François Du Bois, born in La Charité-sur-Loire in Burgundy, France, is a composer, marimba virtuoso, as well as professor, columnist and author.
Musical debut
Du Bois began to learn music when he was 8 years old. By the age of 17, he had already become a professional. At 16 years old, François Du Bois embarked upon a career path as a symphonic orchestra percussionist and a jazz drummer, which he pursued until he was 26. In the classical field, he has worked with Lorin Maazel, Olivier Messiaen, and Mstislav Rostropovich, and in the field of jazz, he has worked with Richard Galliano, Trilok Gurtu, Dominique Di Piazza, and Abbey Lincoln.
A detour
Dissatisfied with the lack of artistic substance in his music, Du Bois left France at the age of 20 for Africa, in search of experience and inspiration that would lend his music greater substance, a journey that led him to Burkina Faso. During his first year there, Du Bois caught malaria, but he fully recovered. Several years later, Du Bois' musical education had become complete after having studied under his mentor, Ray Lema. Lema is an African singer and composer who founded the National Ballet of Zaire (today Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Career as a marimbist and composer
Du Bois played in a duet with the Canadian violinist Hélène Collerette, who is currently the premier soloist of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Later he played in a duet with the Australian violinist Jane Peters—winner of the Tchaikovsky Prize—in a concert tour through Germany. He also performed with the pianist Ludovic Selmi, in concert tours throughout Europe and Japan. The two of them collaborated with Les Tambours du Bronx, among other groups. After the dissolution of the duo, Du Bois began to concentrate on composing music and recording it.
Other duets created by François Du Bois
Marimba /oboe — with François Leleux, virtuoso and former soloist of the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Symphonic orchestra of the Bavarian Radio station) / Lorin Maazel, Conductor. Marimba / clarinet — with Patrick Messina, virtuoso and soloist of the “Orchestre National de France” / Kurt Masur, Conductor. Marimba / cello — with Henri Demarquette, virtuoso. Marimba / shakuhachi (Japanese flute) — with Hōzan Yamamoto, virtuoso and professor at Tokyo Geijyutsu Daigaku “Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music”. Marimba / violin — with Jean-Marc Phillips-Varjabédian, virtuoso.
In 1998, Du Bois left Paris for Tokyo on a quest to discover new horizons in the field of music. Keio University invited Du Bois to create a special class in musical composition for the Political Science department. That same year, he created the “Orchestre d’autre part”, an ensemble that consisted of 14 marimbists and taiko players. Keiko Abe, a key person in the development of the marimba, introduced Du Bois to two of her former students with whom he would record the album “Origine”. Soon after the album's release, NHK broadcast a live 30-minute programme “Studio Park: François Du Bois Special” that reached 10 million viewers during primetime.
In 2013, François Du Bois composed a double album, recorded in October of that year at the Meguro Fudoson Buddhist temple, accompanied by the temple monks. Out of their collaboration arose a new sound to stimulate meditation. The music was inspired by the Chinese concepts of “Liu Zi Jue” and “Medita Music”. In September 2014, Columbia Records released the corresponding double CD Dive Into Silence.
In June 2017, "Dive into Silence - Eclaircie" was granted the world record for the world's most sold marimba CD (80,300 copies) by the Asian Book of Records.
His 2nd medita music album "Gunung Kawi" was released as an exclusivity for the purchasers of his book "The Science of Composition" published in September 2019 from Kodansha Bluebacks. This book has become a best seller.
He composed the music for the film "La Traversée", which received the Oumarou Ganda Prize in the FESPACO 2021 festival
In 2022, he released his new book in the Kodansha Bluebacks Editions (scientific collection) "The science of musical instruments" (multiple editions).
The same year, the album "La légende de la forêt" was released, a quartet of original compositions for meditation. Source of inspiration: the forests inhabited by the Tengu.
Following the best-selling editions of both "The Science of Composition" and "The Science of Musical Instruments, a combined edition was published on June 24, 2022.