Pascal Dusapin

Pascal Dusapin, France - member of the composition jury 2015

Born in 1955 in Nancy, it is upon hearing Varèse’s Arcana at the University of Vincennes that Pascal Dusapin found his calling as a composer. A student of Iannis Xennakis, he received a very free and unusual education, encouraging him to think differently. He was deeply influenced by the worlds of mathematics and architecture.

His first compositions Souvenir du silence (1975) and Timée (1978) received attention from composers Franco Donatoni and Hughes Dufourt. In 1981, he was awarded a two-year residency at the Villa Medicis in Rome, where he composed his first Quatuor, among other works. In 1986, he wrote Assaï for the Dominique Bagouet ballet, which toured around the world. His first opera Romeo & Juliette, performed in Montpellier and Avignon in 1989, was the first of a series of theatre works including To Be Sung (1993) after Gertrude Stein, Faustus and The Last night (text also by Dusapin). His lategst opera Penthesilea was premiered in March 2015 at La Monnaie in Brussels. He has also composed seven String Quartets, many works for voice, as well as concertos for piano (A Quia), violin (Aufgang) and a series of orchestra pieces. One of his latest ones Morning in Long Island was premiered in 2010 under the direction of Myung-Wun Chung.

Pascal Dusapin is recipient of many prizes and awards. In 2007, he was offered the Artistic Chair at the Collège de France, an experience that inspired his book “Une musique en train de se faire”. In 2010/2011 he was Guest Professor at the Musikhochschule in Munich.

Long biography (Durand Salabert-Eschig)