A French composer born in 1934 in Dieppe.

A violinist and viola player, trained at the Paris Conservatory (1947-1958), Alain Bancquart studied composition with Darius Milhaud and completed his apprenticeship with Louis Saguer. A viola-player with the Orchestre National de France from 1961 to 1973, he subsequently became musical director of the ORTF’s regional orchestras then of the Orchestre National de France (1975-1976). Chief Inspector for Music (1977-1984), he initiated the creation of the Centre de Documentation de musique contemporaine (Cdmc) and of Musique Française d'Aujourd'hui (MFA). He also founded, with Hugues Dufourt and Tristan Murail, the Criss (Collectif de Recherche Instrumentale et de Synthèse Sonore). The producer at Radio France of ‘Perspectives du XXe siècle’, he met Ivan Wyschnegradsky, who was to influence his work as a composer with regard to the organisation of pitches and durations. Having taught composition from 1984 to 1995, notably at the Paris Conservatory, he devoted himself essentially to his activity as a composer. Alain Bancquart is interested in the emotional power of the human voice, of which he exploits all the resources: speech, cries, recitative, melismatic singing. His favourite themes are the sacred and spirituality; the texts that inspire him, often from works of his wife Marie-Claire Bancquart, are blended into in the musical work as much from the point of view of meaning as of form. His music, finally, reveals a detailed study of the integration of micro-intervals. His works includeExplosante fixe (1972), Cinq dits de Jean-Claude Renard (1986), the six symphonies for large orchestra, and a cycle of works on the theme of Labyrinthe.

Biography from www.cdmc.asso.fr June 2016