Pianist, composer, producer and radio personality, Laurent de Wilde becomes the new holder of the Living Arts chair at Sciences Po's House of Arts & Creation. He gives his "inaugural lecture" on the origins of sound.
The House of Arts & Creation is honored to welcome Laurent de Wilde as holder of the Living Arts Chair for the year 2026-2027. Pianist, composer, writer, producer and radio personality, he is one of the most singular figures in the contemporary art scene, stubbornly defying categorization and exploring for more than thirty years the boundaries of sound. His inaugural lecture, followed by a (d)astonishing performance and an exchange with the audience, will open an exceptional series dedicated to sound: its history, its materiality, its imaginaries, its powers. At what moment did humans start making sound? Where does music come from? And why does it exist? "In the beginning was Sound. Whether it's the Big Bang of scientists, the Om of Buddhist traditions or the creative voice of Christian narratives, sound appears as a matrix of existence. Laurent de Wilde will invite us to explore this founding intuition: how sound structures our relationship to the world, how it shapes our identities (etymologically, a person is 'someone who emits sound'), how its balance is precious, fragile, and full of meaning." In the spirit of Bruno Latour, for whom redoing sociology consists of observing the circulations, attachments, networks that compose our world, Laurent de Wilde proposes a sensitive and embodied approach: redoing the sociology of sound, understanding how it connects us, passes through us, transforms us.
Biography of Laurent de Wilde
Laurent de Wilde was born in 1960. Following his admission to the École Normale Supérieure in philosophy, he went to New York to learn jazz piano and returned eight years later as a professional. With nearly twenty multi-awarded albums under his name (Django Reinhardt Prize, Victoires de la Musique, Grand Prix Sacem), he explores the traditional universe of acoustic jazz as well as its most contemporary electronic developments. Author of several books (Monk, 1996; Les Fous du Son, 2016; Moog, 2023) and two documentaries for Arte (Monk, Mingus), he was also a weekly radio host for TSF Jazz (Portrait in Jazz) and then Radio Classique (On the Wilde side), lecturer, teacher and YouTube channel host. Laurent is currently touring with two musical projects: his acoustic trio with Jérôme Regard on bass, Donald Kontomanou on drums (New Monk Trio, Life is a movie) and the piano duo he forms with multi-instrumentalist Ray Lema (Riddles, Wheels).
Source: paris.fr — photo: Sylvain Gripoix