Marc-Henri Cykiert
composition

Born in Liege in 1957, Marc-Henri CYKIERT began playing guitar when he was thirteen, learned the basics with Jean Bauer and followed with a one-year electronic music workshop at the Wallonia Musical Research Center under Frederic Nyst, and a Brazilian music workshop with Jose Barrense-Dias.
He performed on stage with his own bands : ‘Cyclogene & Co’, ‘Jazz-O-Brazil’, ‘Funk-Jazz Company’, and as a duo with Daniel Willem, Stephane Martini, Claude Remendaer, Serge Ghazarian.
In 1979, he attended G.I.T. in Los Angeles where, among others, Joe Diorio, Ron Eschete, Carl Schroeder and Pat Martino were teaching. This is when he turned to composition.

Between 1980 and 1986, back in Belgium, he studied composition and orchestration with American composer Frederic Rzewski and participated in the Contemporary Music Department created by Henri Pousseur, intended to create bridges between composition, chamber music, electronic music, jazz and improvisation.
He wrote for different musicians and ensembles: Michael Guttman, Suzanna Klintcharova, Steve Houben & Strings, the Arriaga String Quartet, Costas Cotsiolis, Cecile Broche, Luc Tooten.
With Peter Cor, Michel Hatzigeorgiou, Mimi Verderame and a host of guest artists, he recorded a LP ‘Carte Blanche’, and with Michael Guttman and Frederic Rzewski, a CD ‘Capriccio Hassidico’.
He created a musical noir ‘Hommage à Simenon’, a big band piece for 18 musicians, singer and comedians, and a tribute to Miles Davis for the Strings & Ebony string orchestra: ‘2 Miles’.
He scored several theatrical plays : Le Portrait de Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde), L’Espadon (Jean Sigrid), Elle Disait Dormir pour Mourir (Paul Willems), Pour Prendre Dieu de Vitesse and Le Long Voyage vers le Jour (Richard Kalisz), Titre provisoire (Veronika Mabardi), Evénements (Thomas Bernhard), Lorsque Cinq Ans Seront Passés (Federico Garcia Lorca), Les Bonnes (Jean Genet), Quai Ouest, Dans la Solitude des Champs de Coton, and Combat de Nègre et de Chiens (Bernard-Marie Koltes).

Nowadays, he alternatively works as a composer, artistic director, producer and photographer.

His universe belongs between traditional categories, at the crossing between so-called ‘contemporary’ music, music from different world traditions (Yiddish, Indian, South American), jazz and improvisation. This purposeful blending is always seconded by the constant care to create a language understandable by both initiated and non-initiated listeners.
His compositions have been played in Belgium, France, U.S.A., Cuba and China.

In 2011, the CD 2 FOR PEACE (Mogno Music label), is a collaborative piece with pianist-composer Weber Iago.