bio (short)

Born 1964, visited an international high school/college and studied then mathematics and computer science in Freiburg/Germany. Live and work actually in Colmar/France as a technical section leader of a pharmaceutical group (part-time) and as a web developer (self-employed). I am married and have 4 daughters.

music and me

When I was young I learned playing recorder, violin, viola, piano, flute, singing and directing choirs. All musical activities were stopped in the early 90ies after I started working and later having a family. But in 2007 a new instrument found me and woke my sleeping musical and technical skills up:

theremin

It was in November 2007 in one of these nights when I couldn't sleep. I surfed on the web with my phone pda in order to find some classical music and found the Dutch "Concertzender". They played a piece for oboe, string quartet, piano and an instrument which sounded very strange - electronically on one side, like a human voice on the other side. It was difficult for me to understand what the announcer told after since he spoke Dutch, but soon it was clear that I had heard the Theremin Fantasia from Bohuslav Martinu. Thanks to the www I could gather more and more informations about this strange instrument and only a few weeks later I owned already two of them and started learning. In the meantime I was given the opportunity to attend teachings from Lydia Kavina and Carolina Eyck.

But making music on it is only one interesting aspect for me, the other has become the research. How does this ancestor of all electronical music instruments which was invented even before the ondes Martenot work? How were different types designed? What makes a "good" theremin? So I gathered informations, technical documentations, schematics and analyzed them. This knowledge allows me now to do maintenance and repair on various types of ready-built theremins and kits. Having always an ear on theremin related forums and mailing lists I could not only help sometimes or give hints at distance, but also develop a module which still improves an already renowned professional instrument.