A French composer born July 22, 1947 in Montereau.
A pianist by training, Françoise Toullec followed classes in jazz and improvisation at the IACP of Paris (Institut Art Culture Perception) with Alan Silva and instrument classes at the École Martenot.
In a crossover style of musical genres, Toullec examines and renews the close ties between composition and improvisation with different formations, particularly in duets with the guitarist Mimi Lorenzini, the singer and poet Tania Pividori, the vocalist and actress Dominique Fonfrède, and as part of the quintet La Banquise. She is equally influenced by music theatre, sound poetry, current trends in improvisation and various composers of contemporary music, notably György Kurtag, Tristan Murail, Maurice Ohana, Iannis Xenakis, Georges Aperghis, Gérard Pesson, Jacques Lenot and Helmut Lachenmann. She explores the multiplicity of tone-colours and piano spaces, is fascinated in the relationship of words to sounds, of literature to music, and inserts fantasy in all its forms into her compositional research.
The composer of many multidisciplinary works, Françoise Toullec collaborates with visual artistes, painters, video-makers and particularly with the ‘bruitiste’ sculptor William Noblet.
She composes for all types of instrumental groupings, from soloist to orchestra, with or without electronics, as also for the voice. Her works include Les deux soleils et les deux lunes, dramatic show for orchestra, sound installation, electronics and choreography, commissioned by the ensemble Pagaille, 2003; L’opéra bleu for voices, guitar, piano and sound structures, first performed at the Théâtre de Nogent-sur-Seine at the festival Manifestives, 2007; Fantaisie en si for ensemble and electronics, commissioned by Radio France for the programme Alla Breve premiered by the quintet La Banquise, 2013; La Gouffre d’en haut, a Circassian and dadaist comedy in sound, commissioned by the French State, first performed by the ensemble L’Archipel Nocturne at the Nouveau Relax de Chaumont, 2016; Des espèces en voie d’apparition, choreographic work for recorders and piano, 2018; Un hibou sur la corde, series of pieces for the concert piano Opus 102, 2018.