About
Who are we?
SIBJA gathers the collaborations of Emmanuel and Valentine Michaud. Artists active in the fields of music, visual arts and performance, the siblings unite different art forms, from dance to installation, to create a unique artistic language. They started their collaboration in 2016 with the creation of "Glitch", which developed to become the trilogy of performances Waiting for Amon. Since then, their art has been awarded and welcomed by both audience and critics, and their activities are currently enlarging to new areas such as clothing.
Valentine Michaud
Winner of the 2020 Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, Valentine Michaud is a saxophonist of extraordinary depth and versatility. With a technique that perfectly blends musical finesse and compelling artistry, Valentine is quickly building a reputation as a musician whose innovative and virtuosic performances make her an advocate for the saxophone and arts alike.
Through her adventurous approach to her art, Valentine’s performances expand the expressive range of the saxophone. Her drive to push boundaries and explore new horizons has established Valentine her unique place in the ever-evolving world of classical music.
A recipient of numerous awards, Valentine recently received the prestigious Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, which resulted in her invitation to debut with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival in September 2020. Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this performance has been postponed. Other awards include the Credit Suisse Jeunes Solistes (2017), and Jurjans Andrejs VI Woodwind International Competition.
Valentine has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and in chamber music groups on many of the world’s leading stages, including KKL Luzern, London’s Wigmore Hall, Grand Philharmonic Hall St Petersburg, Wiener Konzerthaus, Tonhalle Zurich, Geneva’s Victoria Hall and the Great Guild Hall in Riga, amongst others.
Passionate about promoting the fusion of diverse art forms in her work, Valentine is one of the founding members of SIBJA; a collective of artists which, through its’ collaborative approach to music-making, has seen performances merging painters, dancers, musicians and live electronic music in a variety of unique settings, such as the ‘Waiting for Amon’ trilogy. With a drive to work with artists of her own generation, Valentine enjoys advocating new repertoire for the saxophone. She regularly performs with her duo partner, Akvilé Sileikaité, as Akmi Duo. Avid champions of new music, Akmi Duo often work with composers, committed to expanding the saxophone repertoire.
Born in Paris in 1993, Valentine studied saxophone and piano in Nantes before moving to Switzerland at the age of 16 to study with Pierre-Stéphane Meugé at the Haute Ecole de Musique in Lausanne. She continued her studies at the Sorbonne University in Paris followed by the Zurich University of the Arts under Lars Mlekusch.
Valentine is a Henri Selmer artist.
Emmanuel Michaud
Emmanuel Michaud was born in 1997 in France. After a Baccalauréat STD2A (Applied Arts), followed by a preparatory class at the Graphic Arts EPSAA (Ivry- sur-Seine), he completed in 2019 a Master of Arts Degree (DNSEP) at the HEAR (Haute École des Arts du Rhin), in Mulhouse. He is studying since September 2019 in the Master of Transdisciplinary Studies at ZHdK (High University of the Arts) in Zürich.
Taking the position of a storyteller, he creates fictions through diverse media (performance, music, stage & costume design, video, writing, drawing); mythology, science-fiction or modern metal are some of the sources at the core of the ritualized forms and symbolic languages he manipulates.
He took part in several exhibitions, such as “Exhibition” (2017), “Followers” (2018) and “Oasis” (2019) in Mulhouse Kunsthalle, “Crossfade” (Espace Gantner, Mulhouse, 2017) or “Discipline” (Le Séchoir, Mulhouse, 2019), and worked with three other painters on a command by UGC Cinema, which is permanently exposed in Strasbourg since March 2017. Alone or with collaborators, he played diverse concerts and performances in Nantes, Mulhouse, Zürich and Lausanne.
Emmanuel is performer, stage designer and one of the founding members of the performance trilogy “WAITING FOR AMON” gathering “GLITCH”, “CAIRNS” and “SHOUT” (collective SIBJA).