LAURENT METTRAUX
Route Principale 160,
CH-1791 Courtaman (Switzerland),
tel. + fax: (+41)
26/684.18.65, E-mail : laurent.mettraux(at)bluewin.ch
Welcome ¦ Principal works ¦ Catalogue of works ¦ Donation and support
Documents to download ¦ Score excerpts
¦ Audio
examples
CDs ¦ Critics and articles ¦ (First) performances ¦ Texts
¦ Links
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 ; a
String Quartet, first performed in 2003 by the Talich Quartet.
Among his recent compositions :
an oratorio for the Swiss National Exposition ; “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 ; a double-concerto for Boris Livschitz, violin, and
the famous pi’pa player Yang Jing ; “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. »