Jean-Michel Bernard: Piano Cinema

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Jean-Michel Bernard, whom Ray Charles described as a “genius” and Lalo Schifrin called his “soul brother” works at the crossroads of musical genres. A composer, orchestrator, producer, concert pianist, he is not exactly a classical pianist, nor a jazz pianist (even if he has the improvisational freedom and swing), but is known as an exceptional pianist of music for cinema. Jean-Michel Bernard is the only official Steinway artist in the film music sector, and has worked as a member of Ray Charles’ Quartet, a collaborator of Scorsese and Morricone, and as a composer for Michel Gondry amongst others.

Fukiko Takase was born in New York but raised in Japan where she trained with Katsuko Orita. After receiving the Cultural Affairs Fellowship from the Japanese government, she moved to Europe to study at Codarts Rotterdam Dance Academy and the London Contemporary Dance School. Fukiko then worked with the Henri Oguike and Wayne McGregor dance companies before making her way as an independent solo artist. Her work includes 1001 with Dustin O’Halloran premiered in Minneapolis, USA, Don Juan Techno Club with Daniel Brandt and Frieder Nagel premiered in Nuremberg, Germany as well as performing Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece in 2019. She featured in Thom Yorke’s Atoms for Peace video Ingenue, as well as choreographing for Daniel Brandt and Hikaru Utada. In 2018 she choreographed and toured Japan with Hikaru Utada’s anniversary concert tour, performing for 140,000 people. Fukiko danced for Akram Khan’s Jungle Book Reimagined, and has become Honourable Professor for Shikoku University in 2022. Last year (2023) Fukiko starred in The Coronet’s own production of The Yellow Wallpaper, a radical new staging of  Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s hugely influential novella adapted and directed by Stephanie Mohr.

“I cannot find words to reflect my admiration for his genius” – Lalo Schifrin (Composer of Mission Impossible, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Mannix)