Biographies

A French composer born January 17, 1990.

After instrumental training at the Amiens Conservatory, Camille Pépin entered the Pôle Supérieur d’Enseignement Artistique in Paris and then the Paris Conservatory, in the classes notably of Thierry Escaich, Guillaume Connesson and Marc-André Dalbavie.

A French composer born March 18, 1966.

A harpist trained at the Paris Conservatory in the class of Brigitte Sylvestre, Hélène Breschand is a co-founder of the ensembles Laborintus and Topophonie.

A French composer, conductor and flutist born June 20, 1942 in Roubaix.

A poly-instrumentalist, Bernard Wystraëte studied in particular the flute, conducting and composition at the Roubaix Conservatory and the Paris Conservatory, as well as musicology at the University of Paris 8.

A virtuoso of the transverse flutes, notably bass and octobass, he is solo flautist of the Orchestre de la Comédie Française and a soloist for Radio France, in permanent collaboration with the Atelier de Création Radiophonique of France Culture. He also records the works of leading composers of film music such as Michel Legrand, Maurice Jarre, Georges Delerue, Francis Laï and Jean-Claude Petit.

An American and Italian composer born March 17, 1980.

A trumpet player and pianist, Christopher Trapani studied poetry and composition at Harvard University and took advanced studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where he obtained a master’s degree under the direction of Julian Anderson. In 2003 he settled in Paris, training with Philippe Leroux, and after studying microtonality in classical Ottoman music in Istanbul (2007), he followed the classes in computer music at Ircam (2008-2010). Now living in Paris and New York, he is studying for a doctorate at Columbia University, where he is working notably with Tristan Murail, Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis and Fred Lerdahl. In 2019 he was a laureate of the Guggenheim Foundation.

A French composer and performer born in Angers.

Pierre-André Athané studied the piano at the Conservatory of Angers. Passionately fond of improvisation and composition, he completed his training in harmony and counterpoint, orchestration, jazz arrangement as well as singing and the stage.

A composer of musical comedies for children, of music for images, the cinema and audiovisual art, the composer of more than 300 ‘musical library’ works, Athané has worked in the worlds of animation, of video games, the stage and dance. He is also the lyricist and composer of songs, notably for the singer Marie Baraton, whom he accompanies in concerts on the guitar.

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.

A French composer born October 7, 1969 in Orléans. 

Florent Gauthier studied at the Orléans Conservatory and then at the Conservatory and the University of Tours. He attended classes at the Collège de France given by Pierre Boulez before entering the Paris Conservatory in the composition class of Alain Bancquart. In the course of his studies he also met György Ligeti, Henri Dutilleux, André Boucourechliev and closely studied the works of composers he admired such as Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Witold Lutoslawski, Alfred Schnittke and Toru Takemitsu.

A French composer born September 17, 1976.

Lionel Bord studied the bassoon with Pascal Gallois at the Paris Conservatory as well as with Sergio Azzolini at the Musikhochschule of Basel. A bassoonist with Rouen Opera and later the Orchestre de Paris, the holder of a CA teaching degree, he taught at the Saint-Maur-des-Fossés Conservatory and then at the Paris Conservatory.

In parallel with his instrumental activity, Bord studied composition at the Paris Conservatory, notably following the classes of Frédéric Durieux and Alain Mabit (analysis), Luis Naon, Yann Geslin and Tom Mays (new technologies applied to composition) and Marc-André Dalbavie (orchestration).

A Swedish composer born July 6, 1971 in Stockholm (Sweden).

Jesper Nordin studied at the Royal Music Conservatory of Stockholm with Pär Lindgren and Bent Sorensen, at Ircam in Paris with Philippe Leroux, at the University of Stanford and at the CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics) with Brian Ferneyhough. He also followed the masterclasses, notably of Jonathan Harvey, Denis Smalley, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Magnus Lindberg, Luca Francesconi and Sven-David Sandström.

An Israeli composer born January 3, 1978 in Haifa (Israel).

A pianist by training, Ofer Pelz obtained a master’s degree in composition at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (2008). He took advanced studies in composition and electronic composition at the Blanc-Mesnil Conservatory, notably with Philippe Leroux, Thierry Blondeau and Gilles Racot, as well as at the Paris Conservatory. He also followed the courses of the Centre Acanthes and the composition workshop devoted to new technologies of Ircam’s ManiFeste Academy (2012). In 2018 he obtained a doctorate in music composition at Montreal University under the direction of Ana Sokolovic, Caroline Traube and Robert Normandeau.