Olivier Fredj
Stage manager
Biography
British and French, Olivier Fredj studied British Literature, drama and music at the Hogeschoolvoor de Kunsten in the Netherlands. Starting off as a coordinator of educational and social projects in several cities around Europe and South Africa, he then worked as a cultural journalist, before attending the Studio Théâtre d’Asnières.
He worked as a Stage Manager with Adrian Noble, John Eliott Gardiner, Jonathan Kent/William Christie at the Opéra Comique, Théâtre deCaen, BAM or Théâtre des Champs Elysées….
In 2010, he began his collaboration with Robert Carsen and the Théâtre du Châtelet, with My Fair Lady which he revived at the Mariinski Theatre in St Petersbourg and at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and with Singin’ In the Rain in 2015, which he revived in 2016 and at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2017. Also at the Châtelet, he assisted Lee Blakeley for Sweeney Todd and revived The Sound of Music (by Emilio Sagi). At the Festival d’Aix en Provence Robert Carsen asked him to work on Rigoletto that he revived in Geneva and at the Bolchoï theatre in Moscow. In Aix, he first collaborated in 2014 with Simon McBurney on The Magic Flute which he revived in 2018.
In 2015, he directed Il Re Pastore by W.A Mozart at the Théâtre du Châtelet. In 2016 he directed Macbeth by Verdi at the Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Brussels and at the Teatr Wileki in Poznan, Poland. In 2017 he staged the Gala opening of « La Seine Musicale » in Paris. In 2018, he conceived and directed Funeral Blues, the Missing Cabaret, based on W.H Auden and B. Britten’s work at the Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg, which was revived in 2019 at Les Bouffes du Nord Theatre in Paris. In 2019, he performed as a singer in Peau d’Âne, by Michel Legrand and Jacques Demy, directed by Emilio Sagi at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris.
At the Studio Marigny, in November 2018, he directed « Bonsoir ! », a performance by and with the former Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterand. In 2020, he conceived and directed a project called ‘Watch-different journeys’ for the Paris Orchestre de Chambre, on the themes of Time,and Imprisonment, linking the Samu Social of Paris (Homeless Shelter), the Hector Berlioz Old people’s Home, the Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital in Paris and the Prison of Meaux, in partnership with the MC93 and the Maison de la Poésie. Also, in 2020, he is to direct Le Voyage de la Lune by Jacques Offenbach for the Opéra de Montpellier. In 2021, he is to write, adapt and direct a new dramaturgy of The Tudor Trilogy by Donizetti at La Monnaie-De Munt in Brussels.
Events
Une semaine d'échanges et de dialogues entre des lauréats du Concours de Genève et des professionnels du monde de la musique et de la scène, entre cas pratiques, exemples personnalisés et ouverture sur les aspects "indirectement artistiques" de la vie du jeune musicien.
This year’s Prizewinners’ Workshop 2020 was supposed to be held during the first week of May and bring together half a dozen recent prizewinners of the Geneva Competition (2019) along with a few students from the HEM, who are completing a Masters in specialized music performance as soloist. Due to the sanitary crisis caused by the Covid-19, this workshop could unfortunately not take place in person, despite it having been postponed to the month of September. The Geneva Competition therefore decided to innovate by offering a Prizewinners’ e-Workshop, which will be held online during more than a month.
The content of this e-Workshop has been adapted to fit the present circumstances and conditions of implementation, whilst maintaining its initial objectives and values. Privileging a method of personal coaching, it will focus on two main themes: career management and digital & audio-visual training.
This alternative experience will take place over a period of more than a month and will include personal evaluations, collective broadcasts, one-on-one interviews and times of independent work. During the last day of the Workshop, participants will be given the opportunity to meet up (hopeful in person) to share their experience with others and present their work. This final meeting will be a great way to reinforce the collective nature of the project, whereas the eWorkshop will be essentially run at a distance.
Participants in the eWorkshop will be given the mission of completing two distinct and complementary personal projects: the first one on the theme of career management and the second one resulting in the production of a short video. By addressing issues that are crucial to the development of a young musicians’ career, these projects follow the objectives fixed by the Geneva Competition’s Prizewinners Workshop since its creation in 2017.
The e-Workshop is managed by the Geneva Competition and its line producer ProMusica Concert Agency. Both of these entities provide recognized professional competences to participants (artistic management, financial management, production, communication, public relations, etc.), as well as an experience of several years in event organization.
The permanent team will be reinforced by specialists in multimedia, as well as a journalist- presenter and a technical manager. These personalities will form the reference team in charge of organizing and animating the eWorkshop.
This 4th edition of the Prizewinners workshop of the Concours Genève is supported by the Art Mentor Foundation (Luzern, Switzerland).