Charlotte Testu
Contrebasse

Eclectic in her musical aspirations, as well as in her instrumental practice, she has specialized in fields as diverse as contemporary, improvised and baroque music. She divides her activity between orchestra, chamber music, solo and teaching.

After having obtained two first prizes at the CNSMD of Paris, in double bass and in generative improvisation, with honors, she followed an advanced cycle at the CNSMD of Lyon with Bernard Cazauran. Then she deepened her training in historical double bass and violin at the CNSMD of Paris.

She won the first prize in the international Bass competition 2008, in the contemporary music category, organized by the “Association des contrebassistes et bassiste de France” with the support of the spedidam.

She created La contrebasse nomade, a solo directed by Nicolas Slawny: a musician’s work and musical theater where the double bassist is the actress. She continued this work with Tout contre ma contrebasse and Un cabaret imaginaire to give it even more strength, with the living composers Sylvain Kassap, Jacques Rebotier, Sébastien Béranger, Mirtru Escalona Mijares, François Rossé, Luis Naon… and through the ages.  Then with Folia, a program built in partnership with the gmem-CNCM-Marseille, for double bass and electronics which brings together four composers: Raphaèle Biston, Carol Robinson, Kaija Saariaho and Francesca Verunelli. Three creations for three new worlds and four dreams.

In parallel, she plays in orchestras, as a substitute, with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Insula Orchestra and Les Siècles…

Her curiosity for music and more generally for the arts leads her to play in different styles and different contexts. She loves these improbable encounters, these rubbings which allow her to discover and experiment other facets of her instrument and to share them with the public.

She teaches double bass at the Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Cergy-Pontoise.