Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey is co-founder of spectral music which touches on the overtones of sound. He first took classes in piano and harmonics at the Trossingen School of Music in 1963, as well as composition under Helmut Degen. He deepened his studies at the Conservatoire national superieur de musique de Paris from 1965 on, where, among others, he attended Olivier Messiaen’s composition classes between 1968 and 1972. He took additional classes in composition under Henri Dutilleux in 1968 at the Ecole normale superieur de musique, and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. He visited the summer school for New Music in Darmstadt following the completion of his studies in 1972, and took classes with Karlheinz Stockhausen, György Ligeti and lannis Xenakis. He studied musical acoustics in Paris with Emile Leipp at the Faculte de Sciences in Paris from 1974/75. Between 1978 and 1982 he held courses in composition as part of the summer courses in Darmstadt and at the Musica nel nostro tempo in Milan. In 1980 he found his way to the IRCAM research group. From September 1982 he lectured in music theory and composition at the University of California in Berkeley. He returned to Paris in 1986 where he was appointed professor of composition at the Conservatoire in Paris.

[2014]