Concert by Thomas Enhco Jazz Тrio
Fireflies
The ticket price is 50 leva. Admission for children under 12 is free. Organizers: Cultural Perspectives Foundation
Fireflies nicely shows the duality in Toma Enko's art: exploring light and darkness. The works recreate night trains (Train de Nuit), ghosts (You're Just a Ghost), and enchanting deserts (Wadi Rum), but beneath their dark and melancholic aspects, the music encompasses luminous, rich melodies. Shrouded in a sleepy veil, it glows with its own mystery.
"Fireflies – lanterns in the night: hidden, fleeting, fragile and precious lights. They brought to my mind an imaginary, wonderful, disturbing world... While composing and recording them, I felt completely like a hero in this world, experiencing every story. I feel the same way on stage: as if I am in another universe, a fantastic world without emotional boundaries. I bare my soul, but through another identity as a storyteller or clown."
Therein lies the greatness of this music: the powerful narrative, the raw honesty of the musicians, the force of their consuming passion, and the intensity of their performance. The trio's artistry shines in all its glory. The musical and human empathy that connects the three main characters in this adventure is more than just present: it is palpable. Hearing these skillfully crafted compositions, highly melodic themes, and rich discourse, one wonders what could have influenced such a young artist to inspire such depth and maturity.
🎹 ABOUT THOMA ENKO
Thoma Enko, born in Paris (1988), is a pianist and composer with a dual calling – in jazz and classical music. He began studying piano and violin at the age of 3, and wrote his first compositions at the age of 6. At the age of 12, he was accepted into the CMDL (Didier Lockwood Music Center) to study jazz piano and violin, and at 16, he was accepted into the Paris Conservatory. Since then, he has gained international recognition, recording for labels such as Verve, Deutsche Grammophon, and Sony Music, and giving over 100 concerts a year around the world.
Toma has been a guest at jazz festivals in Tokyo, Montreal, Vienna, Montreux, Istanbul, New York, Olympia Hall... and classical venues such as the Paris Philharmonic, the Bordeaux Opera, Flagey Hall in Brussels, the La Roque d'Anthéron Piano Festival, the Shanghai National Theatre, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Beijing Concert Hall, Kyoto, and the Sapporo Concert Hall.
His latest albums are Thirty for solo piano and with symphony orchestra in his Piano Concerto (Sony Classical, 2019), Bach Mirror (Sony Classical, 2021) and Funambules (Deutsche Grammophon, 2016) as a duo with virtuoso percussionist Vasilena Serafimova, Feathers for solo piano (Verve, 2015) and Fireflies with a jazz trio (Label Bleu, 2012).
As a jazz pianist, Toma Enko plays mainly solo piano, in a trio (with double bass and drums), in a quartet (with electric guitar) and in various duos (notably with his brother David Enko on trumpet). In solo concerts, his unique combination of improvisations on jazz standards, pop songs, and themes from great classical composers, as well as his own compositions, have been praised by audiences and critics around the world.
As a soloist with orchestra, he has performed concertos by Mozart (K.491), Ravel (Concerto in G), Gershwin (Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue), Adams (Eros Piano), and Beethoven (Triple Concerto), as well as his own two concertos with the national symphony orchestras of Bordeaux, Kyoto, Sapporo, Pau, Avignon, Geneva, Orchestre National de France, Ensemble Appassionato, and others, conducted by Junichi Hirokami, James Gaffigan, Matthew Herzog, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Faisal Karoui, Julien Massonde, Pierre Dumousseau, Samuel Jean, Benjamin Lévy...
As a composer, he regularly receives commissions from orchestras, chamber music ensembles, choirs, and soloists. He has composed three symphonic works (two concertos and a rhapsody) and various works for piano, choir, string and wind ensembles. His latest film score is for the film Un Mondo in Più by Italian director Luigi Pane (2022).
Among the awards and distinctions that Toma Enko has received are the SACEM Grand Prize for Jazz 2020, Victoires du Jazz 2013, Second Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition 2017, the FIPA d'Or for Best Film Music 2012 (Les Cinq Parties du Monde by French director Gérard Mordillat), the Django d'Or "New Talent" Award 2010, Third Prize at the Martial Solal International Jazz Piano Competition 2010.
Enko records and performs with top jazz and classical performers such as Jack DeJohnette, John Patitucci, Didier Lockwood, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Jose James, Peter Erskine, Ibrahim Maalouf, Gilad Hekselman, Mike Stern, Dan Tepfer, Cyril Emé; Henri Demarquette, Katya Buniatishvili, Renaud Capuçon, Nathalie Dusse, Michel Dalberto, Laurent Naouri, Anne-Sophie von Oter, The Eben, Arod, Hanson, and Modigliani quartets, with Jérôme Pernoud, Liz de la
Salle, Beatrice Rana...
Since 2013, Thomas Enko has been supported in his projects by the BNP Paribas Foundation.
Hailed as "imaginative and a master of textures" by Downbeat magazine, Raphaël Pannier is a French drummer born in Paris in 1990. He moved to the US for ten years from 2010 to 2020, graduating from Berklee College of Music (BM '13) and the Manhattan School of Music (MM '17). While living in New York, he played with various master musicians, including Miguel Zenón, Aaron Goldberg, Lee Ritenour, and Marcos Valle. Returning to Paris in 2020, he released his first album as a leader, Faune, widely acclaimed by the national and international press. Based in Europe, he now plays with Biréli Lagrène, Baptiste Trotignon, and Antonio Lizana. His multicultural knowledge, emotional depth, and precise technique with a colorful palette of rhythms make him a very distinctive drummer.
Jazz Magazine (France) selected him as one of the "Top 5 Drummers for 2020," and The Mercury News described him as "a force in jazz for years to come."
