Tristan Murail (France)

• Internationally famous composer
• A Co-founder of the French Spectral School

Bom in Le Havre in 1947, Tristan Murail received advanced degrees in cassical and North African Arabic from the Ecole Nationale desLangues Orientales Vivantes, as well as a degree in economic science, while at the same time pursuing his musical studies. in 1967, hebecame a student of Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory, and also studied at the institut dEtudes politiques de Paris, graduatingthree years later.ln 1971,he was awarded the Prix de Rome, and later received a first Prize in composition from the Paris Conservatory.He spent the next two years in Rome, at the Villa Medicis.Upon returning to Paris in 1973, he co-founded the Ensemble l'ltineraire wih a group of young composers and instrumentalists. Theensem ble quickly gained wide recoanition for its fundamental research in the greg of instrumental performgnce and live electronics.
In the 1980s, Tristan Murall used computer technology to further his research in the analysis and synthesis of acoustic phenomena. Hedeveloped his own system of microcomputer-assisted composition, and then collaborated with lircam for several years, where he faughicomposition from 1991 to 1997, and took part in the conception of the computer-asisted composition program "patchwork". in 1997Tristan Murail was named professor of com position at Columbia University in New York, teaching there until 2010.Again in Europe, he continued giving master-classes and seminars all over the world, was guest professor at the Mozarteum University inSalzburg for three years, and is currently guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory.