Composers

A French composer born August 20, 1937 in Faverolles.

An organist and harpsichordist by training, Jean-Louis Petit studied at the Rheims Conservatory, and later at the Paris Conservatory (class of Olivier Messiaen). He took advanced classes in conducting with Léon Barzin (Schola Cantorum) and also with Igor Markevitch and Pierre Boulez.

A conductor, he founded the Orchestre Jean-Louis Petit, appearing in many countries and taking part in the rediscovery of the repertory by recording many discs of baroque music. In Ville d’Avray, he directed the École Nationale de Musique and founded the Atelier Musique de Ville d’Avray (1974) with which he issued many commissions.

A French composer born July 29, 1975 in Châtenay-Malabry.

A saxophonist by training, Sebastian Rivas evolved within the domains of jazz, rock and improvisation before turning towards the piano and composition. After his university studies in Buenos Aires, he completed his apprenticeship with Sergio Ortega (Pantin Conservatory) and Ivan Fedele (Strasburg Conservatory). He also followed the courses and masterclasses of the Centre Acanthes, Royaumont as well as the computer composition course of Ircam (2004).

A French composer born September 9, 1977 in Bagnolet.

Largely autodidact, Jonathan Pontier trained at the ENM of Montreuil then at the  Paris Conservatory, where he obtained a prize for composition and new technologies.

A Canadian composer born April 15, 1981 in Kincardine (Canada).

An oboist, Samuel Andreyev studied composition at the Royal Toronto Conservatory and the Paris Conservatory in the class of Frédéric Durieux. He also followed masterclasses with Brian Ferneyhough, Heinz Holliger, Michael Jarrell and Klaus Huber as well as a computer music course at Ircam, before obtaining a residency at the Casa de Velázquez (2012-2013).

A Hungarian composer born November 2, 1974 in Budapest.

A pianist by training, Krisztina Megyeri studied at the Franz Liszt Music Academy of Budapest before taking advanced classes in France, notably the Lyons Conservatory and the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory. She completed her training by attending many masterclasses and by a composition course at Ircam. In 2011 she presented a doctoral thesis on the dramaturgy and æsthetics of contemporary opera at the Franz Liszt Music Academy.

A French composer born August 1st, 1980 in Paris.

Florent Motsch studied at the Paris Conservatory, notably with Marc-André Dalbavie and Frédéric Durieux. In parallel he gained a musicology degree from the Sorbonne University, Paris. A laureate of the Beaumarchais Foundation, he has also won several prizes since 2008 and was in residence at the Casa de Velàzquez from 2010 to 2012. He has received commissions from the French State (Cinq paysages avec figures absentes, 2009), from Radio France (El beso, 2012) and from private foundations.

A French composer born May 20, 1979 in Bourg-en-Bresse.

A saxophonist and guitarist by training, Karl Naegelen is interested in all kinds of music, from jazz to rock, from classical to contemporary music. He studied at the Lyons Conservatory, notably with Robert Pascal and Denis Lorrain, as well as at the Musikhochschule of Hamburg.

Passionately fond of improvisation and extra-European music, he has made several trips to Surakarta in Indonesia seeking to conserve, in his own style, the smoothness and spontaneity characteristic of music in oral traditions through a constant quest for qualities of sound and tone-colour.

A French composer born May 30, 1925 in Fleury-sur-Andelle, who died February 14, 1998.

A pianist and organist by training, Claude Prey studied harmony and composition at the Paris Conservatory in the classes of Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud. At the same time he won a degree in letters as well as a higher diploma in aesthetics at the Sorbonne, before embarking on a series of journeys that led him to discover the tales and folk music of the Amerindians of South America and also the French folklore of Canada.

A French composer born July 3, 1927 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, who died March 18, 2016 in Paris.

A pianist by training, Jean Prodromidès entered the Paris Conservatory in 1945, where he followed in particular the classes of Olivier Messiaen, Noël Gallon and Louis Fourestier before completing his training with René Leibowitz.