Séverine Ballon is an ELISION Ensemble member since 2008 and has given premiere performances of works by Richard Barrett, Ray Evanoff, Bryn Harrison, Dominik Karski and Liza Lim. Ballon has performed as cellist in the major projects Opening of the Mouth by Richard Barrett and The Navigator by Liza Lim as well as recording Lim’s Ochred String for later CD release.
Séverine Ballon studied cello at the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin with Professor Joseph Schwab and at the Musikhochschule Lübeck with Professor Troels Svane. Ballon has studied the repertoire and extended techniques of contemporary music with Siegfried Palm, Lukas Fels and Rohan de Saram, and was a scholarship holder at the 2004–2005 International Ensemble Modern Academy. During the 2006–2007 season Ballon was Solo Cellist of the Orchester de Chambre de Toulouse, choosing finally to dedicate herself completely to the performance of contemporary music. Ballon is a member of Ensemble Cairn (Paris) and ensemble multilaterale (Paris) and frequently appears as a guest musician with Klangforum Wien (Vienna), musikFabrik (Cologne), Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris) and Ictus (Brussels), and has also performed with the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse and the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester.
Séverine was a scholarship holder from 2008–2009 at Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart). During this time, Ballon worked closely with James Dillon, Jonathan Harvey, Helmut Lachenmann, Jean-François Laporte, Liza Lim and many young composers. Ballon has premiered solo works by Stefano Bulfon, Liza Lim and Erik Ulman; David Coll’s 68 was premiered in 2008 in collaboration with IRCAM (Paris). Upcoming projects include premiere performances of solo works for cello with and without electronics in «la muse en circuit» by David Hudry, Jean-François Laporte and Sébastien Roux, a new work for solo cello by Mary Bellamy as part of ELISION Ensemble’s residency at CeReNeM, Huddersfield University and in 2010 Ballon will appear as soloist in the production of «pnima» by Chaya Czernowin at the Staatsoper Stuttgart.
Image © Roselyne Titaud 2009