Nicolas LELIEVRE is an iconoclastic drummer-percussionist-composer & founder of the “Quattrophage” band. He studied at the Cergy-Pontoise National Conservatory and also with the great Iranian master Madjid Khaladj. His encounter with Andrew Cyrille (Cecil Taylor’s drummer) confirmed his choice for improvisation and risk. In 1997, he won first prize of the best solo performance in The European Improvisation Competition in Poitiers presided by Joëlle Léandre. Also trained by Christian Vander, Chee-Mon Wong, Keyvan Chemirani and Ricardo del Fra, Nicolas’s percussion work is a link between the “great rhythmic traditions” and the taste for innovative sound of contemporary music where he has worked with the French musicians Jérôme Bourdellon, Norscq, Alexandre Ozounoff , Japanese musician Toshimaru Nakamura, Russian Arkady Shilklopper and with Ibrahim Quraishi’s Cie. Faim de Siècle in Québec, Sarajevo and Munich.