Jean Michel Bernard

Early life and career beginnings

Bernard began playing the piano at the age of two. At age 14, Bernard won first place at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux and later graduated from the École Normale de Musique de Paris. At 19, he recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, while also pursuing a career as a jazz musician, performing with renowned jazz artists such as Wild Bill Davis, Jimmy Woode and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. He was a member of the Ray Charles 5tet from 2000 to 2003 (B3 organ and keyboards) as well as conductor for Symphonic shows (Album Ray Charles live in Melbourne). Ray used to say : "this guy is a genius in my mind..." (audio interview on www.jmbernard.net) He has collaborated with Lalo Schifrin, Ennio Morricone, Martin Scorsese among others and he recorded on the piano the "Q suite" especially for Quincy Jones which is part of his Universal film works compilation album 2016.

Career

He was elected to the administrative board of the Union des compositeurs de musique de film (UCMF) (Union of Film Music Composers).

In May 2016, Bernard was a guest at the Krakow Film Music Festival alongside Harry Gregson-Williams.

Bernard contributed as composer and arranger on The Avalanches' second studio album Wildflower with Danny Brown and rapper MF Doom. He will tour in Japan in October 2016 invited by the French Institute for series of concerts and conferences for the Tokyo Film Festival.

Filmography

Discography