Niels Mestre

Composer and improviser living in Paris, Niels Mestre was graduated from ATLA as the most accomplished student when he was twenty years old with Pierre Chaze as main teacher who was taught by René Thomas. He played since with dozens of bands in many styles (r'n'b, blues, rock, funk, metal, reggae, chanson, world, jazz...) from Algeciras to Tokyo, Istanbul, Moscow or Rome...  He studied jazz harmony with Derek Sebastian for two years and classical composition with Jean-Michel Bardez, one of the last students of Olivier Messiaen, for seven years at the Hector Berlioz conservatory in Paris. Always in balance between improvisation and composition, he performs frequently in a lot of different contexts. One of his compositions “Lettre à l'oisif (d'après 会津磐梯山) “ has been created in Japan by the NY Licorice Ensemble, another one has been released on the SEAMUS’ album “ Sonic Haiku “ . He had also composed for theatre and cinema.

Among others Niels Mestre played with Pierre Chaze, Mustafa N'Diaye, Ignass Fofana, Alban Chapelle, Aymeric Avice, Francesco Pastacaldi, Marco Lacaille, Alain Debiossat, René Lacaille, Didier Malherbe, Benoît Mœrlen, Bobby Rangell, Or Solomon, Peter Corser, Laurent Coulondre, Junji Mori, Mushimaru Fujieda, Hiraku Amemiya, Sylvain Kassap, Erick Borelva, Itaru Oki, Makoto Sato, Jef Sicard, Christophe Monniot, Sarah Murcia, François Merville, Stéphane Payen, Régis Huby, Denis Charolles, Magma, Andràs Vigh, Cyprien Busolini, Claude Parle, Yasuhiro Usui, Hugues Vincent, Xavier Camarasa, Philippe Gleizes, Hugues Mayot, Matthias Mahler, Yann Joussein, Geoffroy Gesser, Olivia Scemama, Marie Takahashi, Tom Malmendier, Timothée Quost, Jonathan Aardestrup, Raoul van der Weide, Henk Zwerver, Christiane Bopp, Anil Eraslan, Xavier Mussat, Uygur Vural, Barbaro "Machito" Crespo Richard, Richard Comte, Brice Wassy...