Download Philippe Manoury, Composer

Philippe Manoury, Composer
Born in 1952, Philippe Manoury is regarded
as one of the most important French
composers and a researcher and forerunner
in the field of live electronics. Despite an indepth training as a pianist and composer (he
attended the École Normale de Musique in
Paris and the Conservatoire de Paris and was
taught, among others, by Max Deutsch, a
student of Schoenberg's, by Gérard Condé,
Michel Philippot, and Ivan Malec) he
considers
himself
to
be
self-taught:
“Composition must be born out of the
innermost longing and does not need a baggage of prerequisites”. He began, accordingly,
his first composing experiments on his own, in parallel with his first lessons in music, and
at the age of 19 his music was already being performed at important festivals for new
music. In 1974, the premiere of his piano piece Cryptophonos played by Claude Helffer
brought the final breakthrough.
He describes his personal encounter with Karlheinz Stockhausen, and especially with his
piece Mantra during this period, as seminal for his way of thinking about composition,
which had started to rely increasingly on mathematical modelling and conceptual rigour.
Following two years of teaching at Brazilian universities, this interest brought Philippe
Manoury to the Paris Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM).
He worked here from 1981 together with the mathematician Miller Puckette on MAX, a
programming language for interactive live electronics. Between 1987 and 1991, he
composed a cycle consisting of four pieces based on his research and often in a close
dialogue with Pierre Boulez, focusing on the real time interaction between acoustic
instruments and computer-generated sounds: Jupiter, Pluton, La Partition du ciel et de
l'enfer and Neptune.
Philippe Manoury has worked in various teaching and artistic positions, including at
Ensemble intercontemporain (from 1983 to 1987), Conservatoire de Lyon (from 1987 to
1997), Orchestre de Paris (from 1995 to 2001), Festival in Aix-en-Provence (from 1998
to 2000) as well as at the Scène nationale d’Orléans (from 2001 to 2003). After almost a
decade as a professor of composition at the University of California in San Diego, he
returned to his native France (Strasbourg) in 2013 where he teaches composition at the
conservatoire.
Philippe Manoury has received numerous awards for his work, among others from the
City of Paris and SACEM. Most recently, he has been awarded the title 'composer of the
year' at Victoires de la musique classique 2012. His opera K..., which was premiered in
Paris in 2001, received the Grand Prix of the Société des auteurs et compositeurs
dramatiques (the French music critics award), as well as the composition award from the
Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco.
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Alongside large orchestral pieces such as the violin concerto Synapse (2009) and EchoDaimónon for piano, orchestra and electronics (2012), recent years have seen premieres
of his string quartets (Stringendo and Tensio, both 2010, and Melencolia, 2013) and
pieces for solo instruments and electronics (Partita I for viola, 2007 and Partita II for
violin, 2012).
These will be followed by further world premieres in the current season, during which
Philippe Manoury has begun a two-year stint as composer in residence with the Orchestre
de chambre de Paris. A concerto grosso for ensemble and orchestra, IN SITU, was
performed for the first time in Donaueschingen in October 2013 by Ensemble Modern and
the SWR Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth. Zones de turbulences for two
pianos and orchestra, which has been commissioned jointly by musica viva and Radio
France, was successfully premiered in Munich in December 2013 by the GrauSchumacher
Piano Duo and the BR Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Brad Lubman, followed
by a second performance in January 2014 at the Paris Festival Présences. In addition to
this, Philippe Manoury will be the focus of the Witten Festival of Contemporary Chamber
Music in May 2014, where two world premieres will be performed: The WDR Symphony
Orchestra Cologne will perform Manoury’s Trauermärsche for chamber orchestra, and the
GrauSchumacher Piano Duo will premiere a work for piano duo and live electronics with
the SWR Experimentalstudio.
Philippe Manoury’s works are published by Universal/Editions Durand. A collection of
texts by and about the composer can be found on his website at
www.philippemanoury.com.
2013/2014 Season
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