Randall Avers & Benoit Albert
Les Frères Méduses (the Jellyfish Brothers)
Les Freres Meduses blend striking virtuosity with inventive programming, expressive beauty, and engaging humor. Master performers, master teachers, and warm wonderful personalities.Dr. Matthew Hinsley, President, Austin Classical Guitar Society
…fun loving approach and unbelievable talent…Adera Causey, Curator of Education, Hunter Museum of American Art
Biography
Les Frères Méduses perform historical and contemporary music that is up-tempo and energetic. In order to expand the typical duo guitar repertoire, original compositions and free improvisation are also included in every program.
Les Frères Méduses is a name that evokes visual images: forms and shapes, changing and transforming, evolving over time, with different angles. In French, “Meduses” conjures a poetic and mythical image, while the English translation, “Jellyfish Brothers” has a light, comic, amiable quality.
Albert and Avers began their collaborations at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1999. Their repertoire reflected the music common to guitar duos while contributing arrangements of lute music by Ennemond Gautier and a work by Bulgarian composer Atanas Ourkouzounov that they premiered. Avers/Albert performed throughout France for two years and won the 1ère prix in chamber music at the Conservatoire de Paris.
For several years, the two worked independently, focusing on their individual projects–Avers concentrated on solo performance and continued music study in the United States and in Norway, while Albert pursued a larger musical and artistic palette that included composition, free-improvisation, and experimentation in the visual art forms.
The duo resumed in 2008 with a matured approach to concertizing and programming, reflecting the world of music as they see it. Their musical programs are crafted around a large body of music that includes classical, jazz, pop, Balkan, Brazilian, and folk. Using painters, scenic designers, and dancers, they have worked on the visual concepts of performance also. In master classes and seminars, the duo works together to emphasize topics involving rhythm linked to physiology and musical/physical movement, leading students to understand the scenographic aspect found in the visual performance arts.
Since Fall 2009, Les Frères Méduses have performed more than sixty concerts in the United States, France, and Norway, both as a duo and as soloists with orchestra. They interviewed and performed live for PBS KUHF in Houston, and interviewed with the internationally syndicated Classical Guitar AliveI radio show. In 2010, the duo released their recording, "Ten Years After", as well as the live DVD, "Live at the Theatre Ducourneau" (April 2010). Albert and Avers have programmed a number of their original compositions for the duo and will premiere a number of new pieces for guitar duo in Fall 2011.
Les Frères Méduses are managed exclusively by Dan McDaniels LLC. Original compositions for guitar duo are published by Clear Note.
Randall Avers
Randall grew up in Massillon, Ohio, and started his classical guitar studies at the age of six. He pursued his interest intensely, studying at seven different universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Europe. From the time he was seventeen, he competed internationally, winning prestigious prizes, among them the GF of America award." He performs throughout North America and in Europe and was an Artistic Ambassador of the United States, touring North Africa and Egypt. Avers resides in Norway and teaches guitar at the Røyken Videregående Steinerskole near Oslo. In 2010, he was awarded the "Kunstnerstipend" (Artists Stipend) by the Norwegian government for a two-year period.
Benoît Albert
Benoît grew up in la Charente, in the southwestern region of France. Inspired by pop and rock music, he began classical guitar studies at the age of fourteen. In a short time, he progressed to earning a place at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he graduated with top honors. As a performer, Albert tours with a variety of ensembles in places as far-reaching as Venezuela and Malaysia. He has recorded seven CDs including two entirely of his own compositions. Albert teaches guitar at the Conservatory of Music and Dance in Agen.