Xuân Mai DANG-LOMBARDI cut her teeth at the conservatory (CRR of Lille), in CHAM classes (music/studies), from a very young age. After receiving solid classical training in piano and baroque recorder, she also earned a D.U.M.I. (University Diploma for Musicians in Education).
In 2007, her encounter with composer Alain Savouret, then professor and founder of the free improvisation class at the CNSMDP, proved fundamental to her work in composition, invention, and “phonoculture.” From the conservatory she retained only the hard iron box in which she felt confined—so as to deform it, open it, and escape from it. What remains today in her musical craft is only the quintessence of raw sonic material. In 2008, she naturally collaborated with Alain Savouret on a commission from the French State and the IMEB (Vie-Vent; fable haut parlante, premiered in 2009 at the Synthèse Festival), followed by many shared projects up to the present day.
After cutting kilometers of magnetic tape for radio (Audioblogs, Arte Radio, Radio Libertaire, etc.) and composing several theme tunes, Xuân Mai worked as an electroacoustic composer at ART ZOYD Studios, collaborating with Gérard Hourbette and André Serre-Millan (Hôtel Électrique, Voyage dans la Lune, 44 1/2, etc.). She then created sound installations with visual artist Charlotte Lanselle and sculptor Alessio Oru. With artistic cross-disciplinarity at the heart of her projects, she has also taken part in numerous creative residencies with puppeteers, circus artists, actors, and dancers (Collectif 23h50, Cirque du Bout du Monde, Compagnie ActArts, etc.).
As a vocalist, she was a member of Phil Minton’s Feral Choir, then of the female vocal ensemble VOYelles directed by Adélaïde Stroesser, where she met Meredith Monk. Each year she is invited as a chorister for large-scale baroque concerts (“Grands formats,” Un Autre Souffle association), during which she collaborates with conductors passionate about early music (Nicolas Bucher, Freddy Eichelberger, Blaise Plumettaz, etc.).
As a hybrid and experimental musician (voice, objects, traditional instruments, electronics), she has worked with Claude Colpaert and Frédéric Loisel (Trio Tzara), Michael Pisaro-Liu (Radiolarians), Christian Pruvost (Flumunda), Ingrid Laubrock, the ARFI collective, Jean-Philippe Harchin, Tayeb Benamara, Raphaëlle Prost, Alaric Chagnard, among others. She is currently active in the Muzzix collective, Compagnie ActArts, and Compagnie Théâtre dans les Nuages.
The omnipresence of musical theater in her inventions stems from her practice of Kabuki, which encompasses song (歌 ka), dance (舞 bu), and technical virtuosity (伎 ki). “Each of my improvisations is inspired by the context in which I am called upon to play.” Her inventions are site-specific, built in space with architectural rigor and the sensitivity of a sad clown. She continues to delve into silence and mime, perhaps one day to break through the sound barrier.