An Argentinian composer born September 29, 1956 in Buenos Aires (Argentina).
Born into a family of musicians, Carlos Grätzer studied with his father, the Austro-Argentinian composer and teacher Guillermo Grätzer.
Attracted by the seventh art, Carlos Grätzer divided his artistic work between music and the cinema, making animated films that have attracted attention and won awards, before devoting himself entirely to music. He then followed courses and masterclasses in Argentina before settling in Paris in 1984, where he took advanced classes in composition with Ivo Malec. At the same time he met Carlos Roqué Alsina, André Boucourechliev, and took part in many courses and masterclasses, notably with Helmut Lachenmann, Klaus Huber, Pierre Boulez, Franco Donatoni. A guest of the Darmstadt summer courses, he also trained at Upic with the CEMAMU, in computer music with Ircam and followed the Composers conference of Wellesley College in the USA.
Grätzer uses a great variety of sound resources, of tone-colours, spectra and dynamics. He uses the tools of computing work delicately on sound matter, without ever losing sight of the work’s form. He composes for varied formations, from concertante music to electroacoustic or mixed works, with a preference for chamber music, a genre that brings out interaction, dialogue and in which he explores the dramaturgical tension. Among his works are: Découvertes (1985), commissioned by the French State and premiered by the Ensemble 2e2m at the Centre Georges Pompidou; Aura (Au-delà des résonances) for trumpet and instrumental ensemble (1996), commissioned by Radio France and premiered by Eric Aubier and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France; Rafagas de tiempo, an electroacoustic piece developed at the GMEB of Bourges in 1994; Transmutango for alto saxophone and marimba (1999), first performed by Claude Delangle and Jean Geoffroy at the festival Musica in Strasburg; Étincelles for wind band (2014), commissioned and first performed by the Garde Républicaine; Éclaboussures du temps for large orchestra (2015), commissioned by Radio France for Alla Breve and first performed by the Orchestre National de France; Relief for organ (2019), first performed by Louis-Noël Bestion de Camboulas at the Radio France festival Présences.
Returning to his interest in the cinema, Carlos Grätzer has been regularly composing for cine-concerts since 2005. His music accompanies the images of films by John Emerson, Buster Keaton, Georges Méliès, Victor Sjöström and, in 2018, those of Jacques Perconte with Albâtre for instrumental ensemble, fixed sounds and video, first performed by the ensemble 2e2m.
