LAURENT METTRAUX
Route Principale 160,
CH-1791 Courtaman (Switzerland),
tel. + fax: (+41)
26/684.18.65, E-mail : laurent.mettraux(at)bluewin.ch
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BIOGRAPHY
Laurent Mettraux was born on May
27th, 1970, in Fribourg (Switzerland). He completed the studies of analysis,
counterpoint, harmony and fugue with René Oberson at the Music Academy of
Fribourg, as well as piano, violin and singing. He continued his studies in
Geneva (composition with Prof. Eric Gaudibert, conducting with Prof.
Liang-Sheng Chen), while following also courses of ancient music and
musicology. He received a prize of the Kiefer-Hablitzel Foundation (Association
of Swiss Musicians). Counsels and courses with, among others, Klaus Huber, Luis
de Pablo, Heinz Holliger, Arvo Pärt, Paul Méfano.
His Symphony for chamber
orchestra won in 1993 the 1st Prize and Public Prize of the 1st Competition for
young composers, organized by the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He has been
laureate of several foundations, and finalist of, among others, the European
Competition of Choral Composition (Amiens, France). His work “Ombre”
(“Shadow”) for orchestra, won 1998 the prize of the prestigious Donaueschinger
Musiktage, given for the first time (among the members of the Jury: Wolfgang
Rihm, Sylvain Cambreling, Gérard Grisey, Christian Wolff). He is also honoured
in 2000 with a contribution ad personam from the UBS Kulturstiftung for
his “remarkable partaking to the musical life in Switzerland and abroad”.
First compositions in 1982. He
receives numerous orders, as much from the interpreters as from concert
associations, festivals, broadcasting and foundations. His works are more and
more performed, as well in Switzerland as in other countries. His style is
appreciated as well by specialists of contemporary music and musicians as by
the public. He is also one of the youngest composers about whom a notice
appears in the International Who’s who in Music and Musician’s Directory, from
the 16th edition onward (1998). He is since July 2007 member of the
committee of the Association of Swiss Musicians.
His works are performed in many
countries all around the globe (more than 30 countries, in Europe, North and
South America, Central Asia and Far-East), among others during numerous
festivals, out of which are to be mentioned the Tibor Varga Festival, the
Bachfest of Leipzig, the European Month of Music 2001, the World New Music Days, the Davos
Festival, the Festival de Radio France – Montpellier, the Festival Musica of
Strasbourg, the Viva Cello Festival of Liestal, the Festival of Universal
Sacred Music of New York, the Festival des Rives d’Accordéon of Paris, the
“Musicales” of the Auberive Abbey, the Rencontres Musicales Internationales des
Graves, the Scènes d’Eté of the Villette Park in Paris, the Festival of Sacred
Musics of Fribourg, the Greifswalder Bachwoche, different world saxophone or
cello congresses, the festivals of contemporary music of Bratislava, Kaunas,
Ljubljana, Odessa, El Salvador,…
His works are played by numerous
Swiss and foreign ensembles and interpreters, among which a great number of
famous interpreters, for instance : the Talich Quartet, the Janacek Quartet,
Riccardo Chailly, Tibor Varga, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Sylvain Cambreling, Francisco
Araiza, the Wiener Klangforum, the Zürcher Streichtrio, the New London Chamber
Choir.
Among his works are to be
mentionned the Concerto for 15 soloist strings, personal order by Tibor Varga,
for the opening concert of the 1994 Tibor Varga Festival ; the 2nd
Violin Concerto, also first performed under the direction of Tibor Varga, on
the occasion of the celebrations, in Budapest, of the 150th anniversary of the
Hungarian Revolution in 1998 ; the oratorio Vers le Soleil Couchant (Towards
the Setting Sun), commissioned by the Fribourg University choir, first performed
in 1996 in Fribourg ; the orchestral work Le Cocyte, ordered by the Pro
Helvetia Foundation for the 100th Festival of Swiss Musicians (Swiss
Musicians Association) in St. Moritz in 2000 ; the choral work La Plus Belle
des Lumières, commissioned by the Festival of Sacred Music of Fribourg ; an
oratorio for the Swiss National Exposition (2002) ; a double-concerto for Boris
Livschitz, violin, and the famous pi’pa player Yang Jing ; a quintet for flute
and strings for Alexandre Magnin and the Janácek Quartet (2003) ; a String Quartet, first performed
in 2003 by the Talich Quartet.
Among his
recent compositions : “Complainte” for
solo violin, written at the request of Shlomo Mintz to be the set piece of the
International Violin Competition of Sion ; a choral work, commission awarded
through competition by the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music of New York ; “Émergences” for violin and accordion,
first performed by Marianne Piketty and Pascal Contet ; “Stèles” for piano,
first performed by Dana Ciocarlie ; a concerto for organ and orchestra, for the
inauguration of the new great organ of the Lausanne Cathedral. This concerto
has been played again as German first performance in June 2010 together with
the world first performance of a work for choir and orchestra (commissioned by
the Gewandhaus) by the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, conducted by Riccardo
Chailly.
You can
download the complete dossier in pdf or Word, under the rubric documents.
Please see also Principal works and catalogue of works !
You can also
listen to some audio recordings.
« In our time of aesthetic pluralism, it is much more important to find
one’s own way, to follow it without concession, reminding to keep listening in
the others. From medieval to contemporary music, going along the musical
traditions (learned or popular) of the civilisations of every time and place,
everything can be subject for consideration and learning, without forgetting to
canalise these contributions to one’s own artistic sensibility. Materials are
nothing more than materials if not animated by the spirit that makes them alive. »