KBA: a vocational training programme for modal music
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 course is now co-directed by Christophe Le Menn on the arts and Erwan Burban on pedagogy. The 9th collective will be in training in 2022.
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 to 15 months (discontinuously - between 350 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 KBA#8 session ended in January 2021 and the collective is now in the creation and distribution phase. Twelve new interns have been recruited for KBA#9, with entry into training in December 2021.
Distribution is now entrusted to Naïade Productions, which produces the shows of Pobl’ B’ar Machin[e] KBA#6, Hed KBA#7 and Ba’n Dañs KBA#8. Stage contact: Jacques-Antoine Pinel | +33 (0)2 99 85 44 04 prod naiadeproductions.com.
2022
The Kreiz Breizh Akademi 8th collective, conducted by Erik Marchand, is on tour in 2022
2020
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 (...)
A few words about the Kreiz Breizh Akademi educational project
Kreiz Breizh Akademi (KBA) is a vocational training program for musicians dedicated to modal music.
Under Erik Marchand’s leadership, artists from all over the world come to Kreizh Breizh Akademi as speakers.
Kreiz Breizh Akademi is supported by the French state and by regional authorities.