The Toulouse musician François Donato lost to illness

A sunny and inventive artist, his name was featured in several shows this season, notably with his wife, the actress Corinne Mariotto. Together, since 2019, they have been exploring possible writing between text, voice, sound and light. An artistic approach which gave birth to “Immersions”, augmented reading performances with listening through headphones, the creation of the first part of which devoted to three texts by Marguerite Duras took place in the fall of 2021. Her sound compositions then accompanied the words of Corinne Mariotto in “Passion simple” after Annie Ernaux. He played music live just like in “Casanova, my mother and me”, a show for spoken voice and live digital creation, built on five texts by Annie Ernaux.

From school to Mirail University

François Donato died last weekend at the age of 61. Since this summer, he has been battling illness which forced him to give up several shows this fall. Born in Mont-de-Marsan, he deepened his musical knowledge at the University of Pau, the Gennevilliers Conservatory and the National Conservatory of Lyon. He was then responsible for production at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris from 1991 to 2005, then coordinator within the collective of composers éOle, in Toulouse, from 2005 to 2017. At the same time, the University of Toulouse le Mirail l was a lecturer in the Department of Applied Plastic Arts on sound and interactive techniques from 2007 to 2012.

Guest artist at Vent des Signes

Choosing to become an independent artist again, François Donato has collaborated in recent years with the composer Hervé Birolini on two musical performances: “Arrays” and “Tesla”, as well as with the drummer Jean-Christophe Noël on the transmedia work “Texture (s)”, and currently with the actress Anne Lefèvre at the Théâtre du Vent des Signes where he was the guest artist. “Hello comrade! I suggest we start it directly in cash and that we discuss afterwards. Send the sounds you want and I’ll bounce back. This is how most of our work sessions began”, confides Anne Lefèvre, director of the Vent des Signes theater in Toulouse. “Listening to the fullest, to the present to the fullest. Thus was the encounter between the sounds that François Donato hatched and the words that I enacted. And the earth split and the party won… You slipped away one autumn evening , my comrade. Not for lack of having tried everything not to. I continue with you without you. Hello my comrade.

Also read:
The experimental breath of the Vent des Signes theater in Toulouse

The funeral of François Donato will take place on Thursday November 21 at 2 p.m. at the Toulouse Crematorium (12, avenue de Gameville). No crown, no flower (or just one from your garden if you have one and want it, says the family). A donation box will be set up for the benefit of the palliative care service at Joseph Ducuing hospital.