Thursday April 19 at 6:30 pm
Rolex Learning Center Forum
Conference-concert
Duration: 1h30 approximately
Patrick Bouchain, project supervisor and scenographer
Albert Yaying Xu, engineer, consultant in architecture acoustics
The Elmire Quatuor: Cyprien Brod (violon), Nam Nguyen (violon), Issey Nadaud (alto), Rémi Carlon
(cello)
Built entirely in wood and accommodating on stage a forest of silver birches, la Grange au Lac
(the Barn by the Lake) is an outstanding concert hall, often considered as one of the masterpieces
of Patrick Bouchain.
Hidden in the middle of larch trees above the Royal Hotel of Evian (France), la Grange au Lac was
built in 1993 for the famous cellist Msitslav Rostropovich upon request from Antoine Riboud, at
the time friend of the artist and president of the Danone group. Since five years, it was born again
thanks to the new Rencontres musicales d’Evian (Musical Encounters of Evian), together with the Jazz à la Grange festival. This place remains unknown for many inhabitants of Lausanne.
Invited to the Rolex Learning Center Forum of EPFL, Patrick Bouchain and Albert Yaying Xu, the
engineer in architecture acoustics who intervened on the project of La Grange au Lac, will go
back to their collaboration and what building for music implies. To their exchanges will respond
the opus 80 by Mendelssohn, the Langsamer Satz by Webern and the opus 20 nbr. 3 by Haydn, performed by the Elmire Quatuor.
Partner of the Cultural and Art Affairs of EPFL since 2015, the team of the Evian Resort
responsible for the programmation of La Grange au Lac will also be at the Forum to provide
informations on the different events to those interested (artistic direction: Philippe Bernhard, first
violin of Quatuor Modigliani from 2003 to 2016).
Patrick Bouchain is one of the pioneers in refurbishing industrial places into cultural spaces as
well as pioneer in participative construction. Amongst his works are notably the Zingaro theatre,
the Fratellini Academy, the mobile Centre Pompidou or the Dromesko Aviary in Lausanne. He
collaborates with numerous contemporary artists such as Daniel Buren, Sarkis, Ange Leccia,
Bartabas, Joseph Kosuth, Claes Oldenbourg or Jean-Luc Vilmouth. He also initiated a fairground
university that travelled through France for several years. Most of his projects were realized in the
context of the CONSTRUIRE (« To build ») workshop, in reality organised as an association and
whose the headquarters are in Paris.
Albert Yaying Xu is an acoustics engineer. Consultant in the architecture domain, he took part in
more than seventy projects in the world like the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Luxembourg
Philharmonie, the Louvre Museum auditorium or the renovation of the Lausanne Opera. He
worked as researcher within the IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/
Musique, or Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music) under the direction of
composer Pierre Boulez. Lecturer in numerous international seminars in scientific research, he
wrote in particular articles in the following magazines: Progressive Architecture, Proceedings of
the Institute of Acoustics, Technique & Architecture and Le Moniteur.
Le Quatuor Elmire, formed in 2016, is composed of young musicians graduated from the
National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance. Within the frame of the Evian’s
Atelier des Rencontres musicales 2017 (« Workshop of Musical Encounters », in English), they
followed in particular a professionalizing programme that questions the roles which musicians
could have in the city.
The event is organised by the Cultural and Art Affairs of EPFL & La Grange au Lac of Evian-lesbains
following an idea of Lucas Tiphine (LaSUR-ENAC) and Virginie Martin-Nunez (AFF-CULTART).