Exceptional artist Clémence Manachère studied architecture in Toulouse, Mexico City, and Paris before turning to music, studying jazz saxophone and flute first in Berlin and then at the Hamburg University of Music and Theatre. In 2022, she became the first woman ever to win the "Mixed Generations" scholarship from the Feldtmann Cultural Foundation and the Jazz Federation Hamburg. As a mediator between cultures, she played at the German Embassy in Paris in 2023 for the 60th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty. In 2024, she won the Werner Burckhardt Music Prize from the Hamburg Cultural Foundation.
Clémence studied with, among others, Mark Nauseef, who in turn studied with John Bergamo. It's no wonder that Clémence's own compositions sound very zappaesque. In the mid-1970s, John Bergamo was the drummer and percussionist of the Abnuceal Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra, with whom Zappa recorded his Orchestral Favorites.
At the beginning of May, Clémence gave an acclaimed debut concert in Hamburg with a setlist that would make any Zappa fan's heart beat faster:
The Black Page (Frank Zappa)
Qnic (Clémence Manachère)
Sad Jane, First Movement (Frank Zappa)
Times Beach III (Frank Zappa)
What Will Rumi Do? (Frank Zappa)
Hopscotch Suite (Clémence Manachère)
2.2, 2.3, 2.7, 1.5, 1.6
Artistic works from unusual disciplines supported the event: live drawings by Hamburg comic artist Wittek and the art form of filmography developed by Bent Szameitat.
Here's the lineup:
Clémence Manachère - flute, soprano saxophone
Björn Lücker - drums
Tristan Xavier Köster - cello
Dirk-Achim Dhonau - drums
Niklas Werk - guitar
More musicians may well join the Zappanale, which we will announce later...
