Pierre Soulages (born December 24, 1919) is a French painter, engraver, and sculptor.

Born in Rodez (Aveyron) in 1919, Soulages also is known as "the painter of black" because of his interest in the colour, "...both a colour and a non-colour. When light is reflected on black, it transforms and transmutes it. It opens up a mental field all of its own". He sees light as a matter to work with; striations of the black surface of his paintings enables him to make the light reflect, allowing the black to come out from darkness and into brightness, thereby becoming a luminous colour.

Before World War II, Soulages already had toured museums in Paris seeking his vocation and after wartime military service, he opened a studio in Paris, holding his first exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants in 1947. He also worked as a designer of stage sets.

In 1979, Pierre Soulages was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

From 1987 to 1994, he produced 104 stained glass windows for the Romanesque Abbey church Sainte-Foy in Conques (Aveyron, France).

Sylvie Courvoisier (born November 30, 1968 in Lausanne, Switzerland) is a Swiss composer and pianist.

Courvoisier was born and raised in Switzerland. In 1998, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she currently resides. She co-leads the Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman Quartet and leads her own quintet, Lonelyville, and the Trio Abaton. She is a member of Mephista, an improvising trio with Ikue Mori and Susie Ibarra; Herb Robertson Quintet, with Tim Berne, Tom Rainey and Mark Dresser; Vincent Courtois Trio, along with Ellery Eskelin; and John Zorn’s Cobra. Since 1997, she also performs regularly in duo with violinist Mark Feldman (her husband).