ArtistInfo

Cathy Heyden

sax, perc, FR
Musician of Jazz, Rock and Electronic
A.k.a. Catherine Heyden

Cathy Heyden is a French self-taught saxophonist, free improviser, and music educator. Before joining European avant-garde scene, Heyden had been professionally involved in theatrical and dance performance, carrying academic studies on these topics. Currently based in Paris, Cathy Heyden teaches at CFMI d'Orsay and has a forthcoming solo debut album, Badlands, co-released by Universinternational / 213 Records in 2017. In 1998, she joined Pagaille improvisation orchestra in Nancy, created by Louis-Michel Marion and René Le Borgne, and played with Jean-Marc Montera, Sophie Agnel, Laurent Dailleau, Dominique Clément (3) and Françoise Toullec in this ensemble. Cathy Heyden worked with improvisers, dancers, visual artists and actors in Nancy and Toulouse (Michel Doneda, Lê Quan Ninh, Martine Altenburger, Fabrice Charles, Ly Thanh Tiên, David Chiesa), and explored Parisian scene in collaboration with Hervé Zénouda, Dante Feijoo, Jean-Luc Degioanni, Sébastien Branche, Ensemble Intercontemporain and other notable performers. Cathy's network of connections soon expanded across Europe, through collective work with Italian musicians Jacopo Andreini and Fabio Bello, as well as Liba Villavecchia and Artur Vidal from Spain, and reaching all the way to Japan (Kumi Iwase, Trami Nguyen). She joined Urban Sax on one of the world tours. Throughout her career, Heyden organized numerous ensembles, including duos A Rose is a Rose with Didier Lasserre and Musique pour pupitres & ustensiles with Olivier Bartissol, GHK Trio with Béatrice Godeau (cello) and Judith Kan (voice), and spoken word/music trio As I Die (Erell Latimier – voice, texts; Olivier Brisson – drums). She also worked extensively with a drummer Rogier Smal, and performed with Maelstrom – Jean-Philippe Gross' project with Arnaud Paquotte on electric bass and Michel Oury on drums. In 2006, Cathy Heyden joined electroacoustic improviser Jean-Marc Foussat and saxophonist Sylvain Guérineau in Quod – an expanded formation of their duo Aliquid. Together with Jean-Luc Cappozzo on trumpet, Quod debuted with a live concert at Olympic Café. Heyden continued working with Foussat in Mezza Vocce quartet, which combined her and Jean-Marc's music with video/text projections by Adeline Hocdet and Fanny Richert. Mezza Vocce produced BonPiet Beauneuille children's show, inspired by works of Jean Dubuffet. Some of her recent appearances include a concert at La Générale En Manufacture, Sèvres with Yves Botz's freeform noise duo Mesa Of The Lost Women and trumpeter Jac Berrocal in May 2009. The same year, at Avantgarde Festival in Schiphorst, guitarist and videographer Uwe Bastiansen invited Cathy to join him on stage with The Flexible Orchestra (2), which featured Werner Diermaier (drums), Geoff Leigh (flute), Diego Vinciarelli (drums) and Fritz Müller (keyboards). She also worked with Bastiansen under his Stadtfisch alias, and participated in Stadtfischflex recording sessions.

Instruments

• Saxophone
• Percussion

Genres

• Jazz
• Rock
• Electronic
• Folk
• Soundtrack

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