ABOUT
Franky Rousseau is a Brooklyn-based composer, producer, and arranger.
Originally from Montréal, he moved to New York in 2009 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Since then, he has worked extensively with large jazz ensembles across North America, Europe, and Japan. He has conducted the Reykjavík Big Band, the Conservatorium von Amsterdam Concert Band, the Tokyo-based Keio Light Music Society, l’Orchestre National de Jazz de Montréal, and the Munich-based Jazzrausch Big Band. As a leader, he released "Hope" in 2012, written for the pianist Austin Peralta. He has collaborated with Aaron Parks, Ben van Gelder, Arthur Hnatek, and J.J. Wright, among others.
Franky has produced a number of records, most notably Emma Frank's "Come Back" and "Ocean Av" for Justin Time Records, Emily Rockarts's "Little Flower", as well as Brad Cheeseman’s Juno-nominated “A Tide Turns”.
Along with Dominic Mekky, he wrote a multimedia music drama entitled “April”, which was premiered at The Tank in NYC in 2015, and subsequently released as a short film and recording on Susan Records. "April" tells the story of a singer in her early thirties who is irreparably losing her hearing, and the ensuing toll this takes on her and her two close, but unhealthy, relationships.
He has written concert music, notably the score "êtres à lacer" for the Montréal-based dance ensemble Collision Collective, "After a thunder..." for the University of Notre Dame Folk Choir, and "I.Y.W.W.M.P" and "Hikari" for the Keio Light Music Society.
He has worked in different capacities for Chris Thile, Gabriel Kahane, Philip Glass, Fred Hersch, Jon Batiste, Phoebe Bridgers, Nico Muhly, Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Jay Wadley, and Gabriel Witcher, among others. He was the house arranger and chart-maker for the two final seasons of American Public Media's "Live From Here with Chris Thile". He has worked on various orchestral projects involving the music of Andrew Bird, Jónsi, Kanye West, Rhiannon Giddens, John Luther Adams, among others.
He is currently in the writing and development stage of a new audio drama with collaborators Dominic Mekky and Tristan Cooley.