| Intro | French pianist |
| Is |
Musician Jazz musician Composer Pianist |
| From | France |
| Type | Music |
| Gender | female |
| Birth | 22 November 1962 |
| Age: | 57 years |
Frederique Trunk was born in Colmar, France and graduated in 1986 from the Conservatoire de Music de Strasbourg with honors in piano, ear training, and theory. She earned a Certificate of Chamber Music and Sight Reading and graduated with a diploma in musicology from the Universite des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg.
In 1992, Frederique went to New York City to study jazz piano and harmony at the New School’s Jazz and Contemporary Music Program with Kenny Werner, Fred Hersch, and Maria Schneider. She has studied jazz piano and composition privately with Art Resnick, Richie Beirach, and Kirk Nurock, as well as William Allaudin Mathieu, and perfected her classical piano technique and teaching skills with Madeline Bruser.
As a soloist and bandleader, Frederique has toured in Europe, Japan, Morocco, The United States, Canada, and, most recently, Barcelona, Spain. She has worked with, and been influenced by, many musical combinations from solo piano to quartets as well as larger groups such as salsa bands and chamber orchestras.
In 1996, Frederique formed a duet with Lebanese pianist Ramzi Moufarej. A year later, they formed the musical collaboration Myriade. Using an unusual combination of two pianos, cello, the oud, and percussion, their album Soukoun was released in the spring of 2001.
In 1998, she formed her subsequent group, Frederique’s Trio which presented a blend of Jazz standards and French songs. She completed her first album Secret Love in December 1999. In 2006 she released her Paris, New York…and Elsewhere.
In addition to writing for her Jazz trio and Myriade, Frédérique has been composing works for small ensembles and orchestra combining Classical and Jazz concepts enriched by her diverse interests and influences. Paysages Mouvants (Moving Landscapes), her piece for orchestra and Jazz trio, debuted to an enthusiastic audience in Florence Gould Hall at the New York French Institute Alliance Française, March 19, 2000. The Florence Gould Foundation then commissioned her to create another orchestral piece, Ombres et Miroirs (Shadows and Reflections), for strings, piano and percussion, that premiered February 6, 2002 at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall, New York City. A new piece ordered by Jean Pierre Schmitt -director of the French American Conservatory in New York- ESPERA, Ballad for alto saxophone and chamber orchestra was premiered with saxophonist Javier Oviedo (www.ovittmusic.com) in November 2010 at St Peter Church in New York.
In January 1999, Frédérique was the composer and musical director for the La Mama production, The Banquet of the Beheaded, a play by Nicola L. In December 2000, she composed and performed her first film score for The Sandman. David Teague’s silent film, based on the tale by E.T.A. Hoffman, won First Prize at The New York International Independent Film and Video Festival in 2001. The complete score was released on CD in September 2001.
Frédérique has been teaching classical & jazz Piano, improvisation, music theory, harmony, and composition in various music schools in France, privately, and, from 1993 to 2006, at the French American Conservatory of Music at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY.
In May 2006, she moved to Barcelona, Spain to explore more horizons and continue to transform both her music and herself. At the beginning of 2008, she formed the group “Resonessence” (inspired by the concept of the group Myriade she had in New York), whose essence is to create a unified sound made of many voices and different cultural influences with an unusual instrumentation: piano & voice, oud, clarinet and bass clarinet, cello, and percussion.
In the same idea of fusion of styles, she wrote an arrangement for piano and voice of the Livre Vermeil de Montserrat (Catalan medieval music) inspired by jazz and contemporary music, which she performed at the International Jazz Festival of Barcelona in November 2008. In 2009, Frédérique started collaborating with tapdancer Roxane Butterfly for the project “Mood Danza” performed at the Festival Arte Donne in Turino, and at the Festival Mediterraneo in Genova (Italy). A new version of the show was presented at Joe’s Pub in New York, July 31, 2010.
Frédérique is now back in France, living in Toulouse since September 2011, where she created a new Resonessence group, while still collaborating on projects in Barcelona, and New York and participating in news creations in Paris. She is regularly performing on the Toulouse scene at Cave Poésie, the Mandala jazz club, Pause Musicale, Espace St Cyprien, Espace Job, and was part of the 2013 Jazz sur son 31 Festival.
Her influences include Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Kenny Barron, Bill Evans, Ahmad Jamal, Jacky Terrasson, and Brad Meldhau.
Discography
- Music of Many Colors (Myriade 4tet, 1998)
- Secret Love (Jazz trio with vocals, 1999)
- Soukoun (Myriade 5tet, 2000)
- The Sandman (Film Score, 2001)
- Paris- New York…and Elsewhere (Jazz trio with vocals, 2006)