A French composer born in 1971 in Paris.
A pianist by training and pupil of François Samson at the École Normale de Paris, David Chaillou subsequently trained at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory and later the Paris Conservatory. He also studied history and the history of music at the Sorbonne, where he obtained a doctorate with a thesis entitled La Politique sur la scène, histoire des oeuvres créées à l'Académie impériale de Musique de 1810 à 1815.
A composer placing himself within the tradition of French music and of composers such as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Henri Dutilleux and Gérard Grisey, Chaillou also takes inspiration from minimalism and traditional forms of music. If he uses elements of the past, he always rethinks them in the present in a spectra-tonal world that blends his influences and harmonic, rhythmic and acoustic research. He works notably on sound colours, instrumental resonance and spatialisation. Wishing to transport the listener into a different space and refer him back to himself, Chaillou has a particular care to cultivate interiority in his music.
He composes for the concert, from solo instrument to orchestra, from the solo voice to mixed chorus. He writes for young audiences and, being interested in the relationships between music and the other arts, also for stage and cinema. His works include Symphonie du bout des terres for orchestra, first performed by the Orchestre de Bretagne conducted by Stefan Sanderling (2001); Empreintes for piano, ahomage to Beethoven premiered by François-Frédéric Guy at the Beethovenfest in Bonn (2013); the music for Léger au front, a theatrical performance realised with the sculptor Patrice Alexandre and the actor Jacques Gamblin, premiered at La Comète, the national stage in Châlons-en-Champagne (2014); Nunc Dimittis for chorus a cappella, first performed by the Choeur de Paris conducted by Till Ally at the church of Saint Germain l’Auxerrois in Paris (2016); Little Nemo, opera for young audience, first performed by Chloé Briot, the chorus of Angers-Nantes Opera and the ensemble Ars Nova conducted by Philippe Nahon at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes (2017); Solo for violin, premiered by Valeria Zorina at the National Auditorium of Madrid (2019).
David Chaillou has taught harmony, counterpoint and musical analysis at the Sorbonne and the University of Lorraine. Since 2006 he has been a lecturer at L’Espé Lille-Nord de France, where he trains school teachers.
