A Swiss composer and conductor born November 10, 1942 in Geneva.
Michel Tabachnik studied the piano, composition and conducting in Geneva. Noticed by illustrious conductors, encouraged by Igor Markevitch, he became Pierre Boulez’s assistant at the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, before starting on an international career at the head of such orchestras as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestra of Geneva Opera, the Orchestra of La Fenice, Venice, the Orchestra of the NHK, Tokyo, the Bolshoi Orchestra, the Philharmonia of Saint Petersburg… In addition he founded the Orchestre Philharmonique de Lorraine and the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée. His repertory ranges from classical to contemporary music. Close to Stockhausen, Berio, Ligeti, Messiaen and Xenakis, he has conducted many first performances. As a teacher he has given master classes and taught conducting at Toronto University and at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
A writer on music and a novelist, Tabachnik is fascinated by philosophy, esotericism and spirituality. Alchemy and the theories of Carl Jung have also influenced his perception of music. Sensitive to suffering, to the emotion he feels in music, he composes works that transport him to the beyond.
The composer of some 30 works, Tabachnik has written essentially orchestral music that has been performed by prestigious orchestras. These include Fresque for 33 instruments, premiered in 1970 in Royan by the Domaine Musical; Cosmogonie for orchestra, premiered in 1983 by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Hannover; Pacte des onze for soloists, chorus, orchestra and tape, first performed in 1987 by the New London Chamber Choir and the Ensemble Intercontemporain; La légende de Haïsh’ for voices, double chorus and orchestra, first performed in 1989 by the Chorus and Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France; Genèse for violin and orchestra, premiered in 2013 by the Brussels Philharmonic; and his opera Benjamin, dernière nuit, with a libretto by Régis Debray, first performed in 2016 at Lyons Opera.