Joel-Francois Durand in the Mirror Land

Biography

JOËL-FRANÇOIS DURAND BIOGRAPHY 1954 Born in Orléans (France), 17 September. 1960–72 Elementary, middle, and high school in Ville d’Avray and Saint-Cloud (in the suburbs of Paris). 1972–75 Mathématiques Supérieures–Mathématiques Spéciales. 1975–78 Studied music education at University of Paris VIII (Vincennes), piano and clarinet at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique. 1979 Attended master classes with György Ligeti at the Centre Acanthes in Aix-en-Provence. 1980–84 After a year of private study with Brian Ferneyhough, left Paris to study with him at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Received a scholarship from the DAAD, 1981–82. 1982 Premiere of the String Trio by the Arditti Quartet at the Summer Courses in Darmstadt, 25 July. 248 1983 Attended master classes with Luciano Berio at the Centre Acanthes and with Luigi Nono at the Freiburg Musikhochschule. 1984 Left Europe to pursue a Ph.D. in composition at the State University of New York at Stony Brook; studied with Bülent Arel. Scholarships from the Fulbright Foundation (1984–85) and the French Ministry of Culture (1985–86). 1985 Chosen by György Ligeti to represent France in a series of master classes given to young composers from the European Community in Asolo (Italy), where the premiere of the first version of So er took place on 10 April. Premiere of final version by the ASKO Ensemble (under Denis Cohen) at the Venice Biennale, 1 October. 1987 Premiere of Lichtung by Ensemble Intercontemporain (under Lothar Zagrozek) in Paris, 9 March. Followed the computer course at IRCAM. 1988 Premiere of Die innere Grenze by the Sextuor Schoenberg at the Maison de Radio France in Paris, 27 November. 1990 Received the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the Summer Courses in Darmstadt, after a performance of Die innere Grenze. Invited to teach at the Darmstadt Summer Courses (and again in 1992 and 1994). 1991 Premiere of L’Exil du feu by the Ensemble Itinéraire (under Mark Foster) in Paris, 23 May. Moved to Seattle to take up a teaching position in composition and theory at the University of Washington. 1992 Premiere of Un Feu distinct by the Ensemble Contrechamps (under Farhad Mechkat) in Geneva, 27 March. 1993 Co-director of the Composition course at the Centre de la Voix in Royaumont in September. Premiere of La Mesure des choses I. La Mesure de l’air at the Musica Festival (Strasbourg), 18 September. 1994 Premiere of the Piano Concerto at the Présences Festival in Paris, 12 February. Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California at San Diego (autumn). 1995 Gave master classes at the Civica Scuola di Musica, Milan. 1997 Premiere of Les Raisons des forces mouvantes at the first Internationale Woche für Neue Orgelmusik in Trossingen 249 (Germany), 8 May. Gave master classes at the Royal Academy of Music, London. 1998 Gave master classes at the eighth Internationaler Meisterkurs für Komposition des Brandenburgischen Colloquiums für Neue Musik, Rheinsberg (Germany). Premiere of She or not at the Colloquium, 20 September; premiere of Five Musical Tales by the Seattle Youth Symphony in Benaroya Hall, Seattle, 22 November. 2000 Premiere of La Terre et le feu by the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Didier Pateau, oboe, under Patrick Davin) in Paris, 9 March. 2002 Appointed Associate Director of the University of Washington School of Music. 2003 Premiere of Athanor by the BBC Symphony Orchestra (under Pierre-André Valade) in London, 5 December. Awarded the Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professorship. 2004 Premiere of Ombre/Miroir by the ensemble musikFabrik (Helen Bledsoe, flute, under James Wood) in Cologne, 19 September. 2005 Premiere of String Quartet by Quatuor Diotima in Bonn, 24 September. ...