On this day, 19 October 2017, we remember Roland Dyens, who would have been celebrating his 62nd birthday. The Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris will commemorate his birthday with a concert this evening of music and musicians who have been inspired by and who inspired Roland Dyens:

ROLAND DYENS Tunis, Tunisia, 5th movement Hamsa extract Olivier Chassain, Tristan Manoukian, Caroline Delume, and Giani Caserotto

OLIVIER CHASSAIN Blues for Roland, creation
Olivier Chassain

ROLAND DYENS Saudade no. 3 extract of the 3 Saudades Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther

PIXINGUINHA  Oscarina
– an arrangement by Roland Dyens Orestis Kalampalikis

JACQUES DATIN / CLAUDE NOUGARO Cécile my daughter
– an arrangement by Roland Dyens Cécile Rabemananjara

ROLAND DYENS Valse des loges from Three polyglot pieces Laurent Blanquart

ROLAND DYENS Tango in Skaï Orestis Kalampalikis and Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther

ROLAND DYENS  Allegro from Concerto en si for solo guitar and guitar ensemble – in homage to Castelnuovo-Tedesco Jérémy Jouve, solo guitar
Natalia Makovskaya, Margot Fontana – Raphaël Feuillâtre, Baptiste Ramond 
Omar Nicho Maxime Sénizergues  – Félix Belthoise, Dimby Maxime Rasamoelina  – Vincent Kappes, conducted by Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther 

ROLAND DYENS  Tambourou for guitar ensemble and four percussion Natalia Makovskaya Margot Fontana– Raphaël Feuillâtre Baptiste Ramond

Omar Nicho Maxime Sénizergues – Félix Belthoise, Dimby Maxime Rasamoelina
Vincent Kappes, Corentin Aubry Arthur Dhuique-Mayer
Emmanuel Jacquet and Valentin Dubois, percussion
Conducted by Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther

MAURICE RAVEL Bolero (adaptation for guitar ensemble by Roland Dyens – revised by Bastien Burlot and Orestis Kalampalikis) Orestis Kalampalikis – Tristan Manoukian, Natalia Makovskaya
Margot Fontana– Caroline Delume, Raphael Feuillâtre
Baptiste Ramond – Giani Caserotto Omar Nicho
Maxime Sénizergues – Jérémy Jouve, Félix Belthoise – Dimby-Maxime Rasamoelina
Olivier Chassain, Micah Leem, Nikola Prokopcova – Bogdan Mihailescu, Alexia Knopp
Sergio Santiago Tovar – Rémy Reber, Ji Hyung Park, Thimotée Vinour
Armen Denoyan, Kyota Imoto, – Benjamin Garson, Rémy Patel – Vincent Kappes
Conducted by Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther

The concert will be in the Salle Rémy Pflimlin at the Conservatoire of Paris, Thursday 19 October 2017 at 7pm.

In 2015, Kathleen Bergerson met with Roland Dyens at a brasserie on the Left Bank in Paris to interview him for Classical Guitar magazine:

Kathleen Bergeron: You are a teacher, a musician, a composer, transcriber, and arranger. And you perform many different types of music: classical, of course, but also jazz, tango, folk, and pop. If we were to assign a label to Roland Dyens, what would it be?

Roland Dyens: I’m most complicated to define. But my “homeland” is classical music. I was taught classical from childhood—the jazz part I picked up on my own. So I feel I’m not a jazz player, but a classical player visiting other “places” away from home from time to time. As for labels, I feel I am flexible. I love this word: flexible.