Alexandre Medjaher Chomat – Violin artist
About myself
ARTISTIC PATH AND PERSONAL RESILIENCE
WHO AM I ?
Contexte
My name is Alexandre Chomat and I was born in Pierre-Benite in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpe region of France. I had a wonderful childhood in the countryside of the Haute Loire in a small village called Saint Pal de Mons.
At the age of 5 or 6, my parents encouraged me to take up the piano after I had stopped doing gymnastics. And here was the first of several wonderful person I would meet in my life, my piano teacher, whom I called “the Japanese Tomoko”.
Unfortunately, despite the endless kindness and the repeated encouragements of this great teacher, I decided to stop my piano lessons after 3 years of practice.
During my adolescence, I had to part with the microcosm of my hometown. Inclined towards shyness and introspection, I often find solace in observation. As a result, I tend to stay away from groups. However, I felt comfortable being my authentic self around a small circle of my closest friends. However, like a looming nightmare, the ordeal began shortly after.
Le cauchemar
The nightmare began when I started secondary school at the age of 11. In fact, the very nature of my temperament was the beginning of what was to come. Indeed, as soon as someone is a little different, they automatically become the target of mockery and cruelty from the other pupils. I imagine that many others had to go through something similar too. Additionally, every family has its own problems, and the tensions that had always existed between my parents didn't help in making the situation more bearable.
Mocked and ridiculed by the other children for my difference, my reserved and harmless appearance, I quickly shut myself off and found myself in isolation, battling depression and anorexia. This only deepened the rift in creating more and more differences, which inevitably led to more and more harassment. This infernal and escalating cycle eventually resulted in my academic failure, despite having been an excellent pupil so far. I was lost. Depression, anorexia, thus creating ever more difference and harassment. This infernal whirlwind ultimately drags me into academic failure where I was an excellent student. I'm lost.
Although I had the feeling that I was somewhat in control of the situation (by halting my tormentors from progressing beyond psychological harassment), the familial environment played a role in eroding my resilience. The social dimension of my life was so shattered that I dedicated all my off-school hours to my room, enveloped in darkness, striving to find validation and acknowledgment through alternative means, in particular by playing online video games. This caused me to neglect my studies even more. Until the day the miracle happened.
Le miracle
From one second to the next, the idea of an artistic concept arose in my mind. An artistic concept involving a violin, an instrument that had never held my particular interest and one I had never encountered firsthand. A fusion of electro, dubstep, and pop melodies, tunes I occasionally enjoyed while immersed in video games and dance tracks. As the most reserved and introverted individual imaginable, the idea of dancing in front of people terrified me (and, making things worse, I had never danced in my life). So much so that during weddings and family events, I would stand as far away from the dance floor as possible to avoid anyone having the brilliant idea of making me dance in front of everyone to “cure” me of my sickly shyness.
Everyone has their own beliefs about this event, divine intervention? Insight effect? I'm afraid we'll never know the answer.
My first instinct was to type "Violin electro dubstep dance" into a search engine and naturally Lindsey Stirling was the artist who matched my search in every way. She embodied the precise idea that had just popped into my head a few seconds earlier, making her THE person to follow and, in the process, she inadvertently became my lifeline.
My second instinct was to summon up all my courage and pick up the phone to call the music school in my little village, Vernaison, where I'd recently moved with my parents in the suburbs of Lyon. Unfortunately, registration had already closed and I had to wait until the following year to enrol. Perfect, it was an excellent way of finding out whether my persistent interest in this artistic concept was just a whim or not.
As it turns out, it wasn't a whim; I had just made my parents promise never to let me give up the violin, regardless of how strongly I might request it.
Chacun de nous à un ange, peut être même plusieurs
As far as the violin was concerned, it felt like I was living in a dream. When I enrolled, I met the woman who was to going to the determining factor in this story: my violin teacher, Laure Villemin. She was an exceptional judge and teacher; I very quickly came to trust her and told her about my plan to play the violin that diverged significantly from the conventional classical training I was meant to receive. She immediately accepted.
After only a few months of practice, I picked up Lindsey Stirling's first score, 'Crystallize', by ear. I played it at the end-of-year performance, to the astonishment of Laure and the audience. This remarkable woman has consistently been a source of encouragement for me.
Before that first performance, after only 8 months of practice, Laure used an incredible teaching technique that would be my driving force throughout my career. She let me believe that I was gifted, that I had something more than the other students. Was it true or not? It didn't matter. What truly mattered was the immense power of belief she harnessed that day. That was my first standing ovation !
Et en parralèle, les études !
As far as my studies were concerned, my violin lessons gave me the strength to carry on and to fight against an institution (the school) which constantly told me that I was never going to go on to higher education in view of my catastrophic results.
Spoiler alert! I did get bachelor in psychology at the University of Clermont-Ferrand (UCA) despite the epidemic and the confinements of COVID19. However, it wasn't without its challenges.. Twice a week, I have to wake up at 4am to travel from Clermont-Ferrand to Lyon (i.e. University - Conservatoire) by train for 2.5 hours, then come back the next day, miss some classes and catch up on those right after. I regularly tried to get adjustments to adapt my timetable, which I managed to get after several attempts under the discouraging words of my referees, who ask me to choose between my studies and music. I refused to make the choice, until I succeeded.
Une bonne et une mauvaise nouvelle ou « apprendre à rebondir »
I have the pleasure of following Laure Villemin on all her teaching positions. She took me all the way to the conservatoire in Venissieux. Given that she had been my teacher for a while, she was able to assess my progress on a daily basis. She also wrote letters confirming the completion of my various music cycles, and kept on encouraging me as usual. After six years of artistic dedication, my time at the Conservatoire came to a close. Much to my disappointment, Laure announced that our lessons would have to conclude because they were no longer relevant. She had nothing more to teach me and felt that I was ready to continue training on my own. (You can keep up to date with my progress in the section about the development of my project and find out what I can offer you in the offers section!)
At the same time, regarding my studies, although I was saddened by the news, I found myself stuck between my bachelor’s and my master’s degree. A new selection system in France was preventing a whole bunch of other students, including myself, pursuing further studies. At the same time, it prevented us from repeating a bachelor if we had already completed one. So, I had to change countries and headed for Switzerland.
Spontaneously, I decided to go to a country I didn't know, where I had no friends or family. But I managed to find some contacts online who offered me a flat-share with a single elderly person. Helmut.
La Suisse
In Switzerland, I devoted my days entirely to the pursuit of a job that would grant me an extended stay in the country and, ideally, offer a chance to establish myself there while awaiting a response from the Master's program in Geneva that I had submitted an application for.
Regrettably, the acceptance into the Master's program in Geneva was not going to happen, and my resources were gradually depleting. Yet, this was before the unexpected arrival of the subsequent two angels.
The first among them was Quentin Dee, a remarkable artist I encountered in the city. He held the role of artistic director at an establishment whose selection process had not favored my participation in the eagerly sought-after shows. Yet, instead of giving up, while we were out for a drink, Quentin took the initiative to introduce me to the family management of Rooftop 42 in Geneva. Subsequently, the establishment reached out to me when another artist was unavailable, leading to the booking of my first performance. My acts resonated profoundly with the venue, and this path introduced me to Sebastien Barras, the founder of Rooftop42, who saw great talent in me. There was the second angel -- guiding force that would empower me, Alexandre Chomat, to establish my own enterprise within Switzerland and to begin to sustain myself through my heartfelt passion. Through a fusion of my first name, Alexandre, my mother's Algerian name "Medjaher," and my father's French surname...