Karol Beffa

In my memory, it was Jeff Cohen, my teacher of "Lied and melody" in 2000-2001 at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, who, at the beginning of 2002, suggested that I apply for the Master class of composition that Noël Lee would give in April 2002 at the Académie de Villecroze. I did it all the more willingly since I already knew Christmas as a pianist thanks to several recordings, and one in particular that I particularly appreciated and in which he performed precisely with Jeff Cohen: "A Yiddish Touch in Paris " After listening to my Brass Band, Noël left a message on my answering machine where he congratulated me for having used the brass not in their strength but in their smoothness. It was a first glimpse of the immense generosity that emanated from his radiant personality. During his lessons at Vllecroze, Noël was extremely kind to the apprentice composers that we were. Never stingy with encouragement, this pianist, a great decipherer and pioneer of repertoire, fed his remarks, always relevant, with observations which added to the reasoned opinion of the composer the opinion of a practicing connoisseur. Christmas did not hesitate to go beyond strictly musical questions to tackle the most varied themes. I was able to benefit from his in-depth knowledge of the poetry of Catherine Pozzi. It was always a pleasure, during Master classes or during meals, to listen to this man who had crossed the century and known so many exceptional personalities, a true memory box.
As described by several fellow musicians, the stay at Villecroze turned out to be idyllic. The setting was wonderful, and the students we were, treated like royalty. Classes, walks, concerts, quiet readings in the sumptuous library, lively discussions on a thousand subjects: I had the chance to meet many musicians at Villecroze, who became friends: the singers Delphine Collot and Vincent Lièvre -Picard, pianists Mara Dobresco and Nicolas Jouve. The end of the trip was somewhat tarnished by the results of the first round of presidential elections that we discovered on television, during a somewhat surreal live election night. We felt a sense of despondency mixed with some form of shameful guilt because most of us had not bothered to have a power of attorney established.
Two years later, in autumn 2004, I found Noël Lee, again in Villecroze, during a Colloquium co-organized with the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Foundation, where I made a communication on the elder of the two sisters: "Nadia Boulanger composer. The paradoxes of a musician ". Subsequently, I have happened several times to come across Christmas at the CNSM or at concerts, and to chat on the loose on all the subjects that this nimbus teacher, in love with music, wanted to tackle. Ten years later, in December 2014, during a concert organized by the Cantus Formus association, I had the opportunity to pay him a last tribute. At one point, Nicolas Bacri asked me to improvise on the piano on themes proposed by the public, and I therefore lent myself to the game. The baritone François Leroux was present in the room who has performed many times in company Christmas - Christmas that had left us eighteen months before. Nicolas asked me if I would like to improvise in the style of our missing friend. And, thinking of him, I then launched into a synthesis between Stravinsky and Schoenberg with the dark expressiveness zebra in places of flashes of rhythmic life.