Thomas Nguyen
It was at the Reims Conservatory that Thomas Nguyen honed his piano skills and discovered the great masters of classical music. He quickly turned to composition, drawing inspiration from both Western classical music and other musical styles. The composer cites influences as diverse as Piotr Ilitch Tchaikovski, Claude Debussy, Richard Wagner, and Maurice Ravel, whom he has admired since his youth, as well as film composers such as John Williams, Michel Legrand, and Bernard Herrmann, and rock groups like Pink Floyd, Genesis, and Queen.
Thomas Nguyen places great importance on melody, as well as on the exploration of timbres and unusual combinations. His discovery of the Baschet crystal, to which he has dedicated several of his chamber music and operatic scores, exemplifies this. His music is created by numerous vocal and instrumental soloists: Sergey Malov, Thomas Bloch, Annabelle Jarre, Jérémie Billet, Pauline Haas, Ambroisine Bré, Jean-Christophe Lanièce, the Akilone Quartet, the Akébia Quintet... Thomas Nguyen wishes to open his world to other arts, and in 2008 founded the Collectif Io, a multidisciplinary artistic ensemble, with which he built a repertoire of pocket operas and musical tales. He collaborates with numerous conductors, playwrights, directors, and choreographers, including Mikaël Serre, Kitsou Dubois, Valentine Losseau, Bertrand Causse, Yann Molénat, Néry Catineau, and Paul Nguyen...
He is a guest composer at many festivals, such as Paris Jeunes Talents, Les Vacances de Monsieur Haydn, Les Flâneries Musicales, and the Firminy Biennale of Vocal and Contemporary Music, which awarded him a composition prize in 2018 for his piece Télescopes Versifiés, and the City of Firminy Prize in 2020 for L'Asile Ami. From 2018 to 2023, he was composer-in-residence at the Reims Opera. Alongside his work composing music for the stage and concerts, Thomas Nguyen regularly composes for documentaries (ARTE, FRANCE TV). He made his film debut in 2022 when several of his scores appeared in Gaspar Noé's film Vortex. He continues to collaborate as a pianist, arranger, and musical director with numerous artists representing contemporary musical creation and participates in various tours in France and abroad.