NORWICH – The Chenango Council of the Arts in Norwich is presenting French cellist Florent Renard-Payen in a solo performance entitled Bach and Beyond at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Martin W. Kappel Theater.

The program will feature a selection of Préludes from the Suite for Solo Cello by J.S Bach, and recent pieces written by American composers. Renard-Payen says, “The idea behind Bach and Beyond came from my devotion to the performance of new music. By presenting these recent works on a program juxtaposed with the Préludes of the Bach Cello Solo Suites, I hoped to create a beautiful musical introduction or interlude to set the tone for each piece. The analogy of this musical journey was inspired by my observations on many occasions at the Glass Pyramid, and the historical Louvre Museum during my late night walks in Paris.”

Florent Renard-Payen was born in Paris to a family of professional musicians; his parents were both harpists. At the age of twenty, he moved to Boston to pursue five years of graduate study with artist cellist Andrés Díaz, culminating in a Master’s degree and the Pi Kappa Lambda award for musical achievement from Boston University in 1996. He completed his musical studies in 2004, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from the Eastman School of Music.

During his studies in the states, Florent had the honor of performing in master classes for Pieter Wispelwey, Yo-Yo Ma, Roberto Díaz and the late Joseph Gingold. Furthermore, he has held master classes at the University of Alaska, Northwestern State University, Mansfield University, University of Central Arkansas, and University of South Florida. He has commissioned and premiered solo cello works by Randall Bauer, Garrett Byrnes, Todd Coleman, Gregory Mertl, Aaron Travers, and Dan Trueman, and has also collaborated with composers such as Larry Bell, David Liptak, Lukas Foss, Brad Lubman, Augusta Read Thomas, Dan Trueman, Martin Scherzinger, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. Florent has recorded chamber works by David Liptak, Dan Trueman, and Larry Bell on Bridge Records, and Albany Records labels.

A champion of music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Florent is the founder of the Tarab Cello Ensemble, a group dedicated to contemporary repertoire for cello ensemble, and a guest performer of the Society for New Music in Syracuse. He has recorded chamber works by David Liptak, Dan Trueman, and Larry Bell on Bridge Records, and Albany Records labels. Since 1999, Florent has been teaching cello at Colgate University and chamber music at Hamilton College.