Yvonnick Prene

About Yvonnick Prene

Ever since moving to New-York City from his hometown Paris, France, composer and educator Yvonnick Prene has fast become one of the rising stars in the harmonica world. He has recorded with top Jazz artists like Pasquale Grasso, Peter Bernstein, Vic Juris along with touring the USA, Europe and Africa. Yvonnick was already playing the harmonica professionally at the age of 17, in Parisian club scenes. He later earned a master’s degree in music at the Sorbonne University in Paris, in 2011 and while still enrolled, he moved to New-York City to receive multiple full-tuition scholarships at the City College of New York, Columbia University and at The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music. Yvonnick is the founder of the New York Harmonica School, author of multiple books, a Hohner Artist and Bandleader. He is currently based in Manhattan, New York City. Performed With: Donald Brown, Klingande, Romeo Santos, Rich Perry, Steve Cardenas, Jon Cowherd, Vic Juris, Nate Smith, Donald Edwards, Ira Coleman, Luques Curtis, Justin Brown, Obed Calvaire, Lorin Cohen, Yotam Silberstein, Avi Rothebard, Jared Gold, Anthony Wonsey, Clovis Nicholas, Laurent Cugny, Alexandre Tassel, Peter Bernstein, Scott Tixier, Gene Bertoncini, Dana Hall, Chiara Izzi, Gilad Hekselman, Chris Potter, Jon Davis, Yaron Herman, Laurent de Wilde, Ryan Cohan, Victor Provost. Awards and Honors: Louis Armstrong Foundation 2020 Grant Revelation 2013, Jazz Magazine, France Awarded the “Trophées du Sunside” with Scott Tixier Quintet, 2007, Paris, France Coup de Coeur Fnac for his album “Jour de Fete”, France, 2013 Merit-based scholarship award, the New School for Jazz and Contemporary music, 2011 Awarded Full-tuition Scholarship, Global Program, Graduate Studies, Columbia University, 2009 Awarded Full-tuition Scholarship; Micefa, Undergrad Studies, The City College. Selected Performance Experience : Playstation Theater The Blue Note Jazz Club The Birdland Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola Smalls The Iridium Jazz Club Live Show on Wbez91.5 (NPR) Hyde Park Jazz Fest Buffalo Jazz Fest Symphony Space The Signature Center The Green Mill (Chicago) UCLA (Los Angeles) The CUNY Jazz Festival Bryant Park Festival “After Work Music Series”.

Experience

1. Band Director

   Hank Lane Music

   Sep 2013 — Present · New York, NY, US

Education

• Université Paris-Sorbonne

  Master, Musicology

  2007 — 2010

• Université Paris-Sorbonne

  B.A, Musicology

  2004 — 2007

• The City College of New York

  Micefa New York/Paris Exchange Program, Jazz Performance

  2007 — 2008

• The New School

  B.A, Jazz Performance

  2009 — 2011

• Columbia University

  Columbia-Paris Alliance Program, Music

  2009 — 2009