the start, there is always a need, a desire, an idea of collaboration. “Halb, the other half” is a very good example…May I tell you?
A few years ago, I looked in vain for a musical tale for my clarinet class. I found a few tales, but nothing that really satisfied me. Feeling sufficiently equipped to compose, I decided to write a story myself. I approached an author friend with whom I now systematically collaborate when it comes to writing texts (to each their own profession!). I gave her specifications and she began to write a tailor-made text. In particular, the clarinet had to be present in the story! After that, it was I who took over by putting her text to music. And then, a second time, we played the game of “creative ping-pong”! We took turns moving the project forward. It has become:
1 a story for clarinet class
2 a more ambitious tale, with singing and choirs
3 a show with my fellow conservatory professors
4 an award-winning record book
5 a professional show…
This is also the case for Loin de Garbo, commissioned by the company that took over Halb and Quand Malka Rêvait, commissioned by three conservatories in the southwest of France. In this case, I essentially started with preexisting stories and music, Yiddish tales, and klezmer music, and I arranged them to make a joyful, invigorating, burlesque, and mischievous show. Each time, I try to respect the desires, the levels of the musicians, the expectations of everyone. For example, Halb is aimed at secondary students while Quand Malka rêvait concerns all clarinetists, whether beginners or postgraduates.
MT: What is your next project?
AC: I am currently working on:
- The collection New Klezmers. Ten klezmer pieces for the clarinet “my way,” with accompaniment for piano, double bass, percussion, and oud (for secondary students.) It will also be published for saxophone, flute, oboe, etc.
- A show Les Bois font leurs jeux for a conservatory around the theme of sport, for all the instruments in the woodwind family.
- From the earth… to the sea, a piece for clarinet choir, double basses and percussion.
- A Rhapsodie for alto saxophone and string quintet, for the final round of an international saxophone competition in France.
- Maybe a clarinet concerto…
For more information, see the Wikipedia article on Alexis Ciesla, as well as his website AlexisCiesla.wordpress.com.
Alexis Ciesla in rehearsal with his colleagues at the Conservatoire of Saint-Priest
Margaret Thornhill, DMA, has written a column about clarinet choirs for The Clarinet since 2007. She is a performer and private teacher based in Los Angeles where she conducts the Los Angeles Clarinet Choir and is currently an adjunct professor of clarinet at Claremont Graduate University. Contact her with news about your clarinet choirs and their repertoire via her website, MargaretThornhill.com.
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