On the Eve of Hope: Musique Mystique with Cyrille Verdeaux

The DC Peace Mural hosts the an evening of extraordinary music featured composer and keyboardist Cyrille Verdeaux. Doors Open at 7:30, Concert starts at 8pm.

Admission to this event is included in the $15 Donation/Admission to see the Peace Mural on this day. ($5 Students)

Native of France, at the age of 14, Cyrille entered the prestigious French National Conservatory of Music in Paris studying composition, harmony, and piano. From 1966 to 1968 he won first place in student composition three successive times. During the student uprisings of 1968 he was dismissed from the Conservatory for his revolutionary activities. He then attended the Nice Conservatory earning a Masters diploma, returning to Paris to form the band Babylone with guitarist Christian Boule.

Verdeaux went on to form the progressive rock band Clearlight in the early '70s, which released several albums. In the mid-'70s, he composed and recorded the music to the film Visa de Censure # X. Verdeaux continued to record with Clearlight throughout the 1970s, but the death of his four-year-old son led him to travel to India, where his studying with various ashrams in music, yoga, and meditation profoundly influenced him. In 1980, he traveled to the United States. While there, he released the albums Nocturne Digitales (1980), which featured sounds used by the composer to quiet transient brainwaves of the listener, and Offrandes (1981). After another period of time in India, the composer returned and released Prophecy, Moebius, and Shambala. Collaborating with producer, engineer, and manager Josh Goldstein, Verdeaux recorded Flowers From Heaven, Piano for the Third Ear, and Journey to the Tantra Land in 1983. Verdeaux drew from these albums to create the Kundalini Opera (1984), which was only released on cassette. He followed with Messenger of the Son (1985), which saw the artist mix some his more new age material with aggressive progressive rock. He returned to France in 1987 and began to teach music. In 1988, he released Rhapsody for the Blue Planet. Two years later, Verdeaux released the first of two new albums to be recorded under the Clearlight name. In 1999, he released the ethnic electronic album Tribal Hybrid Concept with ethnological sample specialist Pascal Menestreyl. Ethnicolours, released the same year, used the same samples, but added dance beats.

To learn more about this extraordinary musician see Clearlight Music.

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