A French composer born in 1981 in Wissembourg who died in 2010 in Strasbourg.
Christophe Bertrand studied at the Strasburg Regional Conservatory, at first the piano and the chamber music, then, from 1996, composition with Ivan Fedele. He then completed his training with Philippe Hurel, Tristan Murail, Brian Ferneyhough notably, in the music computing classes at Ircam (2000-2001), through he is indifferent to electronic music and deeply attached to instrumental music. With György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, but also Olivier Messiaen, Igor Stravinsky and Edgard Varèse as references, his music is characterised by virtuosity exploited as a vector of energy, rhythmic superimpositions, micro-polyphony and a consonant harmonies inherited from French music. His works include Trois arcanes (1997), Skiaï (1999), Treis (honorable mention at the Gaudeamus festival in 2001), Mana (premiered under the direction of Pierre Boulez in 2005), Vertigo (2007, first performed at the Musica festival), Scales (2009). In 2007 he was awarded the Hervé Dugardin Prize by the Sacem and the André Caplet Prize of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, and from 2008 to 2009 he was in residence at the Villa Medici.
