We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christian-Frédéric Bloquert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christian-Frédéric, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I first had the inkling to pursue music when I was around 13 although it wasn’t until I was 19 that I actually followed that instinct.

My family were expats since I was born so I spent quite some time hoping from country to country, city to city and school to school. I had loosely begun playing classical guitar when I was 6 while we were living in the Dominican Republic but it wasn’t until arrived in England that I started being more involved. It was the age old adage; I remember friends approaching me in the school yards saying: “We heard you play guitar. Do you want to play in our band?”. We weren’t particularly good (nor bad) but we were motivated, we riffed on the sounds of the British Indie Rock wave that was all the rage at the time (The Wombats, Two Door Cinema Club, Arctic Monkeys…). In parallel I keep studying classical guitar more structurally by sitting my ABRSM exams.

When we moved to Australia, there weren’t any classical guitar teachers in our area so I turned to Jazz and eventually composition. For the next few years I kept playing regularly and upon graduating, I elected to study Mathematics at the University of Queensland. In my first year, I found myself more often than not in the university’s rather extensive music library studying composition by myself – very much at the detriment of my other studies. This was a rather stern indication that a change was needed.

At the end of the first year of my mathematics studies, I auditioned for music schools around the world. I was accepted into Berklee College of Music in Boston and thought: “Well, it’s now or never.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I began playing guitar almost by accident. We were living in the Dominican Republic at the time. I recall a friend of the family saying to my mother that her son had begun guitar lesson. I was in the room at the time so my mother turned to me and simply asked: “Would you like to play guitar too?”. I mustn’t have been more than 4 or 5, and so I did.

For the majority of my childhood however, I did not study as much as I casually played. It was not until we moved to England that my teacher pushed me to study for my ABRSM exams that I really started to study music. At around the same time, I was approached in the school’s courtyard by friends who asked: “You play guitar right? Want to play in our band?” – the age old adage. And so I did.

Composition came much later at the end of high school. I became vaguely interested in composing of my own but never seriously. I really only started composing seriously my first year at university – I was studying mathematics at the time but I could more reliably be found in the university’s rather extensive score library than I would be studying for exams. That was also a fairly strong indicator that I should really switch career paths.

Conducting came later still while I was at Berklee College of Music. I was given the chance to conduct some of my own music and from there I began conducting for various ensembles, often creating my own with friends for various occasions.

I supposed I’ve never really stopped doing that since after graduating I co-founded the BeComEnsemble with a colleague. The ensemble is dedicated to promoting young composer and performers. It is, in essence, the combination of my two passions.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I had an inkling when I was about to graduate high school that a “normal” life wasn’t in the cards for me though I wasn’t convince. In all honesty, I had very little formal training in music, I only knew that I enjoyed it immensely. Hence, in my senior year, I auditioned for a number of high profile composition programs in Australia (where we were living at the time) and in the UK. I was rejected from every single one of them.

In retrospect it was clear that I wasn’t ready. So I began to study mathematics.

As I mentioned earlier, while there, I was more often than not with my head buried in scores in the university’s library – the school of music’s lecturers had started assuming I was simply one of the music students. That year I studied composition and orchestration extensively. I would pick up orchestral scores and tried to make sense of the black on the page for hours every day instead of studying (I was still passing all my subjects but barely).

After a year, I officially auditioned again for music programs. I couldn’t just go anywhere though, to make the switch worth it, I told myself that I had to be accepted into a reputable program – I also had to make the case that this was a good idea to my parents. I was accepted to Berklee College of Music and off to Boston I went.

There I gave it my all, despite lacking in musical education, I worked diligently. After graduating I was accepted to Juilliard to study composition – something that I hadn’t even considered when I first applied to schools. I was lucky enough along the way and over the years to win a number of conducting and composition awards, and to work with incredible people, all of whom have contributed to where I am now as an artists.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

To some extent, the goal of every artist is to find meaning, or perhaps to create meaning as a distillation of the world so that others can come to see it as we do. I don’t have a particular goal with my work other than making it beautiful and meaningful in some way. Maybe even beautiful because it is meaningful.

Is that vague enough?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.christianfredericbloquert.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris_fredd/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2OWN4GyHAtKX0DPSlFm0A