French composer and jazz pianist born in Paris in 1974.
A pianist with a diploma from Nantes Conservatory, Baptiste Trotignon discovered jazz and improvisation as an autodidact in his teenage years. He then entered the jazz class at the Paris Conservatory, rapidly leaving it in order to experiment with jam sessions. Having founded a jazz trio with the double bass player Clovis Nicolas and the drummer Tony Rabeson (1998), he recorded his first album, Fluide (2000), gaining a reputation for his mastery of the piano and the harmonic sophistication of his approach to improvisation. ‘French Revelation of the Year’ at the Victoires du Jazz 2003, Trotignon has appeared at many international festivals, has recorded many CDs and collaborated with many different artistes in various formations.
Since 2010 Trotignon has also been a composer. He has developed an individual language that includes redirected memories of the European musical tradition from Bach to the present day. Appreciating the notion of ritornello, he investigated cantabile, at times juxtaposing a sophisticated language and simple melodic elements, conceived as reference points for the listener. His music, be it for solo instrumentalist or orchestra, is imbued with a harmonic thought and with a rhythmic and percussive vitality. His works include Different spaces for piano and orchestra, first performed by Nicholas Angelich and the Orchestre de l’Opéra de Bordeaux-Aquitaine conducted by Paul Daniel (2011), a work for which he won the Grand Prix Lycéen for composers 2017; Sonata for flute and piano, first performed by Philippe Bernold and Jean-François Heisser at the Château d’Hardelot (2014); Subterfuges for violin, cello and piano, first performed by David Grimal, Anne Gastinel and Philippe Cassard at the Wigmore Hall, London (2015); Hiatus et turbulences for orchestra, commissioned by Musique Nouvelle en Liberté for the Grand Prix Lycéen for composers, first performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Marzena Diakun at Radio France (2017); Au bout du petit matin for mixed chorus and cello, first performed by Henri Demarquette and the vocal ensemble Sequenza 9.3 conducted by Catherine Simonpietri (2018); L’air de rien, concertino for piano and orchestra, first performed by the composer and the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, conducted by Michael Hofstetter in Courbevoie (2018); Move, concerto for trumpet and orchestra, first performed by Romain Leleu and the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sascha Goetzel in Kuopio, Finland (2019).