Isabelle Courroy is an instrumentalist who has moved away from the contemporary transverse flute, where she followed the academic path of a concert performer, and has taken up an ancestral pastoral flute played by the shepherds of Eastern Europe and Anatolia, known as the kaval.
Isabelle Courroy won a gold medal for transverse flute at the C.N.R. in Marseille, and immediately turned her professional attention to contemporary music (musician with Ensemble MC2 – principal flute with Orchestre Musicatreize).
The discovery of the kaval flute, to which she decided to devote herself, turned her musical life upside down. She then embarked on a process of radical transformation, working with musicians in their own contexts.
A passionate pioneer of Bulgarian and Anatolian kaval flutes, hitherto unknown in Western Europe, she became an emblematic performer, gently transgressing the codes strongly imbued with the archetypal and contextual virility traditionally associated with these instruments.
She has developed a highly personal sound material, the plasticity of which she works from the visceral energy of the breath and the dimensions, both archaic and contemporary, that her playing allows her to explore.
Isabelle Courroy, the first female soloist on the oblique kaval flute, has been exploring the full potential of her instruments for over thirty years, both in their original context and in that of World, Ancient and Contemporary music.
Isabelle Courroy explores and develops the breadth of sound material inherent in her instruments. She innovates in the field of lutherie. Her long-standing collaborations with flute-maker Riccardo von Vittorelli, then modeler Joël Savéan and scientific glass-maker Ludovic Petit, have led to the creation of new instruments: Kavolutes, Kavals serpents, Mobile and Trident harmoniques, Kavals de cristal…
As a composer, she also enriches the repertoire with new contemporary works that she commissions from other composers. She initiates, federates and joins numerous creative projects at the crossroads of aesthetics and disciplines.
The plasticity and singularity of her playing make her a rare and sought-after artist. Her contributions and collaborations are many and varied.
She also composes for film, dance, theater and poetry.
Transmission is at the heart of her approach. She gives monthly workshops at the Conservatoire du Pays d’Apt and Master Classes at the IIMM in Aubagne and at other conservatories, with the aim of helping students discover oblique flutes, the music associated with them and their most creative aspects.
Her personal and participative discography has been acclaimed by the Victoires de la Musique, the Académie Charles Cros, Diapason d’or, ffff de Télérama, Choc du Monde de la Musique…
She enjoys an international career, and her discography has been acclaimed by the Académie Charles Cros, the Victoires de la Musique, Diapason d’or, ffff de Télérama and Choc du Monde de la Musique.
With L’Oreille Buissonnière – Musiques Obliques, of which she has been artistic director since 2011, she initiates and federates numerous creative projects highlighting the concept of MUSIQUES OBLIQUES.
Un éloge de l’oblique – solo for kaval, tape and electronics, the Duo Caravelle with Mireille Collignon (Viole de gambe), the Duo L’immobile voyage with Shadi Fathi (Sétar, Dafs), the Trois lignes trio with Henri Tournier (flutes) and Marine Sablonnière (recorder), Melizma with Lionel Romieu and Jérôme Salomon, on Anatolian and Balkan repertoires, Acousmaphos, with visual artist Martina Kramer…
The recording Confluence#1.2.3, (released in 2024 by Buda Musique), for which she commissioned works from composers Zad Moultaka, Michel Moglia and François Wong, closes a trilogy begun in 2014 that will have brought together 40 international artists.
A founding member of the AKSAK Quintet in 1989, Isabelle Courroy is attached to various ensembles such as the Compagnie Rassegna – Musiques de méditerranée, directed by Bruno Allary, with whom she created Il sole non si muove and Contretemps with historian Patrick Boucheron.
With the ensemble Canticum Novum, of which she will be a member from 2015 to 2022, she has taken part in numerous premieres, festivals and tours abroad, including with Long distance (Paris).
Isabelle Courroy / isabelle.courroy@kaval.org
Associate artist of L’oreille buissonnière since 2011, L’ØB MUSIQUES OBLIQUES, she develops creation, distribution and transmission projects highlighting the concept of MUSIQUES OBLIQUES. The structure receives support from DRAC PACA, Région Sud, Département du Vaucluse, Communauté de communes du pays d’Apt and Village de Rustrel.