Lê Quan Ninh

 
Classically trained, the percussionist Lê Quan Ninh (born 1961 in Paris) has been active since the early 1980s in the field of contemporary music interpretation and free improvisation.
He was one of the founding members of the Quatuor Hêlios, a percussion ensemble from 1986 to 2012 (creations by Jean-Pierre Drouet, George E. Lewis, Kaija Saariaho, Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, Jean-Louis Charpille, Daniel Koskowitz, Vinko Globokar, Giorgio Battistelli, Chrichan Larson, Luc Therminarias, Georges Aperghis, etc.). With cellist Martine Altenburger, he founded in 2006 the ensemble]h[iatus, a contemporary music ensemble whose members are both performers and improvisers (creations by Vinko Globokar, Peter Jakober, Steffen Krebber, Jennifer Walshe, Anthony Pateras, Jürg Frey, etc.)
Involved in many collectives and associations, and in the programming of festivals, he also has a privileged relationship with dance (Franck Beaubois, Marie Cambois, Clara Cornil, Olivia Grandville, Masaki Iwana, Patricia Kuypers, Fine Kwiatkowski, Yukiko Nakamura, Michel Raji, Kirstie Simson, Moeno Wakamatsu...).
As an improviser, he has been involved in several regular formations with artists such as Daunik Lazro, Michel Doneda, Beñat Achiary, Dominique Regef, Paul Rogers, Frédéric Blondy, Peter Kowald...) and has met more occasionally with a great number of others (Thomas Ankersmit, Pascal Battus, Benjamin Bondonneau, Fabrice Charles, Xavier Charles, Audrey Chen, David Chiesa, Werner Dafeldecker, Axel Dörner, Jacques Demierre, Werner Durand, Max Eastley, Jean-Yves Evrard, Christian Fennesz, Fred Frith, Bertrand Gauguet, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Keiji Haino, Géraldine Keller, Didier Lasserre, Joëlle Léandre, Lionel Marchetti, Christian Marclay, Bérangère Maximin, Jean-Marc Montera, Andy Moor, Marc Namblard, Jérôme Noetinger, Jim O'Rourke, Evan Parker, Claude Parle, Serge Pey, Lee Ranaldo, Carole Rieussec, John Russell, Frederic Rzewski, John Tilbury, Roger Turner, Fred Van Hove, Mathieu Werchowski, Christine Wodrascka, etc.).
In 2010, he published Improviser librement – Abécédaire d'une expérience (Mômeludies), which has been translated into English and is available from Publication Studio.

(external link : www.lequanninh.net)
 
 Lê Quan Ninh - Those whose dads never met (CD)
2023
Vand'Œuvre / CCAM Éditions
An improvised encounter between the two musicians (Jean-Luc Guionnet, alto saxophone / Lê Quan Ninh, percussion): five pieces of different lengths, alternating long periods of subtle restraint with moments of incredible intensity.
 Lê Quan Ninh - Aplomb (CD)
2015
Vand'Œuvre / CCAM Éditions
Michel Doneda and Lê Quan Ninh started working together in 1986 but "Aplomb" is their very first recording as a duo. An art of breath and of beating, a supple gesture for a subtle yet penetrating sound object.
 Lê Quan Ninh - Concert (vinyl LP)
1989
Vand'Œuvre / CCAM Éditions
This trio has only one line of instrumentation and remains in total harmony throughout, though the melodies and the rhythms often arise from unexpected places. An incisive and vertiginous climb towards pleasure and dreams, street music and dance music; these fragile and volatile moments were fixed in concert in Vandœuvre in 1989.


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