Florent Derex
Florent Derex is the co-founder of the artistic collective Le Balcon, as well as the record label B Records. A trained cellist, he studied sound engineering at the Conservatoire de Paris – CNSMDP (National Conservatory of Music).
Le Balcon's commitment is primarily focused on the creation and performance of all repertoires on sound-enhanced instruments. Florent has led and developed the company since its creation in 2008, working alongside conductor Maxime Pascal.
As a sound engineer at Le Balcon, he specializes in the sound reinforcement of acoustic, electronic, and mixed music. Coming from a generation that naturally embraced loudspeakers as a musical and aesthetic tool, Florent focuses on questions of sound projection. This concept, primarily derived from the written tradition of the second half of the 20th century, reflects the importance of the spatial aspect of composition, a concept that Le Balcon has consistently embraced. Throughout his concerts and performances, Florent designs all kinds of immersive sound systems.
With Le Balcon, Florent produces performances from a repertoire spanning all periods of musical history, with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century works and the operatic repertoire.
In 2018, Le Balcon began production of Licht, a colossal cycle—7 operas, 29 hours of music—by the German composer Stockhausen. An opera is performed each season at the Philharmonie de Paris as part of the Festival d'Automne. Various houses are associated with each day's performances: Opéra-Comique, Opéra de Lille, London's Southbank Centre, Opéra de Bordeaux, and Deutsche Oper Berlin.
More recently, Florent worked on The Threepenny Opera at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and a revival at the Comédie-Française, and the musical La Petite Boutique des Horreurs at the Opéra-Comique.
At the opera house, he collaborates as a sound engineer with directors Silvia Costa, Thomas Ostermeir, Susanne Kennedy, Valérie Lesort, Ted Huffman, Christian Hecq, Benjamin Lazar, and others.
In 2015, he founded the B Records label, dedicated exclusively to live recordings, with Rémy Gassiat and Baptiste Chouquet. This label is distributed by Naïve and then Outhere.
Since 2014, Florent has produced the Musical Mondays at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris with Le Balcon, a monthly recital cycle presenting a broad panorama of the international opera scene.
Florent is currently in residence at the Singer-Polignac Foundation and the Lille Opera.
photo DR Gaspard Kiejman