Philippe Hurel and Pierre-André Valade founded the ensemble Court-circuit in 1991, following an encounter with Barbara and Luigi Polla, the founders of the Analix Galery in Geneva. The musical director is Jean Deroyer.
The ensemble, made up of top-level musicians, was quickly recognised as an outstanding ensemble.
It has been invited by major international festivals and musical institutions : Ircam, Opéra, Radio-France and Cité de la Musique (Paris), Musica (Strasbourg), Aix en Provence Festival, 38e Rugissants (Grenoble), Manca (Nice), GMEM (Marseille), Whynote (Dijon), Warsaw Autumn, Ultrashall and Maerzmuzik (Berlin), Ultima (Oslo), Traiettorie (Parma), Roma Europa, Music Factory (Bergen), Gaïda (Vilnius), NYYD (Tallin), Alicante, Wien Modern, Darmstadt, MNM (Montréal)…
It is also involved in interdisciplinary projects. It has frequently taken part in Paris Opera ballet premieres (Le Songe de Médée, A. Preljocaj/M. Lanza - Le Souffle du temps, A. Lagraa/G. Grisey). Other interdisciplinary projects have included severals ciné-concert (Paris qui dort, R. Clair/Y. Maresz – Metropolis, F. Lang/M. Matalon…). In 2011-2012, Court-circuit begins a collaboration with the Bouffes du Nord Theater (Paris) in order to perform chamber operas : the first one, The second woman (music : F. Verrières, stage direction : Guillaume Vincent) inspired by the film Opening Night by J. Cassavetes, was performed in April-May 2011 and is played again in France and abroad since its première. Another aspect of Court-circuit's activities is its commitment to pedagogy : indeed, he has regular collaboration with the conservatoires and of Paris and the suburb.
The ensemble has been a member of 2 european projects which has just ended (Integra project, whose goal was to create an European environment that encourages the composition and the sharing of music with electronics, and Re :new music project which aim was to support the circulation and performance of existing high quality ensemble répertoire) and has just joined the new European project New music : New Audiences which goal is to establish a lasting pan-European community - and to harvest a pool of knowledge - on audience development within new music.
Court-circuit has recorded works by T. Murail, P. Leroux, T. Blondeau, G. Grisey, D. D'Adamo, P. Hurel, J. Fineberg, R. Reynolds, M. Matalon and J-L. Hervé (2009).
As a subsidised ensemble, Court-circuit receives support from the Ministry of Culture and Communication/DRAC Ile-de-France and funding from the Conseil Général 92, SACEM, SPEDIDAM, Institut Français, Mfa and FCM.