Sophia Domancich


Sophia Domancich is a French pianist and jazz composer.

Life and Work

Domancich began learning piano at the age of six and attended the Conservatoire de Paris from 1968 to 1975 where she won first prize for piano and chamber music.
She began her career as an accompanist in vocal and dance lessons, such as the Paris Opera and the Théâtre de Caen.
In 1979 she met Steve Lacy, Bernard Lubat and Jean-Louis Chautemps who introduced her to the world of jazz and improvisation.
In 1982 she formed a duet with Laurent Cugny and joined the big band Lumiére. She later participated in Quoi D'Neuf Docteur? with Steve Grossman, Glenn Ferris and Jack Walrath.
In 1983 during a brief collaboration with the group Anaïd, she met several English musicians from the Canterbury scene: the former Gong drummer Pip Pyle, and in the aftermath the former Soft Machine members Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper. Together they formed the group L'Equip Out in late 1984, which included for a time as fifth member Didier Malherbe on the flute and the tenor saxophone. The group made two recordings and she played with them until 1991.
In 1986, she met Bernard Drouillet during a studio session, and he invited her to join the Trio Davenport created by Charles Calamel. She also played in the Quartet Hors-Série.
In 1990, L'Equip Out recorded a second album, Up!, with bassist Paul Rogers. With the latter and drummers Bruno Tocanne and Tony Levin, she formed the Sophia Domancich Trio with which she toured for eight years, including the London club Ronnie Scott's in 1992, and recorded five studio albums. Also with Rogers, she creates in 1995 a quartet with the original composition, including two trumpets.
In the 1990s, she also began collaborating with John Greaves and with Simon Goubert. In 1990, she participated in the album Little Bottle linen from John Greaves. The collaboration continued with Songs, partly sung by Robert Wyatt, and The Trouble With Happiness, in trio with Vincent Courtois.
From 1997 to 2000 she was a pianist under Didier Levallet in the Orchester National de Jazz.
In 1999, she became the first woman to receive the Prix Django Reinhardt from the Jazz Academy as French Musician of the Year
In 2000 she formed the Quintet Pentacle, with Simon Goubert, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Claude Tchamitchian, Michel Marre, with whom she recorded two albums.
In 2006 the Trio DAG was formed. The Trio DAG created three albums as a Trio and the album "free 4 DAG" with saxophonist Dave Liebman.
The electronic musician Fred Avril asked her in 2002 to remix his piece The Date. She then works with the sound designer Raphael Marc, with whom she composes Lilienmund, a concerto for piano and electronics inspired by a Schumann lieder, and works by Alban Berg, Qigang Chen.
In 2003 she formed the Flowers Trio with Ramón López and Joëlle Léandre.
In 2004 she formed the group Soft Bounds with Simon Goubert and two former colleagues of L'Equipe Out, Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper, a collaboration unfortunately cut short by the deaths of Dean in 2006 and Hopper in 2009.
In 2007, she released a duo album with Simon Goubert, and in 2010, she released an album mostly sung or recited entitled "Snakes & Ladders", including John Greaves and Himiko Paganotti, Robert Wyatt, Napoleon Maddox, Ramón López.
In 2007 the French Ministry of Foreign affairs combined with the Ministry of Culture and created the book 100 Jazz Titles, highlighting French Jazz Music. The book included Sophia's 2002 Pentacle Quintet release.
Her elder sister Lydia Domancich is also a jazz pianist.

Discography

As leader :
As co-leader :
As member :