Thomas Bloch

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Thomas Bloch and his glass harmonica (2007)

Thomas Bloch (born 1962 in Colmar, France) is a classical musician specializing in the rare instruments ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, and Cristal Baschet.

Receiving a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (with Jeanne Loriod) and a Masters Degree in Musicology at the University of Strasbourg, Bloch has performed over 2500 times and appeared on over eighty recordings.^{[citation needed]} Notable collaborations (concerts or recordings) include Radiohead, John Cage, Damon Albarn / Gorillaz, and Tom Waits / Marianne Faithfull / Bob Wilson.

Thomas Bloch currently lives in Paris, France. He is acknowledged as an expert^{[by whom?]} in the following rare instruments: the glass harmonica, the ondes Martenot and the Cristal Baschet.^{[citation needed]} He has given thousands of performances in forty countries and taken part in more than eighty recordings all over the world. He performs in genres that span classical, contemporary, jazz, rock, ballet, world music, theatre and film score/soundtrack. He is sometimes the interpreter and other times the the composer. As a soloist of rare instruments, he plays the complete classical and modern repertoire (Messiaen, Varese, Honegger, Bussotti, Mozart, Donizetti, Hasse, C.P.E. Bach, Beethoven, Richard Strauss,...) and also ten to fifteen premieres from contemporary music each year (Michel Redolfi, Regis Campo, Etienne Rolin, Bernard Wisson, Jan Erik Mikalsen...) and popular music composers (Jonny Greenwood, Damon Albarn...). He also performs in many recording sessions.

Thomas Bloch and cristal Baschet (1992)

He teaches ondes Martenot at the Strasbourg Conservatoire since 1992, is responsible for presentations of instruments at the Paris Musée de la Musique and is a musical director for music publishers, for the Evian Music Festival (France) and for the Glass Music International Festival 2005 in Paris Cité de la Musique (France).

Thomas Bloch was the recipient of some fifteen Conservatoire awards, at Colmar, Strasbourg, including a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique (with Jeanne Loriod). He obtained a Master’s Degree in Musicology at the University of Strasbourg where he was, among others, studied with Marc Honegger, was awarded by critics in several music magazines and also in international composition competitions. Among others, he won : the Classical Music Award 200 given by European critics in Cannes Midem, Victoires de la Musique and Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, four times best soundtrack during the World subaquatic Movies Festival in Antibes, The Choice of Gramophon, Best of the Year 2001 in Audiophile, Choc in Le Monde de la Musique for his interpretation of the Turangalîla-Symphonie by Messiaen...

He has recorded for Columbia, EMI, Erato, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Philips, RCA, Sony Classical, Toshiba... Since 1998, he records for Naxos : Music for Glass Harmonica (8.555295), Music for Ondes Martenot (8.555779), Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie (8.554478-79), Classical Chill (8.520101), Classical Heat (8.520102), Mozart : Life and Works (8.558061-64), Ecuatorial by Edgard Varese, Missa Cantate by Thomas Bloch...