Nicolas Stephan

concert for Surnatural Orchestra

Winter 2026/2027 Creation

Duration: One hour (perceived)

Preamble
Surnatural Orchestra does not usually entrust the writing of a concert, show or creation to a single person, even within the orchestra itself.
This has never happened in over 25 years of existence. The composition of the music has always been entrusted to the collective, to the multitude. However, the orchestra’s next “concert” will be written by one of its saxophonists, Nicolas Stephan.
The interest of this new development lies in the opportunity it gives to an artistic vision to express itself fully within the orchestra. To pull a single thread to the end of the spool and bring out the Joy.

Presentation

S is a concert Nicolas Stephan has been dreaming up for Surnatural Orchestra for over 20 years. In thermodynamics, S is the symbol for entropy, the measure of disorder.
For Surnatural Orchestra, it is an attempt to set chaos to music, a scattered moment. The place where all sound possibilities can occur, at the turn of an unpredictable composition.
Graphic scores are occasionally projected onto the walls, played and deciphered live. Large orchestral pieces, as if amazed to be there, intersect with cosy songs.
Everyone finds themselves at the edge of the diving board as they take the plunge. It could be dance, it could just be. It improvises winding paths like the letter.
S is a concert entangled with silences, voices, accidents, movements, joy(s) and indecisive sounds.

lineup

Fanny Martin / flutes, Clea Torales / flute, alto saxophone, Camille Secheppet / alto saxophone & sopranino saxophone, clarinet, Nicolas Stephan / alto saxophone, Jeannot Salvatori / alto saxophone, Guillaume Christophel / tenor saxophone & soprano saxophone & clarinet, Martin Daguerre / baritone saxophone, Guillaume Dutrieux / trumpet, Hector Léna Schroll / trumpet, Julien Rousseau / euphonium, trumpet, Bertrand Landhauser / trombone, Hanno Baumfelder / trombone, Morgane Pommier / bass trombone, Christelle Séry / guitar, Fabien Debellefontaine / sousaphone, Ianik Tallet / drums

Guadalupe Marín Burgin / visual creations and animated scores, Marie Desoubeaux / movement direction

Anne Palomeres / lighting, stage management, Rose Bruneau / sound engineer, Zak Cammoun / sound engineer

S : a short title… A bit of theory

Entropy, in thermodynamics (denoted by S in the scientific world), is the ‘measure of disorder in a system’.
Here, disorder does not mean a lack of order, but rather the number of possible configurations, potential disorganisations, or anarchy, and the freedom of movement of elements in relation to each other.

The ‘system’ here is an orchestra. Seventeen musicians on stage, producing sounds. Energy, vibration, heat and movement.

We know that the entropy of a closed system increases inexorably.
In the orchestra system, this will lead the musicians to explore and multiply sound configurations until they reach a point of ultimate equilibrium, a fantasised state of musical serenity, of Joy.
Joy as a weapon of resistance

Paradoxically, if we push the analogy between the entropy of an orchestra and that of the universe, it will then be a question of ‘the heat death of the universe’ (according to ancient theories) set to music…

Scenographic and technical design partners

The adaptation of the graphic scores into large-format video will be entrusted to Guadalupe Marín Burgin, an Argentine visual artist with whom the orchestra has already worked on Clameurs. She will redraw these scores with her own sensibility and project them onto a large screen visible to the audience and orchestra for a general immersion into the world of S.

This concert will require a new stage layout, more grouped together to form a sort of square in the centre of the stage. Small ‘islands’ of microphones arranged on either side will formalise other spaces that the musicians will occupy occasionally. This spatialisation of sound, which our sound engineer Zak Cammoun will work on in advance, will be accompanied by a lighting design by Anne Palomeres.

Finally, we will call on choreographer Marie Desoubeaux to devise ways of moving in relation to the music, which will undoubtedly give rise to a particular style of movement and moments of individual and collective dance. This will allow gestures to become part of the sounds.

A participatory concert by Surnatural Orchestra, tailored to children

Here, we are immersed in a joyful, toddler-friendly soundscape. At first glance, it seems no different from a regular orchestra concert.

However, these special concerts are shorter (around 45 minutes), which helps to keep the young audience’s attention throughout and offers a concentrated experience focused on musical variety and festive arrangements.

A siku workshop (Latin American pan flute) given by two musicians from the orchestra before each performance sets the tone and warms up the audience. The workshops are open to all, and the basics taught will allow everyone to join in the concert with the enthusiasm that comes from wanting to share their instrumental skills.

Through this active participation by children (and everyone else!), it is a way of raising awareness from within and doing so collectively of the sensitive and artistic power of music on a large scale, and its specific characteristics: composition, improvisation, responsiveness, delicacy or mass sound…

Participatory concert

The audience at the heart of the show !

Sikus

Sikus are bamboo flutes originating from the mountains of northern Argentina, traditionally played during processions in the Andes. Lightweight and easily transportable, although manufactured in Lima, our sikus remain very affordable instruments.

Often played solo, the instrument is used in pairs, with one musician playing two flutes, one playing some of the notes and the other playing the rest. The sikus thus form inseparable pairs to create melodies. The sound is fairly easy to produce. All this makes it a very playful instrument, and therefore very suitable for educational use. Developing group playing is our main interest. The completeness of the sounds produced brings a single instrument to life: a kind of human organ.

Soundpainting

Invented by Walter Thompson in the United States in the 1970s, this sign language has since spread throughout the world, both for creating music in real time and as a conducting tool. It is used by musicians as well as dancers, actors, technicians, and others.

Here, we will use it with workshop participants, among ourselves as musicians in the orchestra, and also in real time with the audience, as the simple conducting gestures are easy to understand and use through simple imitation.

One-hour workshops are available for groups of between 10 (minimum) and 35 people (maximum). These workshops can be organised in schools or offered as parent-child activities. The minimum age is 7 years old.

Sikus Workshop

Take the time to discover the instrument, learn how to blow, make a sound, and above all: listen to each other. The idea is to learn pieces in which each person will play only one part, with the parts intertwining to form the melody.

We will learn several pieces that will be played during the concert with Surnatural Orchestra. While learning these melodies, we will introduce participants to some concepts of sound painting, so that they can direct, organise and modulate the amateur participants during the concert and interact with the orchestra.

Body Percussion Workshops

Become aware of rhythm, movement and sound through the body. Explore how to strike, rub, tap, blow, move and listen.

The aim is to create music from simple, collective gestures, to learn to play together, to find a common beat, to listen to others as well as yourself.

This workshop is also a gateway to the La Bamboche à Bambins concert, where participants will rediscover these rhythms on stage, in dialogue with the orchestra.

A fun and lively experience, where the body becomes the primary instrument and music becomes a shared game.

lineup

Naïé Dutrieux / flutes, Clea Torales / flute, alto saxophone, Camille Secheppet / alto saxophone & sopranino saxophone, clarinet, Nicolas Stephan / alto saxophone, Jeannot Salvatori / alto saxophone, Guillaume Christophel / tenor saxophone & soprano saxophone & clarinet, Martin Daguerre / baritone saxophone, Guillaume Dutrieux / trumpet, Hector Léna Schroll / trumpet, Julien Rousseau / euphonium, trumpet, Bertrand Landhauser / trombone, Hanno Baumfelder / trombone, Morgane Pommier / bass trombone, Christelle Séry / guitar, Fabien Debellefontaine / sousaphone, Ianik Tallet / drums

Anne Palomeres / lighting, stage management, Rose Bruneau / sound engineer, Zak Cammoun / sound engineer

the show

Like its many other stage offerings, the Surnatural Orchestra’s new concert repertoire is written and performed as an organic, surprising show in perpetual motion. All aspects of the performance – music, sound, lighting, space, audience – were conceived as materials to be sculpted and played with.
During the writing and creation in residence, the repertoire was composed with several aesthetic prerequisites in mind: a significant place for improvisation and soundpainting, the improvised and shared conducting technique that has been dear to the collective since its beginnings, as a space of freedom and complicity; research into the spatialization of sound, with the technical team working hand-in-hand to write and set the sound so that the pieces can be performed on stage as well as in the audience or backstage; and a luminous scenography that plays on reflective effects and intensities, notably through the use of faceted costumes and accessories.

lineup

Bertrand Landhauser (trombone)
Camille Secheppet (alto sax, clarinet)
Christelle Séry (guitar)
Clea Torales (flute, alto sax)
Fabien Debellefontaine (sousaphone)
Fanny Martin (flute, piccolo)
Guillaume Christophel (tenor sax, clarinet)
Guillaume Dutrieux (trumpet, flugelhorn)
Hanno Baumfelder (trombone)
Hector Léna Schroll (trumpet)
Ianik Tallet (drums)
Jeannot Salvatori (alto and baritone saxes)
Julien Rousseau (euphonium, trumpet)
Martin Daguerre (baritone sax)
Morgane Pommier (bass trombone)
Nicolas Stephan (alto sax)
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Anne Palomeres (lighting)
Rose Bruneau & Zak Cammoun (sound engineers)

required information and production

Collectif Surnatural is supported by the DRAC Ile-de-France (conventional package and stimulus fund 2021), the Ile de France Region (PAC – investment grants), the Departmental Council 93 (departmental company – investment grants), the CNM (investment grants), the SACEM (support for large-scale projects) and occasionally by Spedidam. It is a member of the artists’ federation for music in Grands Formats and the FSICPA (federation of independent artistic creation and production structures).

We share an affinity for ineffable things and uncharted terrain; for the outer fringes of the mind and vistas yet to explore; for all those places where the seeds scattered by the winds of sheer exhilaration find room to grow. Neither of us knows where we’ll plant our tent’s pegs tonight, nor which sheets we’ll borrow and lay under our lamps to make ourselves a home ‘til tomorrow. We feel the same vertigo for the ground we left behind to walk the exacting path of the tightened rope. We feel the same joy in making the audience shiver, in tiptoeing across all that is fragile, in sensing the echoes of our own risks reverberate around us.

From all those places, we meet. From the circus to us, there is but one step—and we will take it, once again.

“Toile”: a single word, whose meanings stretch from cloth to web, canvas to tarp, and that lends its name to our show(s). With this concept, we seek to capture the meeting point between Surnatural Orchestra, its vast repertoire, its inventive disposition, and circus people in all their diversity. The meeting takes the shape of a short residency, designed to cater to the strengths of its protagonists while stimulating dialogue on the manifold possibilities for combining circus numbers and orchestral energy. Through these dialogues, universes blend until they’re impossible to tell apart, creating a show that is thoroughly unique. Performed on a one-off basis and with 20-25 people onstage, the show channels the beautiful fragility inherent to its concept.

La Toile has been performed in many guises since 2009, with members of the following companies:

Les Colporteurs, Cirque Inextremiste, Basinga (Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga), L’Immédiat, Bikes & Rabbits, Cheptel Aleikoum, Toi Dabord…

Post scriptum: An initial collaboration with Compagnie Inextrémiste ultimately led to the creation of several evolving editions of “La Toile.” All very diverse, they in turn became preambles to an original circus show: “Esquif.”