Gabriel Benlolo

Gabriel Benlolo began his musical studies at the age of 6 with the piano, then began Percussion and Drums at the age of 11 at the Conservatoire National de Région d’Aubervilliers-La Courneuve where he obtained his 1st prize in Percussion and Chamber Music unanimously.

He also worked with Michel Gastaud at the Conservatoire Municipal du XIIème arrondissement and studied jazz piano and jazz drums, CRR d’Aubervilliers-La Courneuve.

In 1999 he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Michel Cerutti where he obtained his Diplôme de Formation Supérieur in 2003 and the chamber music prize in 2005.

His career allows him to perform with major orchestras such as the Orchestre Philhamonique de Radio France, the Orchestre National, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Orchestre National d’Ile de France or the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchestra….

In 2004 he joined the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra as a percussionist co-soloist and worked with the greatest conductors (Pierre Boulez, Myung Wung Chung, Armin Jordan, Gustavo Dudamel, Mikko Franck, ..) and plays all over the world.

In parallel, he works on shows mixing music with the theater as a percussionist with Brigitte Jaques-Wajeman and the Pandora Company (“La marmite”, “Pseudolus”, “La Chanson de Roland”….) with music by Marc-Olivier Dupin with whom he recorded numerous projects for television and theatre.

Following these fruitful collaborations, the Tretaux de France commissioned the original music for ‘L’ Avaleur’ by Jerry Stenner, directed by Robin Renucci, then for “Celeste Gronde” by Josephine Chaffin, directed by Nadine Darmon and Marilyne Fontaine.

Always looking to develop his discipline, he co-founded in 2003 the Quatuor Beat, a percussion quartet for which he co-arranges, co-composes and co-creates concerts-shows thus evolving the approach of the chamber music concert.

With the Quatuor Beat he won several international prizes as a chamber music group (Gaetano Zinetti in Verona in 2006, Les Européennes d’Alsace in Illzach in 2007) but also for the shows in which he plays (YAMA Prize in Brussels 2012, YEAH Prize in Osnabrück and JUNGE OHREN in Berlin in 2013 for the show Drumblebee).

These successes ensure the ensemble a reputation that allows them to perform in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Passionate about the transmission of knowledge, he has been teaching since 2009 at the Pôle Supérieur 93 as a professor of main percussion, at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional 93 and every summer at the Académie de Surgeres since 2002.

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Quatuor de percussions