If you go
Composer/pianist Michel Legrand and singer Mario Pelchat perform Legrand’s hits
Where: Music Center at Strathmore
When: 7 p.m. Sunday
Info: $27 to $70; 301-581-5100; strathmore.org
Michel Legrand chuckles when presented with his own musical question, “What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life?” The remarkable pianist, composer, arranger, conductor, producer and singer, now aged 77, continues spreading his creative ventures and delectable melodies around the world non-stop. This week he brings popular French-Canadian singer Mario Pelchat to Strathmore for an enchanting evening of his classical songs and the French chanson. Legrand will reign at the piano accompanied by a quartet that includes harpist Catherine Michel, his wife and harp soloist of Op?ra de Paris.
The first time American audiences heard Legrand’s film score for the musical “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” the jazz pianist was already a household name in his native France. A collaborator of such artists as Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Getz, he had composed for many successful French films. Once Hollywood discovered him, he began dividing his talents between both countries and to date has scored more than two hundred films.
Along with The Prix Moliere Award for the best French musical and an Australian Film Institute Award nomination for Best Original Music Score, he has amassed honors galore in this country. In addition to three Oscars and five Grammy Awards, his nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe, Grammy Award, Emmy Award and Tony Award number in the dozens. “The Windmills of Your Mind” (1968) accumulated multiple awards.
“Everything I do is exhilarating,” Legrand said. “When I wrote ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,’ it was the first time a film was sung all the way through and people liked the modern, new way of using a musical score. Right now I’m working on a couple of movies and a couple of musicals. My songs are my children. I have no preferences. Some have become very well known, but their popularity is not up to me. You write the songs and the audience keeps some for themselves.”
Over the years, Legrand has performed with or written songs for every major artist in the business, including Johnny Mathis, Kiri Te Kanawa, Edith Piaf, Miles Davis, Ray Charles and Barbra Streisand. Impressed by Pelchat’s vocal interpretation of his songs, he suggested they collaborate on an album. After performing together in Paris to resounding acclaim, they continue touring in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to Strathmore, upcoming performances are scheduled at Boston Symphony Hall and Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall.
Even as he tours with Pelchat, he is working on a ballet, a special show for PBS and a new album.
“I have a lot of stuff cooking,” he said. “I work in many genres and find it extraordinary to always write for a new story and new people. It can be a funny story or a drama, but it’s never the same. Just as you cannot have the same meal every day, you cannot write or listen to the same music all the time. Variety makes life extraordinary.”
