Tristan Foison
Tristan Foison (born 1961 in France) is a French musician and composer. He is most famous for pretending a composition by Alfred Desenclos was his own.
Biography
According to his biography, Tristan Foison was born and raised in France. His mother is Michele Foison, a professional musician and student of Olivier Messiaen, and he studied piano himself with Messiaen's wife, Yvonne Loriod, from the age 5 to 17 and composition with Henri Dutilleux, Claude Berot, and Pierre Boulez. At the age of 9, he made his piano debut, when he was invited by Princess Grace Kelly to perform with the Monaco Symphony Orchestra. He lectured piano at the age of 22 at the Conservatoire de Centre de Paris and earned a doctoral degree at musicololy from the Sorbonne Institute in 1985. He also mentioned a Baccalaureate of Philosophy and Literature from the College La Fountaine in Paris, as well as he studied there acting at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. Further studies include music therapy with Alain Cuisenier, pedagogy with Maurice Martenot and mime with Marcel Marceau. It is said that he now lives in the area of Paris.[1]
Awards
In 1980 he won the Busoni Piano Competition, in 1985 the Prague Conducting Competition, and in 1987 the Prix de Rome. He also claimed to have won the Peabody Mason International Piano Competition, the Geneva International Music Competition and the Georges Bizet Competition, as well as conducted orchestras like the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra or the Orchestre de Paris. In 1987 was chosen by Vladimir Ashkenazy to perform with him the Concerto for 2 Pianos by Mozart with the Paris Orchestra. Later that year, he emigrated to the US and settled in Atlanta. He made his living as a musician, studied with conductor Robert Shaw, worked at the Peggy Still School of Music and was music director of the Rome Symphony Orchestra in Rome, Georgia. Beside that he performed in concerts on the piano and the Ondes Martenot and composed classical music.[2][3][4]
Compositions
- Suite Liturgique, for chorus (won the Prix Maurice Ravel in Paris)
- La Foret, opera
- Requiem, for chorus
- Violin Concerto
- The Christmas Week, for children's voices and piano
- Cantilene de Vieux Noel, for children's chorus
The "Desenclos Incident"
On 18 May 1999 the Requiem by Tristan Foison was performed by the Capitol Hill Chorale of Washington, D.C. and was marked as the world premiere of the composition, which Tristan Foison pretended to have written himself. The Requiem was recognised immediately in the concert as plagiarism, because a person from the audience had sung the work a year ago with his chorus and knew that it was composed by French composer Alfred Desenclos. After some verifications which proved the composition was copied note by note from Alfred Desenclos, Tristan Foison was confronted by the choral director with this fact. Shortly after this talk Tristan Foison said he would travel to France and since that day he has vanished from the classical music scene.[5] Due to this fact all known biographical information come from the curriculum vitae Tristan Foison wrote himself.
Aftermath
After the discovery of the Desenclos fraud, the biography of Tristan Foison was checked by journalists for correctness. They found that:
- No person with the name Tristan Foison took part at the 1980 International Piano Competition Ferruccio Busoni.[6]
- No person with the name Tristan Foison took part at the 37th Prague Spring International Music Competition in 1985.[7]
- The Prix de Rome was abolished in 1968.
- Tristan Foison was no student of conductor Robert Shaw, according to a close associate.[5]
- The violin concerto that Tristan Foison pretended to have written and which was performed in 1996 by the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra with violinist Beth Newdome, is in fact the violin concerto by French composer Raymond Gallois-Montbrun, who composed the work in 1949.[8]
References
- ↑ "The Atlanta Journal Constitution" from 29. July 2001: A classical puzzle – Accused of stealing another composer's work, Tristan Foison takes another enigmatic turn" by Pierre Ruhe
- ↑ article "Tristan Foison to give recital" in the Rome News Tribune from 17. September 1995
- ↑ article "Symphony works on challenges" by Amy Knowles in the Rome News Tribune from 12. Oktober 1997
- ↑ article "Dr. Tristan S. Foison" in the Rome News Tribune from 08. July 1998
- 1 2 Philip Kennicott (7 June 2001). "A Composer's Too-Familiar Refrain". Washington Post.
- ↑ "Hall of Fame". concorsobusoni_2014.
- ↑ private message from the Prague Spring Competition to Tobias Broeker (www.tobias-broeker.de) on 14 April 2016
- ↑ "20th century violin concertante – blog". tobias-broeker.de.