some resumes are out of the ordinary. That of Bruno Messina is one of them. The career of this talented trumpeter, recipient of countless awards, is anything but linear. From the popular suburbs of Nice to the chic districts of Jakarta (Indonesia); from Java to Nanterre, the journey of this musician is breathtaking to say the least. Musician to Catherine Lara at the age of twenty, then member of a modest orchestra animating village balls and weddings, he later became a very serious professor of ethnomusicology at the university.
He is now a courted artistic director. Programmer of the festival of sacred music of the world in Fez (Morocco), he is preparing to close, on September 3, a beautiful edition of the Berlioz festival in Côte-Saint-André (Isère). Including the Irish National Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic and the formation of the Republican Guard. Also at the head of the Messiaen festival which is held every year at the beginning of summer, in the country of Meije (on the borders of Isère and the Hautes-Alpes), he is also a member of the selection jury of the “New Worlds” program, which the Ministry of Culture created during the pandemic to identify emerging creators across France.
His son Aldo, Bruno’s father, caught up in odd jobs in mainland France, can’t find time to play. But he still managed to pass on the passion for music to the next generation. Born in 1971, Bruno Messina will be grateful to his parent for this stubbornness. At the conservatory of Nice and then of Paris, where his father sent him when he was only 15 years old, he would make decisive encounters.
Hosted with his brother, a year his junior, at the organist of Notre-Dame de Paris, he was thus the pupil of Maurice André, who would train generations of great trumpeters, up to Ibrahim Maalouf. Bruno Messina also follows the teachings of free fazz saxophonist François Jeanneau. His horizon suddenly opens. “I realized there’s more to life than the classic. Without these encounters, I might not have played for Catherine Lara. A collaboration that allowed me to escape military service because I came across, during my three days, a colonel who was a fan of this singer, “he laughs.
Bruno Messina will join Bob Quinel’s training a little later, which accompanies L’École des fans, Jacques Martin’s Sunday show where children are invited to take up pop hits. In 1992, his life took a decisive turn. Thanks to a summer program, Bruno Messina is heading to Indonesia as part of an exchange with Javanese musicians. The stay was only to last a month. Under the spell of the archipelago and the influence of a love affair with the granddaughter of a sultan, the journey drags on.
The trumpeter takes up ethnomusicology to be able to stay put. He will stay there for two years and marry his Indonesian partner. At the same time, he becomes an internationally recognized expert on the musical heritage of the small kingdom of Yogyarkata. His return to France is however difficult. “I had been forgotten. My phone stopped ringing,” he notes. As a young dad, he resumed his studies, at the practical school for advanced studies, and at the same time began to play in an orchestra on the Côte d’Azur, specializing in the animation of village festivals, weddings and other bars. mitzvah. An experience that will inspire a novel published last year: 43 sheets, published by Actes Sud.
The suicide of one of his friends, a member like him of this variety orchestra, plays the role of an electric shock. “Another friend of mine told me, around the same time, that he found it amazing that I was playing in such a formation. He chided me in pretty harsh words for not being ambitious enough. “You still have two conservatory prizes,” he concluded. This reflection led him to resign and become a teacher at the conservatory, at the same time as artistic director at the departmental delegation for music and dance. In 2003, he took over as head of the Maison de la Musique in Nanterre, until 2008.