Jean-Michel Bernard

Jean-Michel Bernard began playing the piano at the age of two. When he was 14, he was awarded first place at the Bordeaux Conservatory and later graduated from the Paris ‘Ecole Normale de Musique’. At 19, he recorded with the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, whilst pursuing a career as a jazz musician and performing with prominent jazz artists including Wild Bill Davis, Jimmy Woode (Duke Ellington’s bassist) and Eddie Davis. From 1987 to 1991 he worked as musical director and conductor of the successful radio show "L’Oreille en Coin" on National Public Radio France Inter. Between 2000 and 2003, he performed with the Ray Charles Quartet on the European and Australian tours as organist and conductor, “this guy is a genius” Ray used to say concerning Jean-Michel Bernard. He also scored many documentaries and commercials during the 90’s. His career as a composer began with animated films, followed by collaborations with masters such as Lalo Schifrin and Ennio Morricone. He frequently works with director Michel Gondry and has composed songs for films including "Human Nature" and "the Science of Sleep", which screened at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. He was nominated for the World Soundtrack Awards in 2007 as Discovery of the Year and won the France Musique/UCMF award at the Cannes Film Festival the same year. In 2008 he scored the music for Michel Gondry’s "Be Kind Rewind," "Cash" by Eric Besnard, and "A Pain in the Ass" by Francis Veber. The same day "Be Kind Rewind" was shown at the Sundance Festival, Jean-Michel Bernard performed alongside rapper/singer Mos Def and Gondry, an avid drummer.

The following year, the Cannes Film Festival invited him to represent France in the film music concert program. He also received an award for his achievement outside of his native country from the European Union of Film Music Composers (UCMF) and was appointed as sound designer for both HBO’s channel and website. He has collaborated with French actress and director Fanny Ardant on two of her films "Chimères Absentes" and "Cadences Obstinées" starring Gerard Depardieu and worked on Academy Award winning " Hugo " by Martin Scorsese. He scored the music of " Love Punch " by Joel Hopkins starring Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson, "Love at First Child" by Anne Giafferi and "Money" by Georgian director Gela Babluani. Bernard has conducted master classes at the Cannes Film Festival as well as in Montreal, Angers, La Rochelle, Krakow, Cologne and in Aubagne, where he performed a live version of "Jazz For Dogs, " an album co-created with Kimiko Ono and featuring a number of prestigious guests including Fanny Ardant, Francis Lai and Laurent Korcia.

In 2014, Jean-Michel Bernard began teaching film music classes at the Paris Conservatory and was guest of honor with Michael Giacchino at the Audi Talent Awards in Paris with the Paris Symphonic Orchestra, at Braunschweig Festival and at Soundtrack Cologne Festival. He scored “Terra”, a contemporary dance project which premiered at the Coronet in London in March 2016 and participated as composer, arranger and performer on The Avalanches long-awaited second album "Wildflower which just got gold certified album 2018. His most recent project is an album celebrating the legendary Lalo Schifrin entitled " Jean-Michel Bernard plays Lalo Schifrin " which includes 3 piano duets with the master himself. The album will be released in 2017 with concerts in Los Angeles, Paris, and Japan, at the Tokyo Blue Note Jazz Festival. Money by Gela Babluani has been awarded at the Beuxelles film festival (best film, best director). Jean-Michel Bernard won the Grand Prix Sacem 2017 for best composer for screen at la Salle Pleyel.

JMB will tour around the world in 2018 with his new piano recital "Play Piano Play" (USA, Japan Yokohama French film music Festival, Fimucité 12 in Tenerife etc.) Show less