Theme: Philippe Leroux's Music: The Art of Interrelating Sounds

Language: English

Speaker: Prof. Philippe Leroux

Host: Prof. Zhuosheng Jin

Date&Time: Oct. 15, 2024 (Tue.) 19:00

Venue: Lecture Classroom 102, Teaching Building(MUS)

Abstract

For me, composing is first and foremost an attempt to understand the world in which I live. Experimenting with the relationships between sound events enables me to better decipher those that come from the universe around me, whether they originate from nature or human activity. With this in mind, my music is governed by 4 main principles: continuum, gesture, phrasing, and braided structure. It is through these four concepts, and with the help of various sound extracts, that I will present the whole of my work. —Philippe Leroux

About the Speaker

Philippe Leroux, born in 1959, is one of the leading French-Canadian composers of his generation. His music, based on the notion of movement and gesture, explores the relationships between sound events in a constant dialogue between dramaturgy and poetry. Sound architecture, dialectics of movement, mechanics of resonance flows, and dynamic particles, Philippe Leroux's music, beyond its virtuosity, is based on perception and the structural relationships between sounds. 

He studied at the CNSMD in Paris with P.Schäeffer, I.Malec and also O.Messiaen, and I.Xénakis before being appointed resident at the Villa Médicis in Rome. His 90 works have been performed in numerous European, American and Asian festivals by the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Czech Philharmonic, Croatian Radiotelevision Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, NEM Montreal, Philharmonia Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Avanta, Klangforum Wien.

He has received awards such as the S.C.d.Duca Foundation Prize from the Institut de France, and the A. Honegger Prize from the Fondation de France for his entire work. In 2022, his opera L'annonce faite à Marie was unanimously acclaimed by the press. A member of the Royal Society of Canada, he has published numerous articles and lectured at the Collège de France, Harvard, Moscow Conservatory, and IRCAM Paris where he taught from 2001 to 2006. Since 2011, he has been an Associate Professor of Composition at the McGill Schulich School of Music in Montreal. His discography includes some 40 CDs, including 9 monographs.