Gilles Ramade is a French playwright, director, pianist, composer, actor, lyrical singer, conductor, writer, editor and producer. He was born in 1958 in

Albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albigé ...

, in the region of the Tarn, in southern France. His parents were both schoolteachers, and he grew up in the Albi region, first in Vaour (1958 to 1962), then at Cabannes, a small village near

Cordes sur Ciel Cordes-sur-Ciel (; , ) is a commune in the Tarn department, region of Occitania, Southern France. The fortified town was built in 1222 by Raimond VII, the Count of Toulouse, who, though not a Cathar, tolerated what other Catholics considered ...

, and in Albi where he stayed until age 20. After working and practising piano with great masters like Bruno Rigutto and

Pierre Sancan Pierre Sancan (24 October 1916 – 20 October 2008) was a French composer, pianist, teacher and conductor. Along with Olivier Messiaen and Henri Dutilleux, he was a major figure among French musicians in the mid-twentieth-century transition betwee ...

, he started off his career by playing piano in bars, restaurants and hotels, and went on to become piano accompanist for the Capitole Ballet in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...

. In 1988, he graduated from the National Conservatoire of Toulouse and was awarded the first prize in dramatic arts and electroacoustics as well as the gold medal of lyrical arts with jury’s congratulations, in singing and musical theory. In 1988, he won the Golden Voices Competition in Rouen. As he became known in the classical music and opera world, he was invited to national and international theaters around the world, and sang with

Anna Prucnal Anna Prucnal (born 17 December 1940) is a Polish actress in both cinema and theatre, as well as a singer. Prucnal was born in Warsaw, Poland. After her father, a surgeon, was killed by the Nazis during World War II, Anna and her sister were ra ...

José Van Dam Joseph, Baron Van Damme (born 27 August 1940 in Brussels), known as José van Dam, is a Belgian bass-baritone. At the age of 17, he entered the Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied with Frederic Anspach. A year later, he graduated with diplo ...

and Chriss Meritt. He worked with

Luigi Alva Luis Ernesto Alva y Talledo, better known as Luigi Alva (born 10 April 1927 in Paíta, Peru) is a Peruvian operatic tenor. A Mozart and Rossini specialist, Alva achieved fame with roles such as Don Ottavio (in ''Don Giovanni''), Count Almaviva ( ...

, Marcel Landowski,

Michel Plasson Michel Plasson (born 2 October 1933, Paris, France) is a French conductor. Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. ...

, Jean-Claude Casadessus and Jerome Savary, with whom he notably played Don Giovanni, Pelléas, Figaro, Escamillo, Falstaff and even Mackie in Brecht’s Threepenny Opera. In 1988, he was chosen for the creation of one of the leading roles of the world-famous musical

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members o ...

, which was then awarded the Molière of the best musical in 1989. In 1992 he created his own company of musical theater, Figaro & Co., and went on to write and direct over sixty plays, musicals and operas. As both a writer and a director, he worked to break down and overcome the barriers between the arts and challenge audiences with new material, creating startling encounters between closed up artistic worlds. In his shows, lyrical art meets Queen’s rock music and ties in with the Marx Brothers’ burlesque humour, Don José slams his love to Carmen and Romeo proclaims his hatred for Juliet (Romeo Hait Juliette). With his prodigious adaptation of

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

with 600 chorists in 2010, he directed and designed his hundredth production on the stage of Toulouse’s Zenith. His shows are staged in some of the biggest theaters in France, and he recently staged great productions like Casanova l’indécent, A Taxi for Broadway, Maestro Furioso, Led Zep 129. Always on the lookout for new experiences and unforeseen encounters between the arts, his creations are nourished by his experience and formation as a pianist, and he has recently teamed up with Jéremy Ferrari, a well-known popular French humourist, for his one-man show Piano Furioso Opus 2. "You are one of the rare french creators with a sense of the theater in your compositions" Claude Michel Schonberg about Gilles Ramade

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramade, Gilles 1958 births Living people 20th-century French composers 21st-century French composers 21st-century French dramatists and playwrights French male conductors (music) French male actors French male writers French theatre managers and producers People from Albi 20th-century French conductors (music) 21st-century French conductors (music) 20th-century French male musicians 21st-century French male musicians