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Pierre Boulez was born in 1925 in Montbrison, France. His early studies were at the piano and, in 1941, prompted by his father, he undertook special studies in mathematics in Lyon to prepare for entry to the Ecole Polytechnique. However in 1942 he moved to Paris with the special intention of studying music, and in 1944 was admitted to the harmony class of Olivier Messiaen. In 1945 he worked at counterpoint with Andrée Vaurabourg, composition with Messiaen, and serial technique with René Leibowitz. A year later he was named Music Director of the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company. In 1953 Boulez founded the Concerts du Petit Marigny which two years later become the well-known and influential Domaine Musical series.
In the sixties Pierre Boulez was much involved with composition, musical analysis, giving courses in Darmstadt and at Basle University whilst at the same time devoting more time to conducting. In the academic year 1962-63 he was Visiting Professor at Harvard University. Appointed by the President of the French Republic, he was Professor at the Collège de France from 1976 until 1995.
His difference of opinion about state intervention in the arts as espoused by André Malraux drove Boulez into voluntary exile from France for several years. He returned to France in triumph in 1974 when the French Government under President Georges Pompidou decided to build a Music Research Centre at the Centre Georges Pompidou and invited Boulez to be its creator and director. Out of this institute, known as IRCAM, sprang the creation of one of the world's leading contemporary music ensembles, the Ensemble InterContemporain. Pierre Boulez conducts the group regularly in France as well as on extended tours abroad. In 1994 the Ensemble InterContemporain appeared at the Salzburg Festival, the Berlin Webern Festival and Edinburgh Festival.
Pierre Boulez's reputation as one of the world's great musical minds and his interest in musical interpretation led to an invitation to conduct the Cleveland Orchestra of which he became principal guest conductor from 1967 until 1972. Almost concurrently Boulez received an invitation from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and in 1971 became its Chief Conductor. In the same year Boulez succeeded Leonard Bernstein as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, a post which he held from 1971-1977. He is now Principal Guest Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
His positions with these major symphony orchestras have gained him an international reputation as one of the great interpreters of the music of the Second Viennese School - Berg, Webern and Schoenberg - as well as the music of Debussy and Ravel, Stravinsky and Wagner. Much acclaimed performances of Parsifal in Bayreuth led to an invitation to conduct the celebrated centenary Ring cycle directed by Patrice Chéreau. In 1992 he conducted the Peter Stein production of Pelléas et Mélisande for Welsh National Opera which received the International Classical Music Award for Opera Production of the Year.
Pierre Boulez continues an active career conducting the great orchestras of Europe and the United States, and recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. His 70th birthday year in 1995 took him on a tour of celebratory concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, including London, Paris, Vienna, New York and Tokyo. In the autumn of that year Pierre Boulez conducted a new production of Schoenberg's Moses and Aron at Netherlands Opera, again in collaboration with Peter Stein. This production was repeated at the 1996 Salzburg Festival. In 1997 he conducted a new production of Stravinsky's The Nightingale in Paris with the Orchestre de Paris and in London a concert performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance which opened the BBC's Sounding the Century festival. At the 1998 Aix-en-Provence Festival he conducted a new production by Pina Bausch of Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle.
The year 2000 sees the celebration of Pierre Boulez' 75th birthday with major international tours with the Ensemble InterContemporain and the London Symphony Orchestra.
In March 1997, Pierre Boulez began a sabbatical period to devote time to composition. His numerous compositions are widely performed. They include: Le Marteau sans maître, Pli selon pli, Livres pour cordes, three piano sonatas, Éclat/Multiples, Rituel, Cummings ist der Dichter, Le Visage nuptial, Répons, Notations, ..explosante/fixe.. and most recently Sur incises. He has also published five important books on various aspects of music.
Copyright © 2000 Ingpen & Williams Limited
introduction : biography : chronology : celebrating pierre : recommended reading : recommended listening : interview boulez : composing : workshops : support : contact
