Contrary to what one might think, Jean-Claude Chapuis had no formal musical training, he’s totally self-taught – but important meetings shaped his musical development, like the one with his professor of evolutionary history Jacques Roger prompting him to delve deeper into his research on glass instruments, starting with the glass armonica.
From an early age, Jean-Claude Chapuis was passionate about timbres and sounds, and obsessed with the idea of creating his own sound machines. As a music lover, he was constantly listening to music, taking his main inspirations from Russian musicians, but also Ravel, and more globally Orchestral music.
The fusion of his musical inspirations, and his discovery of glass sounds at the Medrano circus where the clowns used household objects like glasses and bottles, gave birth to a fantastic idea: why not a Glass Orchestra?