Tristan Murail (France)

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

Born in Le Havre in 194/, lristan Murcil received advanced degrees in clasical and North Afican 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 d'Etudes Politigues de Paris, graduaingthree years later. in 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 with a group of young composers and instrumentalists. Theensemble quickly gained wide recognition for its fundamental research in the area of instrumental performance and live electronics.
In the 1980s, Tristan Murail used computer technology to further his research in the analysis and synthesis of acoustic phenomena. Hedeveloped his own system of microcomputer-assisted composifion, and then collaborated with rcam for several years, where he taughicomposition from 1991 to 1997, and took part in the conception of the computer-assisted composition program "patchwork". in 1997Tristan Murail was named professor of composition 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 Uriversity inSalzburg for three years, and is currently guest professor at the Shanghai Conservatory.