Biography
Denis
LEVAILLANT
By
David Sanson
French
composer and pianist Denis Levaillant is one of today’s major
musical talents. Since 1973 he
has managed to develop a personal, highly varied oeuvre, allying the
rhythmic energy of jazz and popular musics to a new orchestral colour
in the French tradition, appealing
to all audiences.
He
approached music by studying classical piano, demonstrating
precocious gifts. At the same time, he distinguished himself
brilliantly in general studies at the prestigious Lycée
Louis-le-Grand and the Sorbonne in Paris, where he earned a Masters
in philosophy in 1974. In 1983, Denis Levaillant was awarded a
fellowship to the Villa Medici in Rome.
Initially
making a name for himself with the general public in the 1970s as a
performer and top-notch improviser (his book L’Improvisation
musicale,
published in 1980, has become a reference on the subject). In the
1980s, he was one of the pioneers in musical theatre in France, and
the originality of his opera O.P.A.
Mia
(My
Tender Bid),
with sets by Enki Bilal and premiered in 1990 at the Avignon Festival
and the Opéra-Comique in Paris, made a strong impression.
In
the following decade, he devoted most of his creative efforts to
symphonic writing. His ballet, La
Petite danseuse,
commissioned by the Paris Opera, met with great success at the Paris
Opera in 2003 and has been revived in 2005 and 2010.
Winner,
in particular, of the RAI Prize at the Italia Prize in 1988, Denis
Levaillant has had most of his recorded catalogue regularly
synchronised in cinema and television the world over.
Glassy Feelings :
(by the composer himself)
I say "Hello" to Mister Glass
With these 24 tones,
So he could choice
Some he never used…
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