DUEL
Laurent Cirade & Paul Staïcu
The highlight of the Avignon Festival 2007, France!

One of the most critically acclaimed shows of the Avignon Festival 2007, DUEL is an irresistible and hilarious performance, a remarkable standoff between two French virtuosos, cellist Laurent Cirade and a pianist Paul Staïcu.

Paul and Laurent confront each other with equal weaponry, the bow versus the keyboard, in a delirious performance. They move effortlessly from humor to poetry, and musical gags, combining absurdity, friendship, complicity, cynicism and innocence, while playing an incredible program from Bach to the Beatles. They impersonate two universal and attaching characters, the big and the small and without ever resorting to speech, deliver an incredible mix of musical and hilarious comedy, crossing genres between classical music and humor a la Laurel & Hardy.

DUEL came into being in 1999 in New York after several weeks of work and improvisation. The performance has taken its present form with the collaboration of Director Agnes Boury. Since then, DUEL has been touring in France ( La Cigale, Theatre des Mathurins) and overseas, notably in New York at the Florence Gould Hall Theater and in Beirut at the Festival Al Bustan.

After completing his classical studies with Maguy Hauchcorne and Hervé Derrien and crowning them with a first prize of excellence, Laurent Cirade, starts an adventurous musical career experimenting all the musical styles, from Argentinian tango with the group “Arrabeles”, to jazz with violinist Pierre Blanchard and his group “Gulf String”, to chamber music with “La Camerata de France”, while passing by the National Orchestra of France. For twelve years he tours with the famous “Quatuor”, whose performance triumph throughout the world.

Romanian before becoming French, renegade of the very classical Bucharest Academy of Music, Paul Staicu entered the Superior National Conservatory of Paris where he obtained two first prizes, in composition and jazz. Since then, from classical piano recitals to jazz festivals, he has worked next to the likes of Guy Reibel, George Russel, Michel Portal, Carla Bley and her big band. As an eclectic composer, he has had some of his work performed in major French festivals and has founded a jazz class at the “Ecole Normale de Musique” in Paris.

Agnes Boury, artistic director, worked several years in the French television industry before joining theatre productions. She assisted or directed many successful French TV shows and plays before arriving at DUEL.

Friday, November 30
Saturday, December 1
7:30 PM

Adults: $35 - Students: $20

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With the generous support of