Composers

A French composer born May 20, 1939 in Lille.

Trained at Versailles Conservatory, Jean Schwarz played percussion with various professional jazz groups before joining the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales) from 1969 to 1999. He was also a CNRS engineer in the department of ethnomusicology in the Musée de l’Homme from 1965 to 1999, and teacher at the Gennevilliers Conservatory (1979-1997), where he set up the electroacoustic class. He founded and also directed Celia Records, a publishing company for producing his own music.

An Italian composer born in 1956 in Bursto Arsizio (Italy).

A Chinese composer born August 18, 1957 in Changsha (China).

Initiated into traditional Chinese stringed instruments, Tan Dun plays the viol and writes arrangements for Peking Opera. He studied at Peking Conservatory then in the USA, at Columbia University, where he discovered the minimalist and post-minimalist composers. 

A Chinese composer born July 31, 1971.

A pianist by training, Leilei Tian studied composition, obtaining a master’s degree at the Central Peking Conservatory (1988-1995). She completed her training with an advanced diploma (2001) at the Göteborg Conservatory, and by following summer classes at such great institutions as Darmstadt, Acanthes, Royaumont, as well as the composition and music IT course at Ircam (2002-2003).

A Canadian composer, pianist, ondist and teacher born September 6, 1932 in Arvida (Canada), who died July 27, 2017 in Montréal.

A pianist, Gilles Tremblay entered the Montreal Conservatory where he studied composition with Claude Champagne. He continued his apprenticeship at the École Normale de Musique and the Paris Conservatory, notably with Olivier Messiaen. He studied the piano, the ondes Martenot, attended the summer classes of Darmstadt, where he met Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Henri Pousseur, and initiated himself into electroacoustic techniques in a course with Pierre Schaeffer at the ORTF. In the course of a study journey in the Far East he absorbed the melodies of Java, Bali and the percussion of China and India.

An Argentine composer born January 2, 1943 in Cordoba (Argentina).

A Belgian composer born January 6, 1946 in Charleroi (Belgium).

Annette Vande Gorne studied music at the Royal Conservatories of Mons and Brussels, as well as the teachings of the composer Jean Absil. She discovered acousmatic music at a course in France and immediately realised, through the works of François Bayle and Pierre Henry, the potential within this art. She completed her training in musicology at the University of Brussels and in electroacoustic composition at the Paris Conservatory with Guy Reibel and Pierre Schaeffer.

A French composer born March 7, 1967 in Antony.

A pianist by training, Frédéric Verrières studied at the Brussels Conservatory then the Paris Conservatory in the classes of Marc-André Dalbavie, Gérard Grisey, Michael Levinas, François Théberge and Gabriel Yared. He completed his apprenticeship with a course of computer music at Ircam.

A French composer born July 2, 1957 in Tunis.

A flautist, Bernard de Vienne trained with Renaud François, Alain Marion, Maxence Larrieu and Jean-Pierre Rampal, and joined the ensemble Musique Vivante conducted by Diego Masson. In parallel he studied musicology at the University of Paris VIII, found an interest in ethnomusicology and gained a master’s degree under the direction of Daniel Charles and Francis Bayer. He completed his self-taught apprenticeship in composition with Carlos Roqué Alsina.

A French composer and conductor born January 20, 1935 in Strasbourg, who died October 22, 2017 in Barr.

Jean-Jacques Werner studied the harp, the horn, conducting and composition at the Strasburg Conservatory and the Schola Cantorum in Paris with Pierre Wismer, Daniel Lesur and Léon Barzin. From 1960 he led a career as conductor, notably at the Radio, and accorded great importance to the programming of works by contemporary composers. Appointed director of Fresnes Conservatory in 1968, he subsequently taught conducting at the Rheims Conservatory and was guest teacher at the Paris Conservatory.