A French composer born May 21, 1994.
Augustin Braud studied drums and percussion before tackling musical creation as an autodidact before studying composition at the Poitiers Conservatory as well as musicology at the University of Poitiers. At Ircam he attended masterclasses of Ivan Fedele, Michael Jarrell, Michaël Levinas and Yann Maresz, also receiving the advice of Martin Matalon and Yann Robin. Owing to his experience as a sound engineer, he obtained a master’s degree in computer assisted music, resulting in his being a musician no less at ease in contemporary and current music.
Braud has composed chamber music, ensemble and orchestral works. He treats each piece as a cycle, with different tableaux following on one from another, highlighting his interest for the most imposing works of the plastic artistes Cy Twombly and Anselm Kiefer. His music reveals a denseness of mass and energy, work on texture, timbre and colours. Examples are Mas o menos, hommage à Frank Stella for string trio and piano, first performed by the Kaliste Quartet (2016); Étude n° 2 d’après Paul Klee: danses sous l’emprise de la peur for viola and ensemble, first performance by the ensemble Ars Nova (2017); Ibur Neshamot for orchestra, premiered by the Orchestre de Chambre de Nouvelle-Aquitaine conducted by Nicolas Chalvin (2017); …repêcher les étincelles de sens négligées… for alto flute, bass clarinet and cello, premiered by the Ensemble Zellig (2018); Golem for double bass and ensemble, first performance of the revised version by the Klangforum Wien at the festival Eclat in Stuttgart in 2019.
Augustin Braud is also studying for a doctorate at the University of Poitiers, within CRIHAM, the Centre for interdisciplinary research in history, history of art and musicology. His research deals with the links between the parameters of tone-colour and body movements in the music of the twentieth century.
