Eléonore Billy 

 

Nyckelharpa

France

Trained on the violin both by oral tradition and by a conservatory curriculum, she then turned to nyckelharpa and Scandinavian music.
She will be the first French musician to complete a full training at the Erik Sahlström Institute in Sweden -2003-2004- a country whose language and culture she will embrace.

Inspired from childhood by traditional, classical or baroque music, or even French song, her boundless curiosity leads her to new sound and creative territories and many musical collaborations from very different horizons, in France and abroad.

Passionate about collective playing, transversality, compositions and "sharing ideas", she participated in the creation of BOANN in 2004, Celtic music quartet, SYM in 2007 (England/Norway/France) string trio which will tour for a few years in England, Norway and France, then TOKSO Folk String Quartet in 2008 (Norway/Crete/France) which releases its 3rd album for the group's ten years in 2018.

In 2007 she received a commission from the "Les Boréales" festival in Normandy, focusing on Scandinavian literature, to create a show for young audiences. She joined the company of Martin Coudroy, a Breton accordionist passionate about Scandinavian culture and dumist. Together, they created the musical tale "Le Merveilleux Voyage de Nils Holgersson" which will be a highlight of the JMF 2015-2017 tour and which has been touring the venues throughout France for the past 10 years.

In 2012, she created, with Gaëdic CHAMBRIER, the duo OCTANTRION which will be spotted by Jean-François ZYGEL: the group will be dedicated a long sequence in the Music Box in 2015, participating in the recording of a DVD of the show (released on Naïve).The Octantrion duo is signed at Quart de Lune and distributed by UVM.

In 2008, Gaëdic Chambrier and Eléonore founded the Compagnie de l'Essaim, an association that takes charge of the administrative aspect of their shows, the recording of albums via their private studio, Varg prod, the production of books and records and the distribution of their activities.

Passionate about transmission, she regularly teaches the practice of nyckelharpa during internships in France and abroad and writes, in 2016, a method of learning the instrument, as well as score collections.
Many nyckelharpa players in France have been forming alongside him for 15 years.

She leads the "Nyckelharpa Ensemble" which will have the opportunity to share the stage with the famous Swedish group Väsen in March 2018!
She also works closely with Jean-Claude CONDI, luthier and bowmaker specialized in the instrument, and they reflect, together, on the evolution of the instrument (such as the "Billy" keyboard).

Since 2014 she has been training with Jérôme Hantaï in viola bass and baroque music.

Proudly wearing the colours of Scandinavian culture, and designated as a nyckelharpa specialist in France, she is regularly invited and has worked on stage or in the studio with:

Malicorne, Gabriel Yacoub (2014)
Laurent Vercambre (2014)
Eskelina (Album La verticale 2017)
La Green Box (Album 2017)
Tournée avec la Rue Kétanou (2017)
Orchestre National de Lyon, solo hardingfele dans Peer Gynt (2018)
Bande son d’un jeu vidéo d’aventure (sortie 2019)