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Kreiz Breizh Akademi

KBA: a vocational training programme for modal music

Kreiz Breizh Akademi [KBA] is a professional musical training course dedicated to modal music.
With approximately 400 hours in the center, KBA includes an original professionalisation support component with a period of creation and performance of shows that stems from the training.
Imagined and directed by Erik Marchand in Brittany since its creation in 2001, this atypical formation has welcomed 8 collectives of 12 to 18 musicians who have each created a show broadcast on professional stages. The training program is now co-directed by an artistic director and pedagogical coordinator.

The specificity of Kreiz Breizh Akademi lies in the fact that it is based on the transmission of the rules of interpretation of modal music (scale, rhythm, variation) and on Breton popular music. The language used in the sung forms is the Breton language in its local variants (that of kan ha diskan and gwerzioù).

The main objectives of the training are:
- Teaching musical techniques based on modal understanding
- Development of skills in composition, improvisation, methods of arrangement and orchestral playing
- Learning stage and recording techniques

The KBA course takes place over three years, including
- a professional training cycle of 12 months (discontinuously - between 380 and 400 hours of training in the center depending on the collective) which trains in modal music of learned and popular tradition.
- a period of creation with the support of places of reception ensuring the delegated production: La Grande Boutique, Amzer Nevez, Run Ar Puñs...
- a period of 24 months of support in professional practice through the production of concerts and the release of an album, in partnership with professional producer-turner structures and labels: Innacor, Naïade Productions, L’Appentis Producteur, Coop Breizh, Hirustica...

Each collective works on its own artistic color and according to a training program built specifically according to this color.

The 9th session ended in January 2023 and the KBA#9 collective is now showing his concert performance. Ten new interns have been recruited for KBA#10, with entry into the creation process in spring 2025.

Biiking is entrusted to Naïade Productions, which produces the shows of Pobl’ B’ar Machin[e] KBA#6, Hed KBA#7, Ba’n Dañs KBA#8, Bruulu KBA#9.
Stage contact: Jacques-Antoine Pinel | +33 (0)2 99 85 44 04 prod naiadeproductions.com.



  • KBA#10

    The tenth collective of Kreiz Breizh Akademi began training in January 2024 at Amzer Nevez in Ploemeur for a certified course in modal music.



  • 2024

    KBA#9 | Bruulu

    Bruulu is an orchestra composed of six professional female musicians and five male musicians from diverse backgrounds: electro, early music, noise, jazz, Irish tradition, Poitou, Auvergne, or Brittany... They explore a new field of modal orchestral experiments.



  • 2022

    KBA#8 | Ba’n Dañs

    The Kreiz Breizh Akademi 8th collective, conducted by Erik Marchand, is on tour in 2022



  • 2020

    KBA#7 | Hed

    Kreiz Breizh Akademi, 7th collective an expended bagad under influences
    It was in the air for a long time, Kreiz Breizh Akademi chose the "expanded" bagad * as the basic expression of this 7th collective. In contact with artists from the world, artisans of the contemporary or traditional modality, India, the Middle East, the Balkans, jazz KBA # 7 bagad has built a unique "sound" where modal improvisations mingle with complex rhythmic and local themes sometimes so close to other modal world (...)



  • Educational project

    A few words about the Kreiz Breizh Akademi educational project



  • What is KBA ?

    Kreiz Breizh Akademi (KBA) is a vocational training program for musicians dedicated to modal music.



  • Teaching staff

    Under Erik Marchand’s leadership, artists from all over the world come to Kreizh Breizh Akademi as speakers.



  • The partners

    Kreiz Breizh Akademi is supported by the French state and by regional authorities.



Association Drom

24 rue de Gasté
29200 Brest
09 65 16 71 21
contact drom-kba.eu

> Contacts

Remerciement photos : Eric Legret
http://www.ericlegret.fr