Suzanne Giraud
Encyclopedia
Suzanne Giraud is a French
music educator and composer of contemporary music.
and grew up in Strasbourg
, where she began to study music for piano, violin, viola and music theory before entering the Paris Conservatoire. There she studied harmony, counterpoint, composition, analysis, orchestration and conducting. She studied composition in Paris with Claude Ballif
, Dufourt Hughes and Tristan Murail
, then at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena
with Franco Donatoni
. She took summer courses in Darmstadt
with Brian Ferneyhough
. She studied for two years at the Villa Medici from 1984 to 1986.
Suzanne Giraud taught for two years at the Paris Conservatory. In 2007 and 2008, she was composer in residence at the Conservatory of Geneva
, and worked with the Orchestre d'Auvergne.
International Rostrum of two selections of the ISCM (Budapest
in 1986 and Manchester
1998). She writes for strings, percussion and orchestra.
Her works are often inspired by poetry, painting or architecture. Selected examples include:
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
music educator and composer of contemporary music.
Biography
Suzanne Giraud was born in MetzMetz
Metz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
and grew up in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
, where she began to study music for piano, violin, viola and music theory before entering the Paris Conservatoire. There she studied harmony, counterpoint, composition, analysis, orchestration and conducting. She studied composition in Paris with Claude Ballif
Claude Ballif
Claude Ballif was a French composer.His music is known as a combination of tonality and serialism - a system that he named metatonality....
, Dufourt Hughes and Tristan Murail
Tristan Murail
Tristan Murail is a French composer. His father, Gérard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thérèse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, aka Moka, also write, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children's writer...
, then at the Accademia Chigiana of Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
with Franco Donatoni
Franco Donatoni
Franco Donatoni was an Italian composer.Born in Verona, he started studying violin at the age of seven, and frequented the local Music Academy...
. She took summer courses in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
with Brian Ferneyhough
Brian Ferneyhough
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...
. She studied for two years at the Villa Medici from 1984 to 1986.
Suzanne Giraud taught for two years at the Paris Conservatory. In 2007 and 2008, she was composer in residence at the Conservatory of Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, and worked with the Orchestre d'Auvergne.
Works
Suzanne Giraud's works have received prizes and awards including the Prix Georges Enesco, the SACEM, Prix Georges Bizet, the Academy of Fine Arts, selected the UNESCOUNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
International Rostrum of two selections of the ISCM (Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in 1986 and Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
1998). She writes for strings, percussion and orchestra.
Her works are often inspired by poetry, painting or architecture. Selected examples include:
- Offering to Venus, from a painting by Titian
- Jaffa, a painting by Antoine-Jean Gros
- To One in Paradise, a Poe poem
- What you see in the world? according to Mellin de Saint-Gelais
- Petrarca, a collection of madrigals on Petrarch's sonnets
- Music comes from elsewhere, from the The Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the RingsThe Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
by J. R. R. TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,... - The Red Depths, uses electronics to represent the appearance of colors in underwater environments
- Blue Shadow, a vision related to a poem written by Suzanne Giraud
- Enchantments IV
- Enchantments V reflects the architecture of San Gallo and Bramante.
- The Fragrance Vase with Olivier Py (opera 2003)
- Concerto for cello and orchestra, performed on tour by Anne Gastinel
- Enchantments VII for voice and six instruments
- Enchantments VIII for cello octet (Rencontres de Beauvais)
- Monkey (children's opera)
- Sea Ice and Mobile Phone (Theatre Beauvais)
- Fables, for narrator, children's choir and orchestra
- Promenade du soir for viola and piano (1987)
- Élaboration for viola and piano (2000)