Gast Waltzing
As a composer, arranger and conductor born in Luxembourg, Gast Waltzing has composed more than 160 original soundtracks for both cinema and television, and is a full-time musical devotee. Throughout his career, he authored tens of classical, jazz and dance albums. A large proportion of his movie music was written for symphony orchestras. Thanks to his solid classical training — which began when he was 7 at the Luxembourg Musical Academy, his second home in a way — he became a trumpet teacher in 1982. He then founded there the Jazz Department in 1986, which he’s been chairing ever since. In 1989, he was nominated as the best composer of European music, thanks to his score for Andy Bausch’s film Wop Bop A Lop Bop.
In May 2006, quite naturally, Gast Waltzing was chosen to organize and head a new program, at the Luxembourg Philharmonic, called “Pops At The Phil“. As the current musical Director of Pops, he’s been organizing yearly concerts with artists such as New York Voices, James Morrison and Dionne Warwick.
From 2008 to 2011, Gast composed — among other works — the music of the film JCVD, directed by Mabrouk El Mechri, House of Boys, directed by Jean-Claude Schlim — a film which was acclaimed through a great number of awards — as well as De Force, produced by Delux Productions. From 2010 to 2012, he composed and produced the music for the popular series Maison Close, broadcast on the French TV Channel Canal +, and directed by Mabrouk El Mechri.
In 2011, Gast wrote symphonic arrangements for the great African singer Angélique Kidjo. This project offers a daring blend of traditional African music and symphonic melodies. The concert — which took place at the Luxembourg Philharmonic — was phenomenally successful.
Later on, Gast composed the symphonic arrangements for the show of the album Liquid Spirit by Gregory Porter, which earned him a Grammy Award in 2014. Gast and Angélique received the 2015 Grammy Awards for the best album in the World Music category, for their album Sings. The adventure continued with several concerts in 2016 with Angélique Kidjo — among which the Paris Philharmonic, with the Orchestre Lamoureux. In these last few years, Gast directed many orchestras from all over the world, such as the National Royal Scottish Orchestra, the Adelaide Symphonic Orchestra, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre of Avignon-Provence.
